The Week in Focus: Time for a conference rethink?
Conference season is drawing to a close, which for suppliers and AFTA chief Jayson Westbury at least, will come as a blessed relief.
From Alice Springs to Las Vegas, Santa Monica to Adelaide and the Hunter Valley to Ho Chi Minh City, the retail shin digs have come thick and fast.
While agents only attend one of these, suppliers must find the money to attend several, if not all, and they don’t come cheap. Westbury meanwhile, needs to be diplomatic and show up at the majority of conferences. His address on the reform of travel agent licensing and consumer financial protection is one he can do in his sleep. And probably does.
But what really is the point of conferences? Is there much to be gained from trekking to the US or Vietnam, or the Hunter Valley for that matter (which, for those Travellers Choice agents based in Perth, almost took the amount of time as jetting to the States).
Do agents actually learn anything new about their business or suppliers that couldn’t be done in a more cost and time effective manner?
It’s undoubtedly true that agents enjoy their two or three days away from the office, which maybe a good enough reason in itself to hold a conference.
It’s a challenging industry – although every industry says the same of itself – and consultants are hardly paid a fortune so the opportunity to have a laugh and a few late nights with colleagues is good for morale.
But at the end of the Travellers Choice conference last weekend I was talking to a couple of senior agents who, while enjoying the event, as did I, questioned what, if anything, they would really take home with them that would better their business.
They were constructive observations and suggestions, based around a desire not just to listen to pearls of wisdom but to take something tangible back to their office.
Every marketeer and motivational speaker who gets on stage bangs on about “engaging with the customer” and creating Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. All very sensible and worthy.
But get back to the office and we all know what happens. The phone rings, customers need help, bills need paying, the sales rep wants a chat. And so it goes on. We get bogged down in the task of, well, running a business. The ideas that were planted in the mind, the suggestions on how to improve productivity, the new selling techniques, they’re put to one side and soon forgotten in a blur of a frantic week of chasing your tail.
This was the point made by the two Travellers Choice agents. Rather than just talk about social media, workshops could be held where agents actually set up a Facebook or Twitter account and are shown how to use it. So when they return to their office, they have something real and ready to go, not just another item on a to-do list.
The same goes for websites. The ability to build an online presence while attending the conference is, I think, a great idea. Imagine if agents went back to their businesses with a shiny new website? In short, swap talking shops for practical workshops.
The retail conferences are reasonably well attended, but equally there are many agents who stay away. Maybe they just don’t see the benefit. Give them something tangible, something to show their staff on their return that will genuinely add value, and perhaps more will make the effort.
As an aside to this, I can’t help wondering if it’s time for AFTA to again stage an annual industry-wide conference for agents from all groups to discuss and debate key issues? It would be interesting to see what retailers and suppliers think.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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