It’s no secret that I juggle a lot of projects and wear many hats. Just check out this interview with me on Khoollect, British chef Rachel Khoo‘s (of The Little Paris Kitchen fame) new project that searches for inspiration in unlikely places.

Lately I’ve been traveling a lot. I was in London for a Cultural Tourism Workshop held in London City Hall (top floor of the glass building—amazing!) where I met facilitator of the day @MarDixon (follow her on Twitter if you want to know what’s happening in the museum/cultural sphere), along side Cultural Policy representatives from Airbnb, the founder of the Museum of Walking (look it up, it’s rad!), the team behind Creative Tourist (co-hosts of the event), and many others in this collaborative realm of cultural tourism that I never knew existed. It was the first participant driven “unconference” style event I’d been to, and it was really refreshing. #LDNculturaltourism was the hashtag of the day, and Mar posted a nice recap on her blog (and on Storify too).

That evening I took a class at General Assembly‘s cool Second Home London campus [above]. GA has a few branches around the world, and it’s a great way to build new skills. I took How to Get Your First 5,000 Users with Howard Kingston, which was awesome and really got me in the mindset for the launch of Studio/Practice (you know, the project that’s only 3.5+ years in the works, and counting). Theme of that day: it’s amazing how much you can accomplish in 2-3 minutes!

The following week I headed to Amsterdam for Design Thinking Facilitation Training at DesignThinkers Academy. I knew I was going to like it, but I loved every second. We got thrown into it and each had a chance to facilitate a session and get instant feedback from the group. I learned a lot about my role as a participant as well. One of my goals for this year is to offer more workshops. I’d love to work with companies so their employees can benefit from learning new skills and ways of thinking. I was already armed with social media and graphic design expertise, but I’m excited that I’ve added design thinking to my repertoire.

While in Amsterdam I also met Robin Cox, the founder of the very cool travel site/community Citinerary which goes deeper into the local fabric, exploring how cities work and function through local city enthusiasts and cultural exchanges (it is not about hot spots or trends). Watch his Creative Mornings talk for interesting insights into travel and how the project came to be. (I’m a big fan of the concept of value-driven creativity; he also compares most mainstream tourism trips to one-night stands!). If you’re visiting Amsterdam (and a handful of other cities), Citinerary offers a great and affordable way to meet a local; you even get a map! Speaking of Citinerary, there are less than 10 days left in their A City Made by People Kickstarter campaign. The magazine looks amazing and it’s interesting to see the next iteration of the project move into print as another form of online meets offline travel, with a human perspective, where people are the focus. You can support the project here. (Even if you can’t donate, spreading the word is a huge help! (Image above by Citinerary, although we did have coffee at Toki on the very table where the photo was taken).

So that’s what’s been inspiring me lately. Along the way I also re-designed and refined my website anneditmeyer.com, which has been a rewarding journey and a constant work in progress [top image: homepage]. You also can get a sneak peek of some projects I haven’t announced on my blog yet.

Long story short, while I may be quieter on my blog these days, there are lots of ideas broiling in the background and travel is at the center of it all. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to get more up to date trends, resources and inspiration, and believe it or not, I’m hooked on Snapchat too as a fun, refreshingly raw way to travel. I also have ongoing #PAVlondon and #PAVamsterdam mini guides on Instagram. Stay tuned as I have a ton of blog posts planned—now to find the time…