*** Disclosure: I am a Global Ambassador of Sandbox***

“Don’t be afraid to use your knuckles.” This is the advice given to me by DJ Saul, who is teaching a small group of us how to throw a proper punch. DJ, when not playing Mr. Miyagi to our Karate Kid is the VP of New Ventures at iStrategy Labs and one of our DC Ambassadors. He’s volunteered to share his knowledge about some of the basics of self defence for one of our afternoon sessions.

I’m in Lisbon, Portugal for the first ever Sandbox Global Summit. Sandbox is a global network of selected innovators under 30, a community of over 600 people in 48 countries and 23 hub cities, including Cairo, New York, Nairobi, Singapore, Mexico City, Bangalore, and San Francisco.

Our members include innovators such as Cynthia Hellen from New York, founder of GIRLS WHO ROCK, a benefit concert fundraising for girls’ education worldwide while mentoring local volunteers to be leaders;Sebastian Lindstrom from Nairobi, who travelled 20 African countries to produce a documentary on young leaders with his What Took You So Long Foundation; and Marita Cheng from Sydney, recently announced as the Young Australian of the Year, founder of Robogals Global, who is using the art of building robots to get more girls excited about the engineering discipline, discussed their experiences, stories and key learnings from diverse fields.

Held at MUDE (the design museum), 200 Boxers and various mentors gathered to share ideas, wisdom, and laughter for one jam-packed, whirlwind of a weekend. The goal of this gathering was to foster meaningful relationships within a community that is driven to create a positive impact in the world.

Peer to Peer Learning: We’re in this together

The vibe is laid back, fun, and inspiring. There are no speakers here, instead Sandboxers host peer-to-peer sessions covering a wide variety of subjects:

•  «On Stealing Ideas» by Mattan Griffel, CEO of a NYC-based digital agency

• «How to have the luck of the Irish and pour the perfect pint of Guinness» by William McQuillan, Founder and CEO of Osmoda.com

•  «Social enterprise future moulded by Asia» by Kalsoom Lakhani, Founder of Invest2Innovate, and Achyutha Sharma, Director of Sulochana Development Trust.

Friendships First: What do you need? How can I help?

What set this weekend apart was the unwavering sense of giving and support, coupled with the desire to help each other overcome challenges. “What do you need? How can I help?” were two of the most often repeated questions I heard throughout the weekend. Boxers are genuinely invested in helping each other succeed.

It doesn’t feel like a network, it feels like a family, an online community of kindred spirits, punctuated by real life meetings. Prior to meeting in person, I had only exchanged a few emails with John Egan (Dublin Ambassador, Founder Archipelago), yet we slipped effortlessly into hour long conversations as though we’d known each other for years.  I quickly discovered that I shared an identical sense of humor to our Amsterdam ambassador Tim Rutten  and was laughing non-stop for three whole days.

Somehow, I had found myself in the middle of a global network with some of the most caring, intelligent, inspiring people I have ever met. Tara (Port-du-Prince), Niamh (New York), Kalsoom (the magical land of Pakistan), Nico (Zurich), Fabian (New York), Antoine (Berlin), Steve (New York), John R (Wagadu), Toby (Amsterdam), Will (London), Kasper (Copenhagen), Gamal (Cairo) have become an important part of my digital tribe, essential anchors of support, friendship and humor that I can count on as I navigate the perils and pitfalls of following an unconventional life path.

In fact, I had the opportunity to catch up with one of my closest friends Robyn Scott (Author, Founder of OneLeap.to, and another friendship I have Sandbox to thank for) who echoed my sentiments. “It’s rare to find a gathering of people that embody a sense of family who are all brilliant and have your best interests at heart.”

If this all sounds a little sentimental it’s is because, to be honest, I was caught completely off guard. I’ve never bonded with so many people at once before or shared such strong connections right off the bat.

I will be following up this post with a more analytic perspective of technology’s impact on the the creation and maintenance of these types of networks and what it means for relationship building.

For now, I’m just looking at my calendar, already eagerly anticipating the next time we can all be together again.

One of the best thing about living in France is the ease of traveling to other countries. England, Germany, Switzerland, Italy – all just a train ride away. Europe also tends to be very pet friendly. In Paris as long as your dog is well behaved they are welcomed into restaurants, cafes, shops and the metro.

The UK Finally Updates Pet Travel Laws: 

In 2012, the United Kingdom finally relented and changed their pet importation policies to become aligned with the rest of the EU, removing the quarantine requirement in favor of a more thorough certification process.

In general, for your pet to travel between countries the requirements are very reasonable: they need veterinarian-signed health certificates proving that their vaccinations are all up to date and they need to be microchipped.

In fact, if your pet fits into a small carrier you can easily take them just about anywhere including airplanes. Again, the policies for in-cabin airline travel are reasonable. In addition to all the necessary papers, your pet must completely fit into a fully closed pet carrier and they have to have enough room to be able to stand up and turn around comfortably. The airlines charge a fee for this service and have a limit of how many animals can be in the cabin at once.

Eurostar Policies Not Aligned with Airlines, Regional Trains

All of these companies give customers at least some sort of option to travel with their pets. All except Eurostar. Eurostar has a overly-generalized policy forbidding pets of any kind (regardless of size) on their trains with the exception of guide dogs.

Their reasoning for this is “reasons of health safety & passenger comfort.” I think this policy is unnecessarily restrictive and penalizes customers.

Most travel companies are concerned with health safety and passenger comfort but have managed to find a compromise that provides pet owners some options without sacrificing the quality of the experience for other passengers.

At this point, Eurostar’s policy is in opposition to the majority of transportation providers including airlines. Usually, I would simply choose an alternative method, but the Paris – London track is operated exclusively by Eurostar. There are very limited options for pet owners who don’t have cars to get across the channel.

Ignoring a Customer Segment

What prompted me to blog about this, in addition to sheer frustration of course, was Eurostar’s complete and utter refusal to even consider offering another alternative, which would be so easy to implement. This doesn’t make any sense to me at all, especially from a strategic standpoint.

Pet owners who want to take their pet along are usually open to pay a pet specific fee. (Air Canada charges a flat rate $100 each way for an in-cabin animal flying internationally, which I happily pay.) Did you know that in 2010, pet owners spent over $48 Billion dollars on their furry friends? Despite economic slowdown, pet-centric businesses were still thriving including doggie bakeries, hotels and spas.

It seems bizarre that Eurostar has displayed no interest in shifting their own policies despite major changes in their government’s pet importation laws.

Why not, Eurostar?

I don’t think I’m asking for something unreasonable, just a little flexibility. I don’t think I’m being unreasonable. I’ve written a letter to Eurostar CEO, Nicolas Petrovic to encourage him to rethink his current policies and to introduce options for pet owners that are more aligned with UK and EU governmental pet importation laws. Feel free to drop him a note letting him know what you think about this too!

 nicolas.petrovic@eurostar.com

I really believe there is a space for compromise here that would enable everyone involved to have a pleasant traveling experience.

Update: Eurostar replies via twitter – “We hear you, but we don’t care.”

I’ve done a lot of work with companies and social media. “We will pass along your comments” pretty much means “nothing is going to happen.”