Travel Counsellors - Australian Conference 2016
As soon as I saw the camera pan over the impressive block paving, and the Rolls Royce standing on the drive, I knew it was going to be held at Palazzo Versace. My wife and I are great I'm A Celebrity fans, and I knew I'd have little trouble in persuading my wife to accompany me. Our conferences are great social occasions, with wives and husbands also being welcomed like long lost friends.
So, Thursday before conference, we found ourselves strapped into a re-furbished Qantas A330 for the 8-hour flight to Brisbane. The food was good, entertainment excellent, and after watching a couple of films and a swift Nana nap, we arrived into a bright blue Brisbane sky, which was to accompany us all weekend.
We collected our car and drove the short distance down the M1 (memories of home) to our first stop for some food and retail therapy. At this point we were only around a 20-minute drive from the hotel, and we had already done some groundwork to see where we could stop on the way down. The coastal scenery was flat and calm, the traffic lighter, the nearer the coast we drove.
After some sunny shopping and sightseeing, we arrived at the Palazzo Versace hotel. The grand entrance is every bit as good as it looks on TV. I dropped our bags at the lobby before going to park in the free underground car park. When I returned to the lobby to check in, my wife told me the bags had already been taken to our room. The rooms were large and very well appointed, with one of the most comfortable beds we've had anywhere in the world.
Friday evening was the reception hosted by Etihad, held in a restaurant, a short walk from the hotel through the Marina. Sadly, I didn't get to bid on many of the yachts for sale. Food, entertainment and company were all superb. Our Australian counterparts made us feel very welcome and it was very interesting comparing our businesses. We certainly weren't the first to wind our way back to the hotel and turn in for the night.
Next day was the start of the conference proper. Our conferences are much more about inspiring stories and relationships rather than travel or selling. One of our speakers was the amazing Gill Hicks who was injured in the horrific events of the July 7th bombings in London. She had us laughing and crying in equal amounts during her presentation. Having sat through many inspiration speakers with outstanding stories, I had hankies at the ready. Please take a moment to check out her website.
One afternoon of all our conferences is set aside for Pow-Wow, where we meet our suppliers, who really get the concept of Travel Counsellors, and many others who'd like to be part of what we are trying to achieve, great customer service and creating lifelong memories, because we care. I was surprised to see a few suppliers I have met in the UK, and one in particular whose accent changed to pure Glaswegian on hearing the sound of my Geordie accent. My wife spent this time walking around the area, taking in the beach and part of the walk down to Surfers Paradise around 4km away.
Saturday evening is always Gala Dinner night, a black tie do where everyone gets dressed up and gets together to celebrate the company. We were lucky enough to be on a table near the stage, with an Australian Travel Counsellor who I had only previously met on the phone.
A bit of a lie in on Sunday for the slightly later start of 9am. We spent the time wisely packing as we had to check out by 11am. The morning sessions were over far too quickly and before long conference closed at 1pm. We took our packed lunch and drove up the spit to the ocean where we ate in the sunshine watching all the busy activities on the waterway. We then took a short drive down to Surfers Paradise, just to walk the very impressive beach, and dip our toes in the sea. We had to remember this was the start of the Australian winter, and the weather conditions were perfect, clear blue sky, warm and dry, and we didn't forget to slip, slap, slop either.
The last part of our journey had us drive north to the Brisbane outskirts to meet up with friends last seen 13 years ago. That will teach them to live near where our conferences are held!
An early start on Monday had us drop the car at the rental agency. I had already checked in online (I do it for my clients, so I may as well do it for myself), and by 7am we were sitting down to a very nice Australian breakfast.
We had one last drama on the flight home, we had boarded on time ready to go, and the captain made an announcement that his seat was broken and would have to be fixed before we could take off. Thankfully, his estimates proved spot on and we left around 2 hours late, though he must have put his foot down as we made up an hour of the time and arrived only an hour late.