We Plan, You Pack!
We Plan, You Pack!
The Local Field Expert Programme (FEP) is a field-based learning and talent development programme. It is for people who want to build meaningful, responsible tourism in their own region. Over five days, mostly outdoors and in small groups, you learn to turn what you know about a place into an experience that guests understand and remember.
Field Experts create immersive experiences and practise responsible tourism. They are the building block for whatever a region sets out to build next.
What you will learn
Things to know:
📌 Getting to know the programme, each other and the idea of responsible tourism
+ Arrival & registration: Sign in and fill in a short health form. Free pick-up from Kudal railway station between 8:30 and 9:30.
+ Kala Angan museum walk (9:30 sharp): The Chitrakathi paintings, puppets and folk art of the Thakar community, preserved by Padma Shri Parshuram Gangavane and his family.
+ Understanding ecotourism: How tourism affects nature and local people, and how it can create value for both guests and hosts.
+ About FEP: What the programme is, why trained local Field Experts matter, and what we expect from each other.
+ Icebreakers & group formation: Meet the small group you will work with all week, and your buddy.
+ Lunch together
+ Team activity: A hands-on group challenge, followed by a talk on teamwork in real field situations.
+ Critical thinking: "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!" An exercise in questioning familiar ideas and reaching your own understanding.
🌙 Day 1 is not residential. For a stay on the night of 30 Oct, contact the Stay Coordinator listed in the participant guide.
📌 How to create experiences that help guests understand a place, not just see it
+ Settle in: Check in at the stay, home for the next four days.
+ What interpretive guiding is: Its principles, and how to guide around one central idea.
+ Interpreting vs informing: What changes when the aim is understanding rather than information.
+ The eight elements of interpretation: The skills and intentions a Field Expert draws on during a trail.
+ Designing a trail: Shaping stories, themes and activities into one trail that holds together.
+ Engaging people: How to interact with a group and adapt to who is in front of you.
+ Field session: A complete interpretive trail that puts the day's ideas into practice.
+ Evening: Group games, dinner and a shared reflection on the day.
📌 Finding your voice, and something worth saying
+ Powerful storytelling: What makes a story memorable, and how words shape what people understand.
+ "Give them 2 + 2, not 4": Leaving room for guests to reach the meaning themselves.
+ Speaking to a group: Voice, pace and holding attention.
+ The role of research: How continuous learning builds credibility, and where local stories are found.
+ Asking the right questions: Sparking curiosity and turning a talk into a conversation.
+ Practice trails: Lead a short trail and receive feedback from trainers and peers.
+ Evening: Dinner and reflection.
📌 Earning trust, and acting well when things get difficult
+ Morning field session: An interpretive walk designed and led by participants.
+ Why professionalism matters: At home we run on love and adjustment. Work with many people needs clear rules, or trust breaks.
+ What a professional does: Shows up on time and prepared, keeps promises, and stays consistent when no one is watching.
+ Guest care & teamwork: Professional conduct in the field.
+ Ethics in real situations: Conflicts of interest and professional boundaries.
+ Evening field session: Professionalism in practice.
+ You represent more than yourself: How you act reflects on the organiser, the community and every Field Expert after you.
📌 Running a trail well, and leading people through it
+ Tour & trail management: Planning the route, timings and logistics, and running things smoothly on the ground.
+ Leadership in the field: Leading from the front, knowing who is at the back, and balancing engagement with authority.
+ When plans change: Making a clear decision, and explaining it to guests and the team.
+ Handling difficult moments: Upset guests, complaints and tired participants: staying calm and answering what lies underneath.
+ Mock trail: Plan and lead a trail as a group, managing the people and the interpretation together, with feedback.
+ Reflection: Your strengths, and what you want to improve.
+ Departure: You leave with one assignment: plan and research your own interpretive experience, to present after three months.
1. Please carry water bottles.
2. Do not consume intoxicating substances.
3. Follow all guidelines provided by the team at all times.
4. Keep all in-house discussions related to ecotourism and personal development.
Please go through the traveler responsibilities mentioned in the ‘Travelers Handbook‘ link.
Over the three months after the five days, the group plans and runs a series of weekend sessions with experts and local resource people: talks, demonstrations and field visits on subjects such as coastal and marine life, the Western Ghats, geology and landscapes, local culture, field safety and conservation.
Participants choose the topics, invite the speakers and organise the sessions. KTC mentors guide and approve each step. You learn from the sessions, and also from making them happen.
Some of the subjects the series can cover:
After the Knowledge Series comes a final assessment. You design and lead your own interpretive trail in the field, then talk through what you have learnt.
Those who meet the standard become KTC Certified Field Experts and join the Field Expert Pool, where paid assignments are offered as work becomes available.
Why I started FEP
I started Konkan Travel Club, and later this programme, out of my own work in the field. Every trip, trail and project we took on came down to the same need: capable people from the region itself, who understand the place, work well with others and take responsibility when things don’t go to plan. Such people were hard to find, and everything else depended on them.
The same is true of any project that sets out to do something meaningful in a place, whether it is led by a government, a community or a single person with an idea. So I set out to develop these people. FEP gives them a shared way of working and the core skills of the field: looking closely, asking why, explaining a place honestly, hosting and leading a group, and keeping it safe. Whatever people already know, about fishing, farming, forests, food or the history of their village, and whatever they go on to learn, FEP gives them something solid to build it on, so it can serve whatever their region sets out to do next.
– Pratik Gawade, Founder, Konkan Travel Club
📌 Programme Director – Pratik Gawade
📌 Group Coordinators – Kishor Sarnobat, Darshan Vengurlekar
📌 Stay & Food Coordinator – Ganesh Rawool
🔹 KTC: 8669810485
At KTC- we design tours, excursions, and camps in Konkan. Our catalog is continually being upgraded to include all range of stays and unique experiences in the region.
Our tours adapt to include the seasonal variety that each season has to offer. We pride upon the authentic Malvani cuisine, local hospitality, the comfort of homestays in our curated unique itineraries. We are a tourism company, but we are also more, as we are working to build a community whose connections exceed far beyond travel.
We mostly travel in our free time but with the kind of experiences we offer and to truly experience the beauty of Konkan, we would recommend freeing your time to travel with us. We offer weekend getaways as well as curated long tours.
Pre-designed tours are released but we primarily engage in private tours for groups. The best way to travel with us is to curate a trip for your group. Currently, all our experiences are available at throwaway prices for a time now.
OR
You could join pre-designed tours from our catalog.
Squeezed in the lap of the Western Ghats and the Arabian sea, every season in Konkan has something unique to offer. Summer is for exploring hidden beaches, water sporting, scuba, scenic mangrove boat safaris, fort trails, wild fruit trails, and more. Winter is for everything summer, plus a major mood for camps and a season of Jatras in Konkan. You get to witness the traditional Dashavtar live theatre in a Jatra. Monsoon is very underrated here. You could witness some of the best treks and waterfall trails in the monsoon. The Malvani cuisine also changes to adapt to seasonal variety and even the beaches hit different every season.
To make all the arrangements, we recommend a confirmation at least a week before travel.
Note that, in the tourism rush months of November, December, January, March, and April- stays may run out, and hence we need to plan the trip months earlier.
Worth the Hype! Read more at https://g.page/konkantravelclub?share
