Tracey Augustine
Founder / Chef of Cashmere Bites

Cashmere Bites was created in 2010 out of a love for food and teaching others who appreciate the culinary arts. The studio is home to cooking classes, private cooking parties, dinners, wine tasting and corporate team building events. Tracey is a graduate of Scottsdale Culinary Institute/Le Cordon Bleu with an A.O.S. Degree in Culinary Arts and Sciences. Classically trained in French cuisine, she has been cooking professionally for 15 years and has worked at a variety of fine dining restaurants, catering companies, business dining and as a private chef. With a B.A. Degree in English, Tracey also has a passion for creative writing and is working on a culinary inspired novel based on her international travel adventures. She is most intrigued by Arabic spices and ingredients and blends global flavors with southern comfort food in her signature Urban Tapas class. “Chicks Rock The Kitchen” is an upcoming venture by Cashmere Bites focusing on professional women chefs who throw down at the stove and mentoring girls who want to follow in their footsteps.

Kelly E. Carter
Founder, TheJetSetPets.com
Pet Travel Expert, AOL’s Paw Nation
Contributing Editor, Elite Traveler

Kelly E. Carter has globe trotted with her pint-sized pooch Lucy since the two met at an airport in Pasco, Wash., 11 years ago. As a result of their extensive travels, Kelly is the Founder/President of TheJetSetPets.com, serves as the resident pet travel expert for AOL’s Paw Nation and pens the “Posh Pets in Tow” column for Elite Traveler, where she’s a Contributing Editor.

Kelly has journeyed to more than 40 countries and territories on six continents and shares her expertise on the Travel Channel’s “21” series. Lucy stands just four inches off the ground but refuses to be outdone by her 6-foot-1 pet parent. Known as “the world’s most lovable pooch,” little Lucy carries a European passport, follows commands in English and Italian, has traveled by plane, train, automobile, Vespa, helicopter and boat and blogs about her exciting life as a jet set pet for Paw Nation. As inseparable as they are personable, the dynamic duo is well-known throughout Italy, where the couple enjoyed la bella vita for two years, and the south of France, where they frequently vacation.

Kelly believes in following her dream and reinvention being the spice of life. She decided in the sixth grade to become a sportswriter, became the first female beat writer assigned to cover the Los Angeles Lakers and worked as an on-air correspondent for CNN-SI. After enjoying an award-winning sports writing career and not wanting to be an old lady chasing young men around the locker room for interviews, she switched effortlessly to entertainment reporting. She wore out her stilettos on the red carpet working for People then USA Today before following her passion into travel writing.

Her travel stories have appeared in USA Today, Departures, Modern Bride, Black Enterprise, Men’s Fitness, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, New York Post, Outside’s GO, Qantas, The Australian Way, the South China Morning Post and many other media outlets. She teamed up with tennis phenom Venus Williams, who also travels with her four-legged friend, to co-author the New York Times bestseller Come to Win: Business Leaders, Artists, Doctors, and Other Visionaries on How Sports Can Help You Top Your Profession. www.TheJetSetPets.com

Michael Cervin
Author, California Road Trip, California Wine Country
Contributing Travel Writer & Restaurant Critic, Santa Barbara News-Press

Michael Cervin is the author four national Moon travel books, Santa Barbara & The Central Coast; Spotlight: Cambria & San Simeon; California Wine Country, and California Road Trip, and he is the restaurant critic and contributing travel writer for the Santa Barbara News-Press. Additionally he writes two travel blogs, Cervin’s Central Coast, all about California’s stunning Central Coast, and Exploracation, about his global travels. His speaking engagements have included the Central Coast Book and Author Festival, The Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting, The Golden Headwater Summit in Beijing, the Bay Area Travel & Adventure Show, and the International Food Wine & Travel Writers Association. He is also a food and wine judge at both professional events like The Taste of Rum Festival in Puerto Rico, and The Best of Vinho Verde Awards in Portugal; and charity events including the Paso Robles Winemaker’s Cook-off, and The Santa Barbara Chowder Festival, among many others. (www.MichaelCervin.com)

Jean-Michel Cousteau
World-Renown Explorer and Founder, Ocean Futures Society

Environmental speaker Jean-Michel Cousteau continues the legacy of his father, the legendary ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, as a world-renown explorer, environmentalist, educator, oceanographer, and filmmaker. He founded the Ocean Futures Society, a marine conservation and education organization that serves as a "Voice for the Ocean." The Society teaches conservation ethics, conducts research, and helps to develop marine education programs.

