Travel Weekly was live on the scene recently at Intrepid’s first global summit since the pandemic.

Bringing together 35 different nationalities from East and South-East Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and ANZ, the Intrepid family came together at The Edge, Federation Square in Melbourne to uplift the team after a tough pandemic.

Morning Session

The day began with a welcome to country from Uncle Tony Garvey, an elder of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. He discussed his family history, and connection to the land, nation, and modern issues relating to Indigenous culture.

Gearing the troops up before welcoming the day’s MC, Intrepid CEO James Thornton told the audience that today is “the best day Intrepid does all year,” before welcoming Intrepid’s general manager Moroco, Hala Bankhalodoun who was attending her first Intrepid global summit.

Hala Bankhalodoun MCing the summit

Bankhalodoun hosted the first panel and event of the day with Intrepid’s Erica Kritikides, global product GM; Miranda Raciti, global customer care manager; Cameron Elliot, global DMC sales GM; and Natalie Placko, global brand & marketing GM.

Kicking off the panel was Kritikides who highlighted the success of Intrepid’s premium range.

“One of the biggest successes of 2022 was our new Intrepid Premium range,” Kritikides said, who went on to break the news that Premium Japan is about to become one of the highest-grossest Intrepid trips of all time. She told the audience that the wholesaler will be returning East Timor to its collection and introducing a “pretty epic trekking” range that the industry can expect to see go live this month.

Elliot highlighted that 23 per cent of Intrepid’s revenue from 2022 came from external brand sales and Raciti discussed new positions at the company, including a voice of the customer lead, a new spot that uses customer insights to create change in the brand and build genuine connection to increase trust and loyalty.

Attendees got an exclusive view of Intrepid’s new brand film ‘Good Morning Morocco,’ which showcased the array of gorgeous spots and activities in the African nation, ending with the message ‘Good Trips Only.’

L-R: Bankhalodoun; Erica Kritikides, global product GM; Miranda Raciti, global customer care manager; Cameron Elliot, global DMC sales GM; Natalie Placko, global brand & marketing GM 

But this isn’t the only brand film from Intrepid. It was revealed that Intrepid will release a range of films showing a variety of international destinations explored by the wholesaler.

Following the panel was a talk from Intrepid’s GM of purpose Sara King, titled ‘Dose of Innovation.’ King discussed the importance of B Corp and how Intrepid fulfills these criteria while making an impact on a large scale.

King was followed by Sarah Wallace, Intrepid’s global leader engagement partner, who discussed the importance of the brand’s tour leaders and shared a joke with the crowd that she looks at the tour leaders’ feedback whenever she gets a bit down at work.

‘The Joy of Travel’, from Hem Raj Dhamala followed with his insights as a Nepalese tour leader that guides travellers up and around Mt. Everast.

Mid-Morning Session

Following morning tea, the brand’s co-founder and chair Darrell Wade with Intrepid’s CCO Leigh Barnes engaged in a banterous folksy chat for attendees to enjoy. The two reflected on the beginning of COVID and its impact on the company, its people and how the company will progress. The kicker of the talk came when Barnes asked the question on every Intrepid employee’s mind: Is Intrepid giving staff bonuses?

Darrell Wade and Leigh Barnes

After a bit of umming and ahhing from Wade, he uplifted the spirits of the room by finally saying “YES!” The company will offer shares as bonuses, but they will not be given to everyone as complicated regulatory issues prevent the company from giving them to people based on where they live. The shares are currently valued at approximately AU$1.30.

Intrepid’s GM people, Kirrily Tibb, followed to discuss how to best engage with fellow team members, improve morale and shared a funny anecdote about Intrepid’s CEO getting more than what he wanted from his coffee order.

A heartfelt panel with the brand’s GM Türkiye Sami Behar and sales manager Türkiye Ekrem Seyhan followed to discuss the struggles they have faced amid earthquakes that has ravaged the country. The pair expressed their pride and gratitude with Intrepid’s Türkiye appeal that provided help for those impacted by the disaster.

