Christmas Comes Early for New South Wales Personal Travel Managers
TravelManagers, Australia’s leading personal travel manager network continues its personal approach by commencing the first of its latest round of bi-annual state meetings across Australia.
A record attendance of 80 New South Wales based personal travel managers gathered aboard Captain Cook Cruises’ Matilda III in Sydney last Thursday 10 November, to celebrate a successful year amid some Christmas festivity. Travelling as far afield as Albury, Dubbo, Port Macquarie, Wollongong and Canberra, the personal travel managers along with 13 national partnership office staff enjoyed business sessions in the morning followed by a Christmas lunch.
Michael Gazal, Executive General Manager believes consistency and providing relevance and adding value is the reason for achieving extremely high participation rates.
“Our first series of state meetings were held in March 2009 with 90 personal travel managers in attendance across the entire network, and supported by two national partnership office representatives. We are extremely proud that seven years later we are achieving this sort of number in just one state while providing a much broader involvement from members of the national partnership office support team. The content of these meetings continue to evolve in line with the shifting requirements and provide real value for our personal travel managers.”
In attendance at this year’s state meeting were two mother and daughter teams. For personal travel managers Jan Marshall and Jo Seal who share on office, working together would be easy. However for personal travel managers Robbie Barrett, representative for Dubbo and her daughter Madeleine Barrett, representative for Mayfield who are some 2,400 kilometres apart, it is TravelManagers’ technology that makes it easy.
“Mum’s business had grown to a point where she needed assistance with processing and growing the business. I was able to bring in new business of my own as well as being able to support mum’s growing business. Working remotely with easy access to the network together with the ability to access each other’s files and support from the national partnership team has provided us with opportunities to grow both our businesses to our mutual benefit. And each day I get to chat to mum, it’s fantastic,” says Madeleine.
An overriding response from the personal travel managers was they valued the practical and thought provoking interactive discussion that was achieved through face-to-face meetings.
“This was my first state meeting and the ability to be more interactive and bounce ideas off each other was invaluable. The fact that the content is also tailored to our requirements by state is also fantastic, it made it really worthwhile to attend and I can’t wait for the next one,” says Merran Anderson, representative for Karabar.
For personal travel manager Jason Smith, representative for Newtown the state meetings are always a highlight.
“I really look forward to these bi-annual meetings, it’s the best way to get up to speed with emerging industry trends, new products, marketing tips and tricks and have a great laugh as well.”
Following a morning of informal business sessions, the personal travel managers were joined by nine partner suppliers who adjourned with the national partnership office team to enjoy some early Christmas celebrations at the Blackbird Café in Cockle Bay.
“The afternoon was fantastic with friendly staff, yummy food and plenty of drinks. The venue had a funky energetic vibe and a lovely open air feel whilst taking in the water views. A great way to start getting into the Christmas spirit and to celebrate an end to another fantastic TravelManagers year,” says Michelle Schulz, representative for Grays Point.
TravelManagers will continue their personal travel manager state meetings around Australia with Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne, Hobart and Brisbane meetings scheduled throughout November and early December.
For more information or to speak to someone confidentially about TravelManagers please contact Suzanne Laister on 1800 019 599.
Personal travel managers (from left) Tanya Tyler, Pru Gallagher and Jason Smith raise a glass in celebration of a successful year
Christmas comes early for TravelManagers personal travel managers. Jodie Banbury Marketing Director (front left) and Executive General Manager Michael Gazal (right) celebrate with New South Wales personal travel managers in Sydney