Traveling with GTA: London to Monterey!

It’s been a whirlwind of a month here at the Global Tuna Alliance! After a busy couple of months gearing up for our first-ever Partners Meeting, GTA staff boarded our various planes, trains, and buses to all convene in London, England, kicking off the week with a three-day team retreat.

Being a truly global team, scattered across wildly different time zones, this was a rare opportunity to sit down together, talk about our vision for GTA, and collaboratively puzzle out work plans, strategic goals, and operational approaches. In true European style, we did a lot of our work in local cafés and over massive breakfasts, and, perhaps fueled by this constant intake of caffeine and food, we managed to map out a clear outline for our next six plus months of work.

Then it was time for the long-awaited Partners Meeting, hosted by the gorgeous and historically-rich Watermen’s Hall. Led by our fearless strategy consultant, Matt Baird, and Executive Director, Daniel Suddaby, the day was full of strategic workshopping and getting to know each of our fantastic partners face-to-face.

Some Key Meeting Takeaways:

• We have some incredibly knowledgeable, passionate, and driven partners!
• It was wonderful to see people from Japan, California, mainland Europe, and the UK all come together–despite language barriers, cultural differences, and long-distance travel–all to talk about tuna!
• Having an experienced and energized facilitator can make all the difference!
• Our main worry going into the meeting was that people would not have strong opinions about the future direction of the GTA. Instead, we were thrilled to be a part of lively discussions all day long!
• Our partners are truly committed to driving change and collaborating with others in the industry!

All in all, it was a genuinely wonderful experience, and we cannot wait to do it again next year!

However, as insightful and motivating as the partners meeting was, I would be remiss not to also mention some food-related London highlights. Some of my personal favorite finds of the trip included:

• Scotch eggs (the most American-style dish I’ve never encountered in the US)
• Sausage rolls (you Europeans sure do love your pastry dough!)
• Black pudding (not bad, but not for me)
• Some shockingly inexpensive sushi (at least compared to my devastatingly land-locked experience in Colorado)
• The best fresh-squeezed orange juice of my life

…and…

• Some fantastically authentic hazelnut gelato!

And as if our jam-packed week in London wasn’t enough, a few of us departed the UK headed straight for Monterey, California for the final NGO Tuna Forum meeting of 2024. There, we spent three days working with some of the most prominent international non-profits to identify key tuna issues for focus in 2025, as well as ways to most effectively align efforts from NGOs, researchers, and market voices.

Finally, it was time to head home and get to work pulling everything together from the past two weeks, paving the way for an impactful approach into 2025! Stay tuned for exciting new projects, collaborations, and campaigns to come!