As my commercial director, Cherie, and I travelled home from Orlando, we sat in silence for much of the journey.
We spent so long planning the conference, it flew by in a blur of neon lycra, movie characters and roller coasters. After four days of speeches, networking, roundtables, parties and theme parks, it?s safe to say the Global Travel Group?s conference was a stunning success.
Amid all the preparation and planning, picking the right venue, organising the right activities, and choosing the right speakers, I have to admit that it was all too easy to lose sight of the significance of simply getting together. As a business, hosting a conference at Universal Orlando Resort is an expensive endeavour. However, the opportunity for the whole head office team and our members to spend quality time together in one place with the support of our suppliers, for four days, made it a priceless and worthwhile investment for all involved.
With Christmas fast approaching, getting together has an even greater importance. When more of us are communicating remotely, pinging a WhatsApp rather than having a conversation, or Skyping instead of meeting up, the value of seeing friends and colleagues in person, to network, socialise, or simply have a chat is immeasurable. This is especially true in the case of Global where our members are based all across the UK.
Seeing my team rub shoulders with our members and put faces to names was hugely impactful, especially for those who don?t often get the chance to meet agents. Watching agents from a diverse mix of businesses and colleagues from valued suppliers, all with different perspectives and experiences, share their expertise with one another was inspiring. If I only take away one thing from our conference, it?s that we at Global need to do everything we can to facilitate those personal connections, so that their value is felt far beyond the confines of the conference hall.
We were incredibly proud to launch our Global Buddies mentoring programme in Florida, to help our newest agents connect with our more experienced members and ?buddy up? to offer tips and advice on running a successful operation. We see this kind of collaboration occur informally every time we get agents together, so it seems like a natural next step to support it formally and give it a boost, helping all of our members access the abundant goodwill and knowledge of their fellow agents. A quick chat over a cup of tea every few weeks with someone who has ?been there? and ?done that? can help untangle a multitude of challenges, or simply be a chance to confirm that you?re moving in the right direction. Thanks to these chats and this face-to-face time at conference, I?ve discovered so much about agents that has surprised and excited me about the year ahead. I found out that one agency with no background in selling holidays to the Far East has seized the opportunities offered by the upcoming Rugby World Cup and the Summer Olympics and become an expert in Japanese holidays. Another agent has found themselves specialising in group tours to folk festivals.
Those meaningful, personal conversations are spurring me on to diversify even further the offerings we have for our members, finding the right suppliers and commercial partnerships to support agents to expand into even more specialist areas. Had we not all been together under one roof, I might never have found that out, so it?s vital that we (and I) don?t place restrictions on when we talk and when we get together. As an industry, we know the power of the personal touch for our customers, that those authentic conversations matter to consumers and customers. We mustn?t forget how powerful it can be for all of us lucky enough to work in travel to bring that same authenticity to how we communicate with one another too.
I am very fortunate to have a fantastic and dedicated team who were tireless in making our conference so successful, led by Cherie Richards. Keeping the spirit of conference alive, I?ve been having these conversations in person, but I want to put down in writing how grateful I am for their hard work in making it such an exciting and memorable week, and say thank you for making this the best Global Travel Group conference we?ve ever seen.
