Over 500 helloworld Owner Managers, staff and preferred suppliers travelled to Singapore from Australia and New Zealand to collectively bring to life this year’s three day conference and we’re glad we didn’t miss out on this…
1. Open Q&A with helloworld Senior Leadership Group
The opportunity to ask the helloworld Senior Leadership Group members anything at all in an all-inclusive Q&A session was an unexpected highlight on day 1 of the conference.
Agents took the chance to voice their thoughts, ideas, issues and compliments.
2. Qantas and helloworld Offset Partnership announced
It was announced, that as part of the Qantas Future Planet partnership, Qantas & helloworld are going to be collaborating to offer carbon offsetting options to helloworld customers.
This will be first time in Australia that travel agents will be able to offer customers the chance to choose to offset the carbon emissions from their travel and holiday bookings.
3. Targeted HR session and practical expert advice
This highly practical and specifically targeted session covered content such as franchisee issues, key HR obligations, managing performance and assessorial liability.
Not the most exciting topics, but Aaron Goonrey’s dry sense of humour and expert knowledge kept all the owner managers attention and interest in this engaging session.
4. Breakout sessions included ResWorld/helloworld.com.au , Multi-site training, business building/networking
Anthoney Woodyard, Group GM Business Systems at helloworld went through the ins and outs of ResWorld and helloworld.com.au.
Whilst Julie Primmer and David Padman lead specifically targeted sessions on business building/networking plus Q@A sessions with the Senior Leadership Group.
5. Updates from all preferred partner suppliers
The message of ‘We are all in this together’ was echoed loud and strong by the supplier partners.
Presenting on their new products and giving insider knowledge of their business and content, the Owner Managers present heard from Qantas, Jetstar, The Travel Corporation, APT/Travelmarvel, World’s Leading Cruise Lines, Intrepid, United, Trafalgar, helloworld wholesale and Disney to name a few… and everyone received Micky ears!!
6. TRIP Rewards & Ready Rooms…
Cinzia Burnes, Executive Director and Head of Wholesale & Inbound, received a number of cheers throughout her presentation, including when she announced that TRIP Reward Points will be applied to bookings through ReadyRooms.com.
7. Networking
The helloworld Senior Leadership Team including CEO and Managing Director Andrew Burnes were on hand throughout the conference to chat with agents, field questions and further discuss the conference and business.
8. Positivity!
Motivational expert Chris Helder had agents all wrapped up with his ‘positive, positive, negative’ instruction. Such high energy and motivation in his presentation left the room with quite a buzz.
9. Vision
Hearing directly from the CEO of the organisation about the clear vision and strategic direction of the company in a straightforward and openly honest way was a highlight commented on by many agents in attendance.
10. Mark Jenkins from Resurg
Mark Jenkins, CEO of Resurg provided an insight into the travel industry benchmarks and gave the agents present some practical checkpoints to be used to grow business profits.
He spoke on topics including ‘How can our network benchmarks focus you on the change that is needed in your business to grow profits?’ and ‘What are the best performing businesses doing to adapt in today’s market?’
11. Amazing life changing giveaway prizes!
The prize list was HUGE this year with generous suppliers giving away flights, trips, accommodation, vouchers and cruises.
Qantas gave away a million Frequent Flyer points to a much deserving recipient via Chrissie Scott from Select Travel Services, WA. Her entry about a friend with motor neuron disease who wanted to take his family overseas to see the world was touching and recognised by Qantas.
Neil Ager from Qantas with Chrissie Scott
TTC gave away 2 spots on their 2017 great escape, whilst World’s Leading Cruise Lines prizes included 7 night Carnival South Pacific Cruise, Holland America 14 night Yokohama to Hong Kong cruise, P&O Dark Mofo Cruise and 4 Princess Cruises Brisbane/Sydney.
Other prizes included an APT Europe river cruise with flights, Travelmarvel Mekong Cruise and even some one on one Business coaching sessions were up for grabs from Insight Vacations.
Plus airline tickets were on offer from Etihad, Air New Zealand, American Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and China Southern.