Chris is the host of the Amateur Traveler. The Amateur Traveler is a popular online travel website that focuses primarily on travel destinations. It includes a weekly audio podcast, a video podcast, and a blog. The Amateur Traveler audio podcast had over a 1.3 million downloads in 2014. The Amateur Traveler is 10 years old and they use Amateur Traveler to teach English at Oxford University. In 2014 Chris won a Lowell Thomas Award from the SATW (Society of American Travel Writers) and won a SMITTY (Social Media in Travel and Tourism) award as the Best Independent Travel Journalist from Travel & Leisure. His blog and podcast also got him invited to the White House in 2014.
Together with Jen Leo and Gary Arndt he also produces the This Week in Travel podcast which has won 3 NATJA (North American Travel Journalism Awards) awards.
By day Chris has worked for years in technology startups in Silicon Valley. Chris now owns and runs BloggerBridge.com which is a new startup connecting bloggers and industry contacts.
He was formerly the Director of Engineering for TripAdvisor’s New Initiatives group, and the EVP of Engineering at LiveWorld where his team built and ran online communities and events for companies including eBay, HBO, TV Guide, Expedia, Marriott, A&E, History Channel, the NBA, NBC, ABC, Disney, Microsoft, WebTV and American Express.