SITE Global Conference kicked off on March 3 in Tulum, Mexico, with over 500 incentive travel professionals gathered at the Hilton Tulum Riviera Maya All-Inclusive Resort to connect, learn, discover, and shape the future of our industry together.
SITE CEO Annette Gregg began the 2025 Global Conference opening general session with an evocative call to action for everyone in SITE’s community to embrace and rediscover a sense of curiosity — in what Annette described as the “comeback of curiosity.”
Doing so, she said, is key for three reasons.
A strong sense of curiosity makes us smarter; breaks down walls and builds community; and adds value to the “journey itself,” in Annette’s view.
Starting with the intelligence boost a healthy dose of curiosity brings, Annette was quick to point out that staying curious ignites the brain’s “reward system.”
Getting curious is one of the most powerful was of teaching and learning, Annette advised, allowing us to retain more information — and ultimately, design better incentive events. Curiosity is crucial for staying ahead and becoming stale, she said.
Curiosity is also a key driver in building empathy, as the second focus of the many benefits a curious mindset unlocks.
Curiosity helps suspend judgment, Annette counseled, allowing us all to more readily suspend judgment and test our assumptions or knee-jerk reactions.
This also keeps relationships fresh and helps welcome new and emerging generations into the workforce, Annette added.
Curiosity can truly be a “superpower” then, in Annette’s eyes, as we look to disrupt the cycle of loneliness impacting many of us, especially younger clients and colleagues. “Curiosity can help solve that problem,” Annette said.
Finally, curiosity also brings value to the “journey itself” when we embark on new adventures or explore a new destination, Annette explained. Especially as incentive professionals, we’re too often plagued by a “get it done” mentality, she said, and fall victim to a world that rewards certainty.
It’s our duty to guard against that, Annette said, as she closed out her address to the 550+ attendees who attended this year’s event in Tulum. Incentive travel needs to stay emotive and creative — and it’s curiosity that will help us up our game in both of these areas.
Offering up a few final words of advice, attendees were encouraged to “seek to understand rather than seek to be right” as they ventured throughout the next few days of programming; to ask better questions; and to ultimately seek to unlock and listen to all voices, as part of teams that reward a drive toward and reward a push to stay curious.
“Be curious and start building and bridging cultures,” Annette exclaimed, setting off three days of destination and industry discovery that kept attendees engaged throughout the 2025 Global Conference program.
