TravelManagers’ theme for its 2011 National Conference is “Creating Value” something Chief Executive, Joe Araullo says has been the key to their success and being the leading company offering the personal travel manager experience.

“Our personal travel managers understand that fundamentally creating value for their clients is the most important aspect of their work. Their high standards, attention to detail and knowledge of their clients all stem from a desire to create value every time they speak with their clients. I’m immensely proud of them and their work ethos.”

Mr. Araullo says it will be an informative and interactive two days, full of conferencing along with great social and networking opportunities between the personal travel managers, the support team at the National Partnership Office and partner suppliers.

“We have some superb speakers lined up but the true value is in the interaction between us all. It creates fantastic opportunities to network, share ideas, learn and to be inspired. The team camaraderie and spirit TravelManagers has is a testament to the relationships that are created through opportunities such as our National Conference. It’s like going to a big family reunion.”
  
Three of the external keynote speakers presenting at this year’s conference include Cris Popp, Robyn Pearce and Anh Do.

Cris Popp is known for his work in making the link between happiness and success, keeping an eye on stress levels and your own personal wellbeing.

“Our personal travel managers are our greatest asset and this model does afford people the flexibility and work-life balance we all seek in life so we’re involving Cris at the start and end of the conference. We know how hard our personal travel managers work and we want to make sure they are keeping an eye on the triggers for stress.”

Mr Araullo says the conference offers an opportunity to inspire everyone and both Robyn Pearce and Anh Do’s stories are exactly that.

 “Robyn’s story is hugely inspirational from being a solo mother of six and burnt out real estate agent to now being a very successful author, whilst maintaining work-life balance. Anh has a simply amazing story from being a refugee to becoming a corporate lawyer to now being named Australia’s “Comedian of the Year”. His ups and downs, trials and tribulations, difficulties and successes in his life make for an incredibly inspirational presentation.”

Mr. Araullo says the focus for each and every session will be to develop insights and ideas that will add value to their personal travel managers’ businesses. Some of the highlights will include:

Personal Travel Manager/Supplier Networking Sessions

TravelManagers has 25 of its partner suppliers available to meet with each of the attending personal travel managers.

“We have very strong relationships with our suppliers and to have so many of our partner suppliers available to attend speaks volumes. This session creates a real win-win opportunity for both our personal travel managers and our partner suppliers.”

Workshops – Small group sessions based around personal travel managers’ needs.

Mr Araullo says the themes for these workshops have been based on personal travel managers’ feedback from regional meetings earlier in the year.

“We’re constantly listening to our personal travel managers to understand what their needs are and how we can help them. They will get to pick and choose which sessions they attend based on their individual needs. Acting on feedback from last year Deborah Jackson, a member of the marketing panel at the 2010 conference, will run a workshop focusing on how to build and use a database effectively. Individual workshops will be tailored to both personal travel managers who have an established business and to new recruits at the start of their personal travel manager career.”

Personal Travel Managers’ Stories

Mr Araullo says a number of personal travel managers will share insights into how they work and what makes them successful.

“With varied perspectives and past experience these sessions have been some of the most inspiring and useful of past conferences, the feedback we receive from these sessions is overwhelmingly positive. In fact after previous conferences 99 percent of participants said that the conference added value to their business and similarly 99 percent of participants agreed that they would recommend future conferences to their colleagues.”

Here’s a selection of what some PTM’s have said in previous years;

“I came away feeling more positive about my business. And it was great to meet like-minded people, all trying to achieve the same outcome.”

“I have come away so inspired and already used some advice from all our speakers.”

 “This is the first conference that I have attended that I felt was worthwhile. I came home enthused and ready to start putting ideas into action.”

Mr Araullo says the conference is designed to cater for both well-established personal travel managers and new entrants at the beginning of their personal travel manager business careers.
“We spend a great deal of time, energy and money ensuring our National Conference is the best it can be for everyone - experienced and new to being a personal travel manager, plus helpful for our National Partnership Team and our suppliers. It is a golden opportunity to bring people together and we strive to ensure it is an educational, inspirational and networking opportunity for all.”

In addition to the Personal Travel Manager/Supplier networking sessions there is also a networking cocktail party sponsored by Fiji Tourism on the first night and a Gala Dinner and Personal Travel Manager Awards on second night (with State based awards for the first time).

The conference will take place on Friday 11 and Saturday 12 November at the Crown Promenade Hotel in Melbourne.

For more information and a confidential conversation about joining TravelManagers, please email Suzanne Laister at suzannel@travelmanagers.com.au