A prolific filmmaker, Jean-Michel Cousteau has also produced over 70 films, and his work has yielded him an Emmy award, the Peabody award, the 7 d'Or - the French equivalent of the Emmy, and the Cable ACE Award. His first book, Jean-Michel Cousteau's America's Underwater Treasures, has also received several awards in independent publishing. His newest book is a biography of his father Jacques, My Father, The Captain: My Life with Jacques Cousteau, which was released May 25, 2010, a few weeks before the 100th anniversary of Jacques' birth.

Recognized as a voice for the ocean who communicates to a new generation, he continues his quest to "carry forward the flame of his faith" and to educate listeners worldwide on the importance of the oceans and preserving underwater ecosystems.

Sabine Engelbrecht
Airberlin

Born and raised in Germany, Sabine moved to Southern California in 1998. Trained to be a certified travel agent in Germany, she started her career with New World Travel, a major inbound tour operator in Los Angeles. Four years ago she switched to the outbound market and joined the airberlin group promoting and marketing airberlin's nonstop flights to Europe, as well as their extensive intra-European network. Sabine enjoys meeting with clients, networking and organizing events. Sabine has a passion for travel and loves the geographical diversity in America. In her spare time she volunteers for animal rescue and enjoys a busy social life.

Pauline Frommer
Travel Writer, Creator of Pauline Frommer Guidebooks

Pauline Frommer is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host. The Travel Show, which she co-hosts with her father, travel legend Arthur Frommer, is now heard in every state in the nation except Alaska. She also pens an internationally syndicated newspaper column on travel for King Features. Several years ago, the Pauline Frommer guidebooks debuted. The award-winning series encompasses 14 titles, most in their second edition. You may recognize her face as Pauline created weekly travel segments for CNN's Headline News for 3 years. She's also appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, The Early Show, The O'Reilly Factor, NPR's Marketplace and Talk of the Nation, CNN, FOX, MSNBC and every local news station you can name. She was the founding editor of Frommers.com and edited MSNBC.com's travel section for two years. Pauline is the proud mother of two well-traveled daughters and wife to physical therapist Mahlon Stewart.

Peter Greenberg
Emmy Award Winning Investigative Travel News Journalist

Peter Greenberg is America’s most recognized, honored and respected front-line travel news journalist. He is Travel Editor for CBS News, appearing on CBS This Morning, CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley, and CBS Sunday Morning, among other broadcast platforms.

He is the consummate insider when it comes to reporting the travel business as news. No other journalist brings his level of expertise and extensive experience to the travel process. An Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter and producer, Peter was named one of the most influential people in the travel by Travel Weekly, along with Al Gore, Bill Marriott and Richard Branson.

Peter is also host of the nationally syndicated Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio show, broadcast each week from a different remote location around the world. The live, three-hour weekly radio program and a daily short-form travel feature are syndicated by United Stations.

His other current titles Chief Contributing Editor for Michelin Travel, Contributing Editor for Men’s Health magazine, and contributor to Parade, ForbesTraveler.com and MSN.com. He is a regular contributor of specialized travel content and consumer travel issues for AARP.org. He has been a featured guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, The View, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and Larry King Live.

Peter was the creator, co-executive producer and host of CNBC’s acclaimed ratings winner “Inside American Airlines: A Week in the Life” and “Cruise, Inc: Big Money on the High Seas.”

His investigative work resulted in his reporting a one-hour NBC Dateline special entitled “Black Box Mystery: The Crash of the Concorde,” which premiered February 2009, revealing for the first time what really happened when the supersonic aircraft crashed outside of Paris in 2000.

His book, Don’t Go There! The Travel Detective’s Essential Guide to the Must-Miss Places of the World, quickly became a New York Times best-seller. His newest book New Rules of the Road, offers his expert advice and insight on how to travel efficiently — and well — during these tough economic times.

