Dame Kelly Holmes and a Portaloo – Travel Counsellors Conference 2016
To those who see the pictures on my Facebook page this weekend it can come across as a big jolly, with gala dinners, famous speakers such as Vernon Kay and Dame Kelly Holmes, top acts with Jack Whiteall, Laura Wright and Ronan Keating but this is just one side of it. What else do we get from it? What makes us go to bed late but be up, ready and sat in the conference hall at 0830? Because we love the job we do.
Each year the events team at Head Office source motivational speakers who in many ways link to ourselves. This year along with Dame Kelly we had the pleasure of the company of the inspirational traveller Nadia Clarke. Nadia was born with Cerebral Palsy and despite being wheelchair bound and deaf her zest for life is amazing. Her passion, like us, is travel and with the help of one of our great Travel Counsellors her dreams become reality. You can see one of her trips here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuoVgAUCsMk
We also heard from Jo Fairley, the founder of Green & Blacks who started her business from her spare bedroom (like many of us), who’s passion is to ensure that her ethics and principles are linked to all that the business does, the ‘Green’ being the organic side of the company, they were the first Fair Trade product in the UK back in 1994 (the year we started). Linked to this she also runs a charity where monies raised go towards educating children from the areas where they source their ingredients.
Dame Kelly Holmes reminded us that when you see great achievements we don’t always see the hard work behind it. The sweat and tears, the ups and downs, the times where giving up seemed the much easier option but ultimately that hard work pays off and to follow your dreams, and that sometimes choosing the right portaloo before a Gold medal winning race is all you need to do! When you go and see a theatre performance you don’t see the chaos in the wings and that reminded me a bit about what I do as a Travel Counsellor.
This year’s theme was MYTC, what does Travel Counsellors mean to me. Each speaker was asked to say what Travel Counsellors meant to them so I thought I would share what TC means to me. Travel Counsellors allows me the freedom of flexibility, to be able to be there for my clients as well as for my family. Some weeks I work long hours, long days, others I can take time off to enjoy my family, attend sports days and nativities. Travel Counsellors allows me to enjoy my passion of travel and customer service. As long as we are delivering great customer service everything else comes second and that’s how it should be. Travel Counsellors allows me to be part of a huge team (over 1,200 TCs worldwide) whilst still making me feel part of the family. So when I have bad days or weeks both at work or home I know I am surrounded by people who want the best for me.
And lastly it was my absolute pleasure to be in on the secret of which charity we were supporting at this year’s conference as it is so close to my heart. Operation top secret meant that only a handful were in on the announcement that it was going to be Reuben’s Retreat, and with Reuben’s daddy Mike sat in the audience unaware that his wife had done a video, the moment it was announced led to a huge applause followed by amazing people making amazing donations that to date stand in excess of £23k – WOW. The snowball effect has only just begun with many Travel Counsellors wanting to raise money for this amazing charity.