by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 7:00 AM ET, Mon May 4, 2026
SAN DIEGO, CA—Travel Leaders Network kicked off its annual EDGE conference this week in California with a flurry of news for the travel advisor and travel agency community, including announcing the launch of an in-depth social media training course for advisors and a new client-facing digital magazine.
TravelPulse is live at the four-day conference, which is taking place at the Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center. Here’s a closer look at some of the most notable announcements from day one of the gathering, which brings together thought leaders and industry professionals from around the globe.
Stephen McGillivray, chief marketing officer for Travel Leaders Group
Social Lab Launches For Advisors
Social media training is the number one ask received by Travel Leaders Network (TLN) when it comes to the educational support needs of travel advisors.
In its latest effort to address that demand, Travel Leaders Network is launching Social Lab, a new eight-module course designed to help advisors level up their skills.
“We have thousands of members. We have newbies in the social media space. We have experts. And we have everything in between,” Stephen McGillivray, chief marketing officer for Travel Leaders Group, told the press during a morning media briefing at the EDGE conference.
“Social Lab is a program we are launching here at EDGE,” McGillivray added. “It’s going to be eight modules that really advances their skills.”
Social Lab will be a hands-on program during which the Travel Leaders Network social media team will work closely with course participants to impart more advanced social media knowledge.
“Our social team is going to be with them every step of the way. It’s not like you’re taking an online course and you’re off by yourself. You will be interacting with our social media team, taking quizzes, submitting your first crack at [creating social media] Reels,” continued McGillivray.
Even more exciting: At the end of the Social Lab program, participants will qualify for a program that Travel Leaders Network is calling The Final Reel. This will be an opportunity to put new social media skills to the test on location at an all-inclusive resort (location still to be determined.)
“They will get to these all-inclusives, create content, take some video. How to take the great shot of the sun…This is to make them better and to make what they post more meaningful,” said McGillivray.
In order to qualify to take part in the new Social Lab course, travel advisors must first complete all of the social media training already available online from Travel Leaders Network. Once those courses have been completed, advisors can apply to join Social Lab. There’s a $150 enrollment fee for Social Lab.
New Client-Facing Family Travel Magazine
Yet another new and noteworthy offering from Travel Leaders Network: The company launched a digital magazine this year titled Connections, which is focused on family travel.
McGillivray told media that Travel Leaders Network is substantially intensifying its focus on family travel, and Connections magazine is one part of that effort.
The publication kicked off as an all-digital offering, but by 2027, there’s likely to be a print edition as well, McGillivray said.
“We like this magazine, it’s really a fun magazine. There’s lots of cool activities in the digital version of this. There are quizzes that lead them to product. There’s interactive things.”
The primary purpose of the magazine is to lead readers toward purchasing “product through their retailer,” McGillivray added.
“The advisor is the call to action,” he continued. “This is part of our engagement program. We’re sending these books to [travel advisor’s] customers with the advisor always as the exclusive call to action.”
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