Peter’s other books include the New York Times best-sellers The Complete Travel Detective Bible, The Traveler’s Diet: Eating Right and Staying Fit on the Road, Flight Crew Confidential, and Hotel Secrets from the Travel Detective. His Web site, www.PeterGreenberg.com, is one of the fastest-growing travel news sites in America.

Peter produces and co-hosts one-hour television specials called “The Royal Tour®,” which feature personal, one-on-one journeys through various countries with their heads of state. To date, countries have included Jordan with His Majesty King Abdullah II, New Zealand with Prime Minister Helen Clark, Peru with President Alejandro Toledo, and Jamaica with Prime Minister P.J. Patterson. These specials have been broadcast in the U.S. on the Travel Channel and worldwide on the Discovery Channel.

“Mexico: The Royal Tour” was broadcast on PBS in 2011. Future shows will include heads of state from the Middle East, South America and Africa.

Peter began his career in journalism as West Coast Correspondent for Newsweek, based both in Los Angeles and San Francisco. During that time, he was the principal reporter of many major news stories for the magazine, including cover articles on Howard Hughes, Patty Hearst, Gary Gilmore, aviation safety and organized crime. He also covered stories ranging from Bette Midler to Watergate to the return of American prisoners of war in Vietnam.

In 1988, Peter became the travel correspondent for ABC’s Good Morning America and in 1995, moved to NBC as Travel Editor for the Today show / CNBC / MSNBC. He also served as Chief Correspondent for the Travel Channel from 1998 to 2005.

Peter won the National Emmy Award for best investigative reporting for his ABC 20/20 special, “What Happened to the Children?” a report about the last orphan flight out of Vietnam in 1975. He also received the prestigious Distinguished Service Award in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin, as well as the Excellence in Broadcasting Award from the Aviation Space Writers Association of American for his investigative piece on Good Morning America entitled, “Planes with a Past.”

Peter served as Vice-President of television development for Paramount, where he helped develop such shows as MacGyver. At MGM, he ran the creative team that developed thirtysomething for ABC.

Finally, Peter trains six times each year in state-of-the-art aircraft simulators, and he remains active as a volunteer fireman in New York. He lives in New York, Los Angeles, Bangkok, and most major airports around the world.

Chris Harrison
Host of ABC's The Bachelor

Chris Harrison was there as we watched some of the most shocking moments of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. He gets us into the mindset of each bachelor or bachelorette as he prepares them before every rose ceremony. He asks questions we want to know during the Men/Women Tell All and the After the Final Rose specials. And, quite frankly, we can't imagine The Bachelor or The Bachelorette without him.

Chris Harrison began his television career by covering local sports in Oklahoma City. The Dallas native went to Oklahoma City University on a soccer scholarship and then made the natural transition to sportscasting with a local station. During his six years there, Chris worked his way up the ranks from part-time sportscaster to weekend sportscaster. He also had the opportunity to cover hard news stories, including the 1995 tragedy at the Federal Building, an event which profoundly affected his perspective on life and career.

A visit to L.A. in 1999 for a horseracing network audition led to a permanent move. Later that year, Chris landed the job as host of HGTV's Designer's Challenge consistently one of the network's highest rated shows. In 2001, he became host of ABC's hit romance/reality series The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.

Harrison continues to advance in the entertainment industry through a variety of professional endeavors. Most recently he and Dancing with the Stars' Carrie Ann Inaba co-hosted the TV Guide Network's 2009 Emmy Awards' live red carpet coverage, and they will continue in those roles for all of the network's upcoming red carpet awards coverage for the next two years. He also co-hosted ABC's 2008 American Music Awards Red Carpet Live! with Ms. Inaba. He also hosted Road to the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, ABC.com's daily coverage leading up to the 2008 Primetime Emmy Awards. He co-hosted E!'s 2006 coverage of the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes, and in 2008 made the move to TV Guide Network to not only cover all the major awards shows, but to also host the network's new one-hour weeknight entertainment news show Hollywood 411. In 2004, he hosted the Miss America Pageant for ABC.

