Ten Years In, We're Bringing One of the World's Great Storytellers to the Table
Ten years ago, at ATWS in Anchorage, Alaska, Adventure Travel Conservation Fund was introduced to the travel industry for the first time. It started with a simple idea: that the adventure travel industry could come together to fund the conservation work protecting the places, cultures, and communities our businesses depend on. A decade later, that idea has turned into 53 projects, 29 countries, and over $800,000 invested by a collective of 200+ member businesses who decided to do this work together.
Now we are back at ATWS, this time in Quebec City, marking ten years since that first introduction in Anchorage. It felt right to make this milestone year's Member Breakfast feel like more than a celebration of numbers. We wanted it to hold space for why this work matters in the first place, and there is no one better suited to open that conversation than our featured guest speaker this year.
We are proud to welcome Wade Davis as this year's featured guest speaker.
Wade Davis is an acclaimed anthropologist, ethnobotanist, author, photographer, filmmaker, and former Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. Named by National Geographic as one of the Explorers for the Millennium, his work has taken him from the Amazon and Andes to Tibet, Africa, Polynesia, and the Arctic, exploring the connections between culture, nature, and place. He is the author of 24 books published in 26 languages, including The Serpent and the Rainbow, One River, The Wayfinders, Magdalena, and Into the Silence, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize. A longtime naturalist and lecturer in the adventure travel industry, Davis is a Member of the Order of Canada and has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity.”
The Art of Exploring: Travel, Culture, and the Wisdom of the World
Drawing on a lifetime of exploration across some of the world's most remote cultures and landscapes, Wade Davis reflects on what it truly means to travel. Through stories and insights from decades spent learning alongside Indigenous communities, he explores the profound connections between culture, language, biodiversity, and place, and why their preservation matters now more than ever. The Art of Exploring is an invitation to see the world with greater curiosity, humility, and wonder, and to consider the unique role travelers can play in safeguarding the richness and diversity of our shared planet.
It is hard to imagine a more fitting voice for a room full of people who have spent careers building trips around the very cultures and landscapes Wade has devoted his life to understanding. This is a rare chance to sit with someone who has spent decades in the field asking the questions our industry doesn't always slow down enough to ask.
Join us
The ATCF Member Breakfast takes place Wednesday, September 16, 2026, at 7:00am, Room # 306A, Quebec City Convention Center. All ATWS attendees are welcome, and ATCF Base members and above who RSVP will receive a special gift at the event.
Ten years ago, ATCF was a new idea introduced to this industry in Anchorage. Ten years later, we are gathering in Quebec City as a collective of 200+ businesses with a decade of conservation action behind us. We would love to have you in the room to celebrate.
RSVP now to reserve your seat.
