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TTAND conference in Cuba ends on high note
05-02-2016
10:18 am
“Don’t accept the limitations of others who claim things are unchanged or undoable. If it’s written in stone, get out your hammer and chisel,” said philanthropist Robin Mednick in her keynote speech on the final day of The Travel Agent Next Door’s (TTAND) “2020 Vision” conference last Tuesday (April 26) in Varadero, Cuba.
Speaking to a conference room full of travel agents and suppliers, Mednick told the story of how she founded her organization Pencils for Kids, a charity that works with impoverished communities in Niger, West Africa, to design education projects and programs.
“I decided it was going to be the type of charity that I wanted to donate to,” said Mednick, who began laying the bricks for Pencil for Kids in 2005 after a photographer friend of hers, Dan Galbraith, told her about a disadvantaged school in Liboré, a rural area in Niger, where 30 children in one classroom were forced to share one pencil.
Mednick decided to take action, and with the help of Office Depot, BIC Inc., DHL Express (Canada) and the Canadian Embassy in Niger, she facilitated the shipment of more than 1,000 pounds of school supplies to Liboré, a feat which later, in 2007, led to the opening of the first Pencils for Kids school in the village of Oulmantama, which is attended by more than 100 students today.
Much of Mednick’s story is about overcoming adversity and conquering uncertainty, and in speaking at a travel conference, her message to agents was clear: focus your energy, build genuine relationships, abandon your expectations and, when faced with new challenges, “do it afraid.”
The lunchtime presentation garnered a loud and sounding applause from delegates, some of whom were brought to tears, effectively ending TTAND’s annual conference on a high note.
“I’m so inspired to go back to work and see what I can achieve,” Karolle Screaton, an associate agent and certified sommelier at Romance and Foodie Travel based in Ottawa, ON, told PAX at the conference’s closing reception later that day.
PAX was in Varadereo this past week covering TTAND’s annual conference, which took place from April 20-27 at the beachfront Iberostar Laguna Azul hotel and resort.
More than 60 travel agents and 19 suppliers united for a week of networking, keynote speakers, supplier presentations, workshops and off-site receptions modeled around the theme “2020 Vision,” which stressed the importance of having a clear plan for the next five years in order to succeed.
The fun and informative week, which was sponsored by Air Canada Vacations (ACV), welcomed networking expert Cheryl Gregory, social media maven Emily Baillie and business builder Coralie Belman to share their wisdom on becoming a better businessperson.
The outpour of positive feedback from delegates served as a win for TTAND, which opened in March 2014 to assist home-based travel agents and medium-to-small-sized agencies by providing them with marketing tools and access to programs designed to improve business.
Coreen Doucett, a travel consultant and destination wedding specialist based in Toronto, ON, compared the TTAND staff to “feeling more like a family.”
“The head office [at TTAND] listens to us, they feel like we’re they’re customers. They want to fulfill our needs,” Doucett told PAX. “This company is a force to be reckoned with.”
Toronto-based agent Roseanne Sewerynek echoed that sentiment, noting the challenges that come with being a home-based travel agent, such as marketing oneself to setting up a proper office.
In attending TTAND’s conference, Sewerynek was “inspired” by the quality of the tour operators who gave presentations. “We never get a chance to meet them in person,” Sewerynek told PAX.
Flemming Friisdahl, founder of TTAND, compared his company to “like working in an office of 200 people where you can talk to each one individually.”
His company’s database of agents is growing, but to Friisdahl, that’s just one part of the puzzle. “I’d be happy with any number of agents as long as we’re helping that agent grow,” Friisdahl told PAX.
The week included a one-day press trip to Havana, where media had an opportunity to learn more about Cuba and see Havana’s colourful classic cars.
Lively receptions were hosted by rotating sponsors all week throughout Varadero, with Meliá hotels and WestJet’s dinner on the beach of the Meliá Paradisus on April 24, Transat’s white party at the Ocean Vista Azul on April 25, and Air Canada Vacations/Air Canada Rouge’s closing gala at the conference’s host hotel, Iberostar Laguna Azul, on April 26.
“The Travel Agent Next Door is growing rapidly, we’re growing rapidly. So our objectives align,” Vijay Bathija, vice president commercial, Air Canada Leisure Group, told PAX at the closing party, which encouraged attendees to dress “old school Cuban style from the 1940s” as part of the evening’s “Havana Nights” theme.
The reception concluded with a true or false game whereby attendees had to answer Cuba and Air Canada-related trivia questions for a chance to win two air seats with Air Canada or Air Canada Rouge to Mexico or the Caribbean, which, in the end, went to Carol Attrell from Maple Ridge, BC.
The afterparty officially got going when TTAND’s marketing coordinator Shean Carmichael grabbed the mic and performed his song “2020 Vision,” a catchy dance track Carmichael wrote and produced exclusively for the conference.
Next year’s TTAND conference will take place April 21-28, 2017, whereby delegates will attend presentations in Miami on April 22 and then proceed to Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas ship for five days of fun and learning at sea.
For more information on TTAND visit thetravelagentnextdoor.ca.