The versatile host has done his fair share of acting as well, having garnered roles in the popular television series Alias, The Practice, Six Feet Under and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. His feature film appearances include: Bounce, Showtime and, most recently, portraying himself in the comedy Date Movie.

Lynn O'Rourke Hayes
Dallas Morning Travel News Columnist, Editor/Owner, FamilyTravel.com and Aisle52.com

Lynn O’Rourke Hayes is the Editor and owner of FamilyTravel.com and Aisle52.com, and writes a weekly syndicated travel column that originates with the Dallas Morning News. She is a regular contributor to GoodHousekeeping.com and also provides content, photography and commentary for other print, online and broadcast outlets throughout the year. She has spent more than 25 years writing and speaking about travel and family issues. She has worked for two hotel companies and consulted to numerous other organizations within the travel industry. Lynn and a partner organized and accompanied a 24-day, around the world golf trip on the Concorde. A member of the Author’s Guild, she has written a book about balancing work and family ( Macmillan and Ballantine ) and contributed to several others. Her articles and comments have appeared in a wide range of publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA TODAY, the Chicago Tribune and The Arizona Republic. She's appeared before the U.S. Congress, on CNN, NBC’s The Today Show and numerous other television and radio programs, as well as before groups large and small. Her travels have taken her to 100 countries, across deserts, down rivers, over mountains, under the sea, through jungles and to 48 of our 50 states, often with her three sons in tow. A graduate of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University, she resides in Scottsdale, AZ and Southwestern Montana.

Nailah Hayward

Nailah Hayward is a corporate escapee who recently wrapped up her second Round the World Trip and is already thinking about her third. Brought up in a family that celebrated the beauty of foreign cultures through exposures to food, music and art, Nailah had a desire to see the world from a very young age. However it wasn’t until college that she got to break in her first passport with a stamp from a customs officer in Tokyo, Japan. From that moment on she knew there was an amazing world out there that she needed to experience first hand. Now with over 50 countries visited, she still feels like each trip is as exciting and wonderful as her first. From 5-star corporate travel in Europe to 3-week camping adventures in Africa, all foreign travel holds something special for her. When Nailah is not planning her next international trip or writing on her travel blog, you can find her training or teaching the Brazilian Martial Art of Capoeira, her other true passion.

Susan Irby
The Bikini Chef, hosts Bikini Lifestyles on AM 790 KABC Los Angeles and PBS TV

Well-loved for her “figure flattering flavors”, Susan Irby The Bikini Chef can be seen about town doing cooking demonstrations at favorite locations like Williams Sonoma, Whole Foods, the Harvest Festival, LA Fitness Expo and more great destinations. Living the healthy bikini lifestyle, Susan brings to life good health, delicious recipes, and exercise tips.

James King

James King remembers the day he tasted his first good wine as if it were yesterday. He continues his passionate pursuit today as an event & marketing consultant. He teaches others about wine and wine collecting. Those who attend his memorable events inevitably leave with valuable "real world" information and an increased appreciation for wine. James is well traveled and has visited wine regions around the country, (California, Oregon and Washington), as well as around the world including Argentina, Chile, France and Italy. He can be characterized by his love for food and his passion for wine collecting, skiing, theatre and traveling. James is a graduate of the Wharton School/University of Pennsylvania. He currently resides in San Diego, CA.

Linda Kissam

Linda Kissam is a professional food, wine and travel writer based out of Southern California specializing in easy - breezy stories sharing her favorite things about the places she visits. As she sips with the winemaker, dines with the chef, or shops with the gift concierge, she dishes out insights on the fabulous, the famous, and the unforgettable. Whether riding the rails in Europe, reviewing an extraordinary wine, or being pampered at a luxurious spa, she's investigating the local culinary buzz to provide her readers with tips on what to buy and what to try. Linda’ latest book, A Recipe for Temecula Wine Country, celebrates the wines and foods of the Temecula Valley Wine Region.

Chef Andy Matsuda

Chef Andy Matsuda was born near Kobe, Japan in 1956. When he was 9 years old, his family started a small Japanese restaurant, where he learned the joy of cooking. After graduating high school, he began to work as an apprentice at ‘Genpachi,’ one of the most famous restaurants in Osaka, for 5 years. He also became a member of Sushi Chef Organization called ‘Yosei-kai.’ At the age of 23 he returned to his hometown to help expand the family business. One he felt he had accomplished that at the age of 25, his new challenge in life was to move to Los Angeles, California to further pursue his culinary career.

