Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Incentive Travel on the Go

Annette Gregg, CMM, MBA is CEO of the Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE), leading its 2500 global members. She has an extensive background in the meeting and hospitality industry, serving in executive level positions for corporations, associations and non-profits. She regularly delivers keynotes on topics including diversity and unconscious bias, promoting women in the workplace, and a variety of professional development topics. Annette has taught at several universities including leading San Diego State University’s Meeting and Event Certificate Program, and is currently instructor in Leadership for their Masters in Meeting and Events Program. She was elected Instructor of the Year at SDSU, and inducted into the Center for Business Intelligence’s Circle of Excellence for her training and speaking. She is an honoree for Women in Tourism and Hospitality, and has won the Coach Award for the Association of Women in Events, Smart Women Industry Leader Award, and Planner of the Year for MPI San Diego. Annette served on MPI’s Board of Directors, the board for the Kim Center for Gender Equity, and San Diego Commission for Women and Girls. She was named to the MeetingsNet Changemakers list for her work in women’s empowerment. Annette received her undergraduate degree in International Relations at the University of California, Berkeley and later received her MBA from California Miramar University in San Diego. She lives an active life with her husband and son in San Diego.

Ashley Lawson serves as the Vice President and co-owner of Achieve Incentives & Meetings, a global meetings and travel incentive planning agency based in Ohio, USA. Prior to joining the leadership team at Achieve, Ashley spent a decade in Washington, DC focused on ending veteran homelessness in the Nation's Capital. There, she led fundraising events and strategic partnerships with fortune 100 companies. Throughout her 20 years of event experience, Ashley has worked alongside local and global non-profits and governments, associations and corporations. She brings a rare and holistic perspective to the incentive industry and loves nothing more than creating unlikely collaborations that lead to positive, lasting change. When the pandemic began, Ashley couldn’t watch, wait and wonder when the world was going to be ready for safe travel and events again. So she took her curiosity and passion for events, exploration and community building on the road. She sold everything, grabbed a backpack and set out to uncover how destinations were preparing their safety protocols. The mission soon became a lifestyle of living in and working from hidden gem destinations around the globe. Across the past 3 years working remotely in 23 countries, Ashley has engaged in more than 200 site visits in South and Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, New Zealand and even Antarctica.

In every place she lives, Ashley loves embracing the local culture by testing out the food, learning “thank you” and "cheers" in every language and befriending taxi drivers throughout the world. By immersing herself in every place she calls home, she is able to learn about the unique history, traditions, cuisine and culture of the region. In 2022, she partnered with the publication Meetings Today to launch Dear Ashley, a monthly advice column sharing tips on how to authentically incorporate the local culture throughout destination events. Throughout her travels, Ashley has served as President of the Midwest Chapter of the Society for Incentive Travel Executives and she continues to stay active in both global incentive associations and the local communities she lives in.

Rigoberto Borjas, "Rigo" is native New Yorker. He started his travel career in startups selling luxury homes as hotels while at onefinestay. He joined the airline industry in 2016 in business development and was appointed to North America Director for Latin America’s largest airline before joining Air New Zealand. At Air New Zealand he leads meetings and incentives. Coffee is an integral part of Rigo's life tracing to his coffee ranching roots in Honduras.

Erin Zugelder found her passion for the travel industry while traveling abroad pursuing her career in the Fine Arts. After several years of pursuing her career path in the Fine Arts, she was presented with an opportunity to join the Delta Private Jets team. Erin started with the company, 12 years ago, as an individual contributor on the Charter Sales team at Delta Private Jets and quickly grew to lead the team as the Manager of Charter Sales. Over time Erin also assumed additional responsibilities taking on Charter Services as well as Agency Sales. The past two years, Erin has held a leadership position within the Wheels Up -  UP for Business vertical as Head of New Corporate Sales.