From the not-for-profit organisation Kindness Factory, which raises funds for education programs, was Kath Koschel who changed up the summit with some personal stories. Koschel shared tales of her indesicive nephew who wasn’t quite sure of what he wanted to be when he grew up and shared a dream of her own.

Koschel dreamed of representing the Aussie cricket team but a spinal injury briefly left her a paraplegic. Through the process of recovery, a condition came up where she was told that she would have to have her right leg amputated (at which point the entire audience looked at her intact right leg). After another incident, she was told she would have to spend time in a rehab facility for 6-12 months where she struggled with motivation but eventually made it out.

Koschel went on to tell her personal story of learning to walk again, the loss of a loved one, how she motivated herself to be happy again, a critical accident and her brief stint with the Guinness Book of Records. This influenced her to begin Kindness Factory, which originally had the goal of committing one million acts of kindness but has now well surpassed five million. Her story was met with rapturous applause from all attendees.

Afternoon Session

After lunch, Bi Zhang, the general manager of The Intrepid Foundation, implored attendees to contribute to and promote the foundation after showing the impact Intrpid’s trips have on its customers.

Julien Leclercq, the CEO of Genairgy and non-executive director at Intrepid, followed to commend the values of Intrepid and a panel discussion came after. The panel featured Intrepid CFO Michael Burnett; Steve Cundy, sales director at Wildland Trekking; Sarah Baxter, GM Intrepid Polar; Eve Lawrence, GM Haka Tours; Simon Mendelawitz, MD JOOB; and Michael Lamprell, founder and CEO CABN. Each speaker (minus Burnett) got the chance to spruik their business and with a wide variety of tours available the attendees got a great insight to the breadth of Intrepid’s work.

L-R: Michael Lamprell, founder and CEO CABN; Sarah Baxter, GM Intrepid Polar; Eve Lawrence, GM Haka Tours; Steve Cundy, sales director at Wildland Trekking; Simon Mendelawitz, MD JOOB; Intrepid CFO Michael Burnett. 

Tackling the IT side of the business was Anu Karunatilaka, chief tech officer, speaking with Mahren Allard, Intrepid’s iteration manager, who were then followed by inductees into the Intrepid hall of fame following a break.

A representative from TikTok then came to flaunt the social media’s prowess in promoting travel to a wide audience of prospective travellers. He announced that Intrepid will be “handing the keys over to our travellers,” and attendees got to participate in the wholesaler’s first-ever TikTok video.

The battle of the regions followed with the managing directors from Asia, the Americas, EMEA and ANZ took to the stage. Natalie Kidd, Asia; Matt Berna, the Americas; Zina Bencheikh, EMEA; and Brett Mitchell, ANZ all took to the stage to discuss how they landed in their positions, what they saw booming in their respectvie regions and a bit of light banter with there fellow managing directors. The four also fielded questions from staff at Intrepid, including whether the wholesaler will implement the very topical four-day work-week (there wasn’t a direct ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, but work flexibility was highlighted).

Intrepid hall of fame

And capping off the day was Thornton, who reflected on three significant moments in recent memory.

The first was in 2006, when Intrepid held a much less luxurious summit than what was held this year, thought Thornton looks on it fondly.

The next was in March 2020, after the former Prime Minster closed the borders of Australia and Intrepid had to announce a series of redundancies and Thornton was not sure if the company would survive.

Finally, and most importantly, according to Thornton, is the story of where Intrepid is going.

The CEO outlined Intrepid’s 2030 strategy where the wholesaler will be an iconic global brand that expands beyond just travel. Intrepid will expand to books, podcasts, hotels, restaurants and much more. Intrepid will become a category; synonymous with sustainable experiences. Thornton said the brand will have much larger markets in the US and UK, expand to a litany of other nations and become a billion-dollar B Corp.

Thornton said the Intrepid of the future will champion slow travel, create a climate-conscious future and utilise electric travel to a much larger extent.

The most important part of the third story, Thornton said, is that Intrepid will be owned by its employees. Its employees will have a stake in the wholesaler’s product and the very people and community that own it will be the future of Intrepid, Thornton said.

Following Thornton’s inspiring speech, Bankhalodoun  described what made her proud about working at Intrepid and her hopes for the future.