After working many years in the culinary industry as a sushi chef and overcoming a difficult battle with colon cancer, Chef Andy felt he needed to take the next step in his career.

In 2002, Chef Andy started Sushi Chef Institute, in downtown Los Angeles. He instructs and guides beginners and professional chefs from all over the world, the fundamental knowledge, concepts, techniques and skills of sushi and Japanese cuisine. www.sushischool.net/home.php

John McGonigle
CTC, Goway Travel

John is Manager Business Development USA for Goway Travel, a North American based travel provider, tour operator and air consolidator. John has traveled extensively in Africa and throughout South America providing him with unique travel experiences across the Southern Hemisphere.

Jennifer Miner
Co-Creator & Editor, The Vacation Gals blog

Jennifer Miner is a travel writer based in Los Angeles and the co-creator/editor of The Vacation Gals, a popular, multiple award-winning travel blog featuring family friendly destinations, romantic getaways, and more. More recently, Jennifer created the Los Angeles Consortium of Online Travel. MSNBC’s Chris Elliott named LACOT’s blog one of the “11 Best New Blogs of 2011.”

Richard O’Brien
Mauiva AirCruise

Richard has been with Mauiva since 2010 as Sales Manager. In this position, he is responsible mainly for global B2B sales and managing the B2C sales team. With more than four years sales experience, Richard has successfully launched the innovative Mauiva AirCruise product to customers in more than 70 countries. With a BA in Communications with a specialty in Advertising from University of North Florida, he previously worked in major law firms within the litigation consulting field, which he finds helpful during negotiation processes. Richard enjoys spending his spare time with his family and playing guitar.

Monica Poling
Award-Winning Journalist, TravelAge West Magazine

Monica Poling has been writing about travel for nearly ten years, and has extensive experience investigating Japan’s unique cultural assets. Prior to her life as a globetrotting writer, she developed marketing campaigns to promote Asia as a travel destination, including several promotions in conjunction with the JNTO.

Andrea Rademan

Andrea Rademan is Past Vice President of the International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association, where she headed the Culinary Division, was Trips Chairperson, created Global Writes online magazine and much more. Her articles are published worldwide and she is a book editor, regular radio guest, and a guest judge at culinary festivals. Food, however, is just an inroad to her main interest — meeting people from various cultures. She runs a local dining group with people from as many of these cultures as she can connect with and believes that food could be the answer to world peace.

Anthony Saba
Goway Travel

As an Australian growing up, the rest of the world seemed so fascinating and so far away! For Anthony Saba, travel was a big adventure, so he quit his job, twice, and went travelling to see the world. Europe, Asia, the Americas… and after all that he found his calling…a career in travel! With that came the opportunity to explore the amazing lands Downunder: Australia and New Zealand. Seventeen years later, and many more countries and continents, travel is his life and livelihood. Now living in North America, he gets to speak about the far-away places that he loves, and wants everybody else to see and enjoy.

Patricia Schultz
Author, 1,000 Places to See Before You Die

Patricia Schultz has a dream job: traveling the globe and writing about it. She is the author of the international #1 bestsellers, 1,000 PLACES TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE (with over 3 million copies in print and translated into 25 languages) and 1,000 PLACES TO SEE IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA BEFORE YOU DIE. With these works, she has reinvented the idea of travel book as both wish list and practical guide. She was chosen by Forbes as one of the 25 most influential women in travel, and was executive producer of the Travel Channel’s TV show based on her first 1,000 PLACES book.

The second edition of 1,000 PLACES TO SEE BEFORE YOU DIE came out in November 2011, with 200 entirely new destinations, 28 new countries, full-color photographs, and more than 50 percent new material woven into the revised and expanded entries, which emphasize comprehensive travel experiences instead of single sites.

