TomTravel2

The photo above is one of two large halls where the magic of Virtuoso Travel Mart occurs. Later this morning this room will buzz with activity. I will sit at a table with my colleague and suppliers will come to our table to meet with us and introduce their hotel, tour company, cruise line, destination or other travel product or service. Each meeting lasts for only four minutes. I have been taking notes of the highlights of each meeting. We have a chance to exchange cards, shake hands, and connect with the people who can make our clients travel experiences extraordinary. I have been shown photos, videos, and power point presentations. Some people come up with clever visual aids to showcase their offerings. It is an exhausting process and with 100 of these brief meetings each day it would just be a blur without notes. Virtuoso does provide access to all the information on their web site for us to refer to and refresh our memories at any time. It is the connections we make that are most important. As I walk through the various events here I see people I have met face to face. There are no strangers at Travel Mart. I have never been to any event that fosters this type of connection. It truly is the “Power of One to One.”

This cluttered space is where Judi and I sit each day for the meetings. She is a veteran of 5 of these events, while I am at only my second. The schedule at the bottom of the picture lists the suppliers we will be meeting with. The pad is where I jot down notes and “take aways” about each meeting. Suppliers give a brief presentation and we have the opportunity to ask questions. For some old friends, places we have been to or book often, we skip the presentation and emphasize the relationship. It gives us a chance to let people know we have clients coming or thank them for taking great care of recent guests. We can also find out what’s new or coming soon. The people we meet with our sales managers or general managers of properties and providers. In the case of smaller tour companies we often meet with the founders or owners of the companies. When we need to connect travelers to places and services these are the people we have access to. People who book travel on the web only get a room. Our clients get a connection.

During the lunch breaks the past two days I have eaten at events hosted by The Yachts of Seabourn one day and by Oceania Cruises on another. You see, at Travel Mart the fun never stops! From early in the morning until late in the evening we are learning about travel products and experiences and meeting and mingling with those who provide them. Cocktail mixers are held after the dinners where we can reconnect with the people we have met with in a more informal setting. We also talk shop with other Virtuoso travel agents.

Last year as a rookie I spent most of the event listening. I soaked it all in like a sponge. This year has been much different. Due to my visible presence on Twitter, this blog, and being noted at the social media trainings I am far from anonymous. There is a great deal of interest and curiosity surrounding Twitter and this has led to many people recognizing me. It also has led to many side conversations with people pumping me for information. Judi told me “You’re a rock star.” That is a bit of an exaggeration but I have gotten a lot of attention here. Yesterday a had four people tell me they follow me on Twitter and six people tell me they are following my blogging about Travel Mart. I also had a several hour conversation with a most interesting woman that started with her saying “I know who you are…” Two hours later I still didn’t know exactly who she was and that is what made it so fascinating.

We had two tweetups yesterday and it has been really fun to deepen those connections in person that we have all been making on Twitter. Like Travel Mart Twitter is all about the power of one to one. The connection points we make here connect us to whole teams of people that can make travel dreams into realities. Similarly the power of Twitter is how the connections we make there also connect us to broader networks of people through our friends there.

There is not enough time available for me to really cover the meetings process. I have tweeted a few highlights of things that made the biggest impressions each day. It is really hard to pick a standout when you see so many wonderful things in such a compressed time frame. When I get home and am no longer in the hectic environment of Travel Mart I will try to review my notes and share some of the new or interesting things I have learned about.