Travel Counsellors Conference 2016
This year was no exception - held at the Conference Centre in Manchester over the weekend 18-20th.
During the day we hear from the Directors and staff from our head office at Venus in Manchester about the new and innovative ways they are working with operators and suppliers to better our business. There were exciting changes in store from our IT director and details of the trips and incentives we can earn throughout the year.
We enjoyed motivational speeches from Dame Kelly Holmes and Nadia Clarke, a young lady who has been disabled from birth but didn’t let that stand in her way in her quest to see the world with the help of her own Travel Counsellor.
There were videos and presentations from our supplier partners, as well as what's known as POW WOW, which is a vast exhibition of over 250 suppliers. We can meet and chat about their products as well as pick up brochures, and lots of other lovely promotional goodies they have for us. It becomes a bit of a supermarket sweep challenge to get back what you can carry.
This year I was fortunate to win a massive teddy bear, which would not have felt at home with me, or on the train back so was donated to the wonderful charity we supported this year: Rueben’s Retreat.
The conference team work tirelessly all year to pull the event together and we were not disappointed this year with headline acts of Jack Whitehall and Ronan Keating. We danced into the wee small hours.
On the Sunday one TC is awarded a brand new BMW car for having the most 10/10 scores back in the year to date. We have a great countdown of the top 20 TC's and I was thrilled to be named in this year's top 20 and who knows, in 2017 I may just get that car!
One of the things we all love about conference is the camaraderie and getting together with our fellow TC's and their partners. We have a very special bond at TC - we may work on our own in an office at home, but we are never alone. We have a fabulous network of colleagues who have actually become good friends and amazing support from Travel Counsellors head office.