Family legend, never proven, is that Patricia’s family is somehow related to Mark Twain, who was a preeminent globetrotter of his day. Patricia’s own wanderlust began on the beach at Atlantic City, when she set off from the family beach blanket seeking adventure and was returned to an apoplectic mother several hours later by some relieved lifeguards. “I had heard the siren call of the great, global beyond,” she recalls, “and I had answered. I was hooked. I was four years old.”

While her college classmates headed for Wall Street, Patricia grabbed her passport and made a beeline for the airport, and soon discovered that she could make a living from her passion. Many guidebooks and articles later, she embarked upon the first 1,000 PLACES book, spending seven years augmenting the knowledge she gained from her own travels with information from hundreds of books and magazines and first-person reports from colleagues, tourist agencies, and individual travelers. How did she winnow it all down? “The common denominator I chose was a simple one: that each place impress upon the visitor some sense of the earth’s magic, integrity, wonder, and legacy. And sometimes places that were just plain fun.”

Patricia Schultz has written about travel for publications including The Wall Street Journal, Everyday with Rachael Ray, and Travel Weekly, and for guides such as Frommer’s and Berlitz. She is a popular speaker at travel shows, museums, associations, and organizations both in the U.S. and abroad. In more than 25 years of travel writing, she has never lost her curiosity or passion. “Some people can speed from New York to L. A. without registering a thing,” she writes. “I can walk around my mid-Manhattan block and come home with a carton of milk and stories to tell. In the end, the number of miles covered has nothing to do with the real pleasures of travel–the inherent beauty of the world and the discovery it promises are all around us.”

Kim Lachance Shandrow
Freelance Journalist

Kim Lachance Shandrow is a Los Angeles-based tech and parenting journalist who specializes in writing about iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android phones, as well as social media marketing, startups, streaming TV, apps and green technology. Her work has appeared on MSNBC.com, NBC.com, and in The Los Angeles Times and The International Business Times. She also consults for Ameba, a Canadian multiplatform children’s streaming TV startup. She is currently a contributing writer at Entrepreneur.com.

Supinder Singh
President, Palace Tours

Mr. Supinder Singh is the President of Palace Tours, based in Princeton NJ, a leading luxury tour operator specialized in building unmatched experiences for the independent traveler in Asia, Africa and Europe. The company specializes in luxury train journeys and custom designed travel experiences for its guests based on a consistent service delivery framework. Before Palace Tours, Supinder worked with leaders in timeshares and hotel industry and was a consultant to a number of companies where he helped them grow their business on the Internet. He has helped position the Palace Tours as a market leader by investing in technology solutions for marketing, sales and consistency in service delivery while keeping the costs down. He continues to travel extensively and helps his team in identifying potential areas of grow the portfolio of Palace Tours offerings.

David L. Sloan 

The author of The Key Lime Pie Cookbook. Sloan landed his first baking job when he was 16 and continued his career in the hospitality industry earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Hospitality Management from Florida International University. During this time he apprenticed under South Florida Chef of the Year, Pascal Oudin in the Coral Gables Colonnade Hotel before relocating to the Atlantic Ocean where he served as General Manager for Premier Cruise Lines.

Sloan moved to Key West in 1996 and redirected his passion for baking after stumbling upon the original Key Lime Pie recipe in the Curry Mansion. Over the next decade, he dove into the history of The Florida Key's native pie, experimenting with recipes along the way and even buying an old citrus grove. He has served as a judge for the commercial division of the Great American Pie Festival, competed in the professional division of The National Pie Championships and filmed with the Food Network’s Food Challenge.

David is a member of the National Pie Council and the author of nine books, for which he has been featured on The History Channel, Travel Channel, Discovery Channel, Food Network and more.

Chef Darrel “DAS” Smith

Chef Darrel ‘DAS’ Smith, was born and raised in Ypsilanti, Michigan where he learned most of his cooking skills from his mother. His love for food and the culinary arts began to further develop at the age of 19 while training at Atlanta Technical College, where he focused on American cuisine. His admiration for teaching and food prompted an uncalculated move to Los Angeles, CA where he worked to hone his craft and create a living for himself as a full-time chef.

Chef Das' commitment to sharing his love for food through education, his invigorating energy, and his undeniable ability to attract an audience of young adults led him to create and institute a culinary arts program at Beverly Hills High School, where he is now the director.

