A fun year of Overland Education awaits
Before we reveal what’s in store for the 2025 Overland Expo Educational Programming Series, we would like to thank the folks who attended our events in 2024 and took the time to submit feedback about our programming, either via the app for specific classes they attended, or via the post-event surveys. The information, opinions and ideas we receive from you is crucial to informing the decisions we make in shaping the next year of overland education at our events. And thanks to you, we have a super exciting year lined up!
As the overland industry grows, so does the community, which means there are ever-expanding opportunities for us to bring new types of programming to our shows to educate and entertain our new audience, along with our returning audience. And the beauty of being the foremost overland series in the country is that our events are destinations for overland travelers from all over the world who are passing through and stop for a few days to share the most fascinating stories with our attendees.
To name a few, we look forward to welcoming:
- British travelers, Lisa Morris and Jason Spafford (@FourWheeledNomad), who rode 80,000 miles on motorcycles around the world before spending 6 years traveling in their Toyota Hilux. Check them out in the Showcase & DIY Area!
- The Calgary-based Bishop Family, including twins Cedar and Sage, who just returned from overlanding through 17 countries in South America.
- The Utah-based Lostetter Family (@OverlandForGood) who just returned from overlanding the Southern leg of the Pan American highway (from the US to Ushuaia).
- And award-winning photographer and world traveler, Chris McCormack.
Keep an eye on the Compass and our Overland Expo Newsletter to learn more about the folks above (and others) before we all come together in Flagstaff in May.
During the 2025 Overland Expo Programming Series, we will offer classes that our attendees have come to expect and tell us they continue to highly value: backcountry cooking classes, overland and adventure travel-specific first aid trainings, storytelling advice from your favorite content creators and intro- to advanced-level classes on the technology and software that many overlanders rely on to get safely from here to there and everywhere in-between.
Something for everyone
We are thrilled to make the Women Who Wander Pavilion an event-series-wide addition to our educational programming. This space is open to all but will feature female-specific programming (e.g. how to use your body mechanics change a big tire), to cater to the growing audience of women at our event and in our overland community.
We will be bolstering our programming for kids through collaborations with the Arizona Site Steward Program who will be teaching kids about how to understand/interact with the archeological sites they can encounter while overlanding; The Overland Expo Foundation, which will be running the extremely popular TreadLightly! RC course, again, this year; and children’s book author and educator Kim Brown who will be teaching kids about how to share their journeys through visual storytelling.
After pouring through the reviews and class audits from 2024, we are bringing back the Hands-on Pavilion in order to offer more in-depth, intensive, tactile instruction. (Make sure to arrive early for these sessions – they will fill up due to the low ratio of students to instructors that is necessary for education of this nature to be effective and high-quality.)
We are extremely excited about these new additions to our educational programming and can’t wait to share the details and schedule (for Overland Expo WEST) in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, keep an eye out for more information about our featured speakers and instructors at Overland Expo WEST 2025 and don’t be shy if you have thoughts and ideas about classes you would like to see offered at an Overland Expo this year. And please, keep those reviews and feedback forms coming!
Happy Travels!
