Travel Counsellors Conference 2018

I have just returned from the Travel Counsellors Annual Conference which was held in Glasgow for the first time. It was great returning to Glasgow where I lived before moving to Northern Ireland and it gave me the opportunity to travel to Fife to visit my family for a few days prior to the Conference. For this trip we booked a ferry to have the convenience of having our own car with us (do let me know if I can help you with your ferry reservation and there are some great hotel and ferry deals that I can source).

So after a couple of days with family and sightseeing in Fife it was off to Glasgow. By the way, if you have never visited my home kingdom yet then you really should make plans. The beautiful fishing villages of the East Neuk and the amazing Royal Burgh of St Andrews (Home of Golf, Scotland's oldest university and former capital of Scotland) are all brilliant and well worth a visit.

The Travel Counsellors conference is a great opportunity to meet my colleagues from around the world, network with some of our biggest suppliers and learn about developments being planned for our business. In addition, we have some of the most motivational speakers in the world. The first afternoon was filled with great workshops to help us all improve our skills and business, and this was followed by our dinner and entertainment, the highlights of which were Craig David and a 'Silent Disco' - all great fun.

Down to business the next morning and some real inspiration was provided by our CEO Steve Byrne and then the amazing journey of Nisha Katona who founded Mowgli Street Food. We also heard from the brilliant Dr Paul Redmond on the differences between the generations and how best to communicate to them. Then we had our annual Pow Wow where hundreds of our suppliers, including airlines, cruise companies (ocean and river), hotels, DMCs, tourist boards, car rental companies and tour operators are all represented and where I can grow my contacts as well as learning about any new products or developments. There are some amazing travel products out there and I love hearing about new products to offer to all my wonderful clients.

That evening was the Annual Gala Dinner where the best worldwide TC performers are recognised with awards and where we were entertained by the Red Hot Chilli Pipers and Marti Pellow (of Wet Wet Wet fame). The following morning was one of the highlights that I had been looking forward to and it did not disappoint. The amazing Sir Chris Hoy and his journey to becoming one of our greatest Olympians - amazing! We also learned about our continuing development of technology and I would urge all my customers to download the MyTC app - which is just getting better and better!

So after an amazing few days it was the drive back to the ferry (via beautiful Portpatrick for a bite to eat). #Ilovemyjob