Chef Das has prepared cuisine for the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, has been featured on the Food Network's "Next Food Network Star," served as a recurring expert on the Oprah Winfrey Network's hit series, "Home Made Simple," and Chef Das has developed a culinary summer camp that teaches children how to have fun while cooking. He released his first book, “Now Look Who’s Cooking – A Culinary Lifestyle Guide for Young Adults,” in November 2012.

For more information about Chef Das, visit www.chefdas.com

Rick Steves
Travel Writer, Host of Rick Steves Europe and Travel with Rick Steves, Europe Through the Back Door

Rick Steves grew up in Edmonds, Washington and studied at the University of Washington where he received degrees in Business Administration and European History. But his real education came in Europe — since 1973 he's spent 120 days a year in Europe. Spending one third of his adult life living out of a suitcase in Europe has shaped his thinking. Today he employs 80 people at his Europe Through the Back Door headquarters where he produces over 50 guidebooks on European travel, the most popular travel series in America on public television, a weekly hour-long national public radio show, and a weekly column syndicated by the Chicago Tribune. Rick Steves lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington. His office window overlooks his old junior high school.

Brett Snyder
‘The Cranky Flier’

Brett Snyder is the author of the award-winning consumer air travel blog, “The Cranky Flier,” and president and chief airline dork of Cranky Concierge air travel assistance, for which he was named one of the Top Travel Specialists in 2012 by Conde Nast Traveler.

Chef Dweh Toeque 

Chef Dweh has created a new field within the competitive world of food and entertaining; something that no one else has managed to do since chefs found themselves elevated to celebrity status in the 1980s. He is transforming the way food is conceptualized, delivered, presented and experienced. While many people have employed a traditional chef-for-hire, Chef Dweh is redefining what it means to source, deliver and prepare cuisine. He defines his approach of marrying the raw, unadulterated love of cooking and execution of the perfect event as a global art. And if art is a marriage of the senses, rest assured that Chef Dweh can create a masterpiece.

Ralph Velasco
Author, Ralph Velasco on Travel Photography: 101 Tips for Developing Your Photographic Eye & More

Southern California-based travel photography instructor Ralph Velasco is author of “Ralph Velasco On Travel Photography: 101 Tips for Developing Your Photographic Eye & More.” Ralph guides photo tours around the world, including to Egypt, Mexico, Spain, Central Europe and other locations. He’s also creator of the photography app My Shot Lists for Travel (MyShotLists.com), which helps people of all skill levels to bring back a more interesting set of images from their travels. Additionally, his blog, which can be found at RalphVelasco.com, was selected one of “The 11 Best New Travel Blogs of 2011” by National Geographic Traveler columnist Christopher Elliott and one of the “Best Travel Blogs of 2012” by Washington Flyer. Mr. Velasco was named “Open Photographer of the Year” two years in a row by the Professional Photographers of Orange County.

Richard Wiese
Host, ABC’s Born to Explore with Richard Wiese

Richard Wiese is a world-class explorer and host of ABC’s new program, Born to Explore, premiered on September 3, 2011. He is also author of a detailed guidebook entitled the same name. Critically acclaimed Born to Explore is about local culture, people, places and the planet. Since its first airdate Born to Explore has been the number one show in America (in its time slot.) Wiese has been profiled from Travel and Leisure to The New York Times and appears regularly on Good Morning America.

Since he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro at age 11, Richard has circled the globe capturing stunning images and living one adventure after another—from traveling with Bedouins in Africa and skiing to the North Pole. As a respected field scientist in 2002 Richard became the youngest man to become president of The Explorers Club. As an extreme adventurer his goal is to inspire young people and spark their interest for discovery and the love of outdoors.

Wiese’s philosophy is that living an active outdoor nature-filled life in today’s society is challenging but certainly not impossible. The premise of Born to Explore is as much about discovery of the natural world as it is for creating a positive understanding of the many beautiful cultures that inhabit our planet. Wiese is very dedicated to working with local communities around the world to have their message heard in their own words. Richard believes the most memorable aspect of any journey is not “the summit” but the people you meet along the way.