Monday Education Seminars
9:30 am - 10:30 am
Past, Present and Future Trends of Online Marketing: Susan Sweeney
Sponsored By: Destinations2Discover.com
Is your web site keeping current with consumers’ expectations? The culture of the internet is changing so fast that what worked last year may not work this year. Susan Sweeney, Internet marketing expert and author of 5 Internet marketing books, will review the life cycle of tourism web sites: their past, present and future. This is a must-attend session for all tourism industry professionals who want to see how their site measures up. Learn what you have to do to catch up, and what you have to do to prepare for the future.
Enganged Leadership: Clint Swindall
Session HandoutsSponsored By: Live Nation
Research indicates that only 26% of employees are truly engaged. The vast majority of employees simply show up to work each day prepared to do the minimum to get by. While we may love the 26% who are productive and loyal to the organization,the key to success lies in our ability to lead our disengaged employees. If we want that to happen, we must provide engaged leadership… a proactive approach that involves being actively engaged at all levels of leadership. In this program, Clint will share how to build a culture where employees want to work, inspire employees to want to help the organization realize its vision, and develop a team to make it all happen.
Big Dollars Come in Small Niches: Alf Nucifora
Sponsored By: Theatre Direct/Broadway.com
Beyond the traditional customer base for the motorcoach industry lies a hidden market comprised of niche audiences, each representing significant revenue potential. Having previously operated off the radar screen, these niches are now beginning to loom as viable market opportunities for the enterprising ABA operator and supplier. The power of niche marketing will be analyzed and assessed in a panel comprised of Dorothy Maitland, representing the booming Recreational Vehicle Industry Association; Ria Reuling-Hutchinson, motor coach industry liaison to the 1.3 million-member Red Hat Society and Jim Palmeri, representing Travel Alliance Partners, a consortium of 34 tour operators committed to business and marketing collaboration. In this program, you will gain a detailed understanding of the demographic profile of these groups and their buying motivations and behavior as well as an appreciation of the enormous revenue potential of these groups, and how to tap into that potential.
Your Script to STARdom Orientation Seminar: First Time Delegates
Whether you are a first-time STAR delegate or a Marketplace veteran, this workshop will help you prepare for an exciting and valuable Marketplace week. Marketplace leaders willingly share their expertise and insights and help you discover the “ins and outs” of Marketplace. Discover the secrets to preparing yourself for the Marketplace business floor and ABA’s uniquely different Marketplace. Don’t miss this dynamic session!
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Packaging the Big Two: Shopping and Culture: Alf Nucifora
Sponsored By: Theatre Direct/Broadway.com
The data clearly indicates that shopping is not only a leading travel activity within the group travel market, but continuing to grow in strength. The power and potential of the arts and cultural tourism remains unchallenged. Still, the group travel market is failing to exploit these sectors to their fullest extent. Get answers to the important questions regarding the best practices of packaging these activities, and discover how to tap this important sector. Find out who is doing it well, and learn from their successes. This seminar will give you the mechanics of packaging, pricing and promoting both products.
Service from the Inside Out: Clint Swindall
Sponsored By: Live Nation
Companies around the world spend millions of dollars on customer service training, yet most of those companies will complain that one of their biggest challenges is providing great customer service. Why doesn’t it make a significant difference? It’s simple; the problem with customer service training is that it focuses on customers. Customer service should begin with the way employees see themselves and their co-workers (internal customer service), which then gets transferred to the client (external customer service). In this program, Clint will show how each employee can enhance external customer service by improving their personal outlook, and understanding the role they play with the other internal teams.
Generations at Work: Steve Gilliland
Session HandoutsSponsored By: American Girl Place Inc.
This is truly one of the most unique times in the history of the American workforce. With four different generations converging upon one place, everyone needs to be equipped with practical ways to deal with the differences. It is clear that there is a new face to workforce diversity, which organizations must recognize and respond to if they are to be successful in the new millennium. The debates you hear each day in the office are the sounds of generations colliding. Steve Gilliland provides creative insights and solutions to issues of recruitment and motivation of the workforce. This groundbreaking training session supplies you with strategies for understanding and overcoming generational differences, and gives you practical tactics that you can apply immediately to daily situations.
Your Script to STARdom Orientation Seminar: First Time Delegates
Whether you are a first-time STAR delegate or a Marketplace veteran, this workshop will help you prepare for an exciting and valuable Marketplace week. Marketplace leaders willingly share their expertise and insights and help you discover the “ins and outs” of Marketplace. Discover the secrets to preparing yourself for the Marketplace business floor and ABA’s uniquely different Marketplace. Don’t miss this dynamic session!
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Creating Team Synergy: Ideas to Boost Morale and Reduce Turnover: Joyce Weiss
Session HandoutsSponsored By: Nederlander Group Sales
One of the biggest challenges for the tour and travel industry is the Revolving Door Syndrome and keeping your star employees from leaving. You can retain your great people by creating a team synergy. In today’s ever-changing workplace, teamwork is more than a nicety; it’s a necessity. By it’s very nature teamwork creates synergies. There’s just one hitch: it won’t happen all by itself. Remove the roadblocks, lighten up team meetings, find easy ways to add more fun to work, and most importantly, listen to your teams’ ideas so that they can access their creative power! Learn how to play a starring role in boosting team morale.
Mindy Candy: Alf Nucifora
Sponsored By: Theatre Direct/Broadway.com
As the saying goes, all work and no play make Jack (and Jill) a dull boy (and girl). This session is a fun and entertaining hour of madcap potpourri, designed to make you laugh and learn to take life a little less seriously. Come and see the best of all the crazy and hilarious “stuff” that is floating around the Internet. Comprising videos, commercials, unusual photo galleries, games, jokes and more. This session is bound to be one of the most popular at Marketplace this year!
Latest and Greatest Trends in Operator Web Sites: Susan Sweeney
Sponsored By: Destinations2Discover.com
We have moved to the third generation of web sites and Internet marketing. Consumer expectations are going through the roof. Once they see something on your competitor’s sites, the bar is raised. Is your site keeping up? In this session, Susan Sweeney will explain in plain English the latest technologies to hit the web, how they are influencing buyers decisions and the opportunities these provide for tour operators. Do you understand blogs, wikis, podcasting, videocasting, mobile marketing, interactive maps and RSS? These are just a few of the latest trends that will be discussed.
Your Script to STARdom Orientation Seminar: First Time Delegates
Whether you are a first-time STAR delegate or a Marketplace veteran, this workshop will help you prepare for an exciting and valuable Marketplace week. Marketplace leaders willingly share their expertise and insights and help you discover the “ins and outs” of Marketplace. Discover the secrets to preparing yourself for the Marketplace business floor and ABA’s uniquely different Marketplace. Don’t miss this dynamic session!
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Enjoy the Ride: Steve Gilliland
Session HandoutsSponsored By: American Girl Place Inc.
Through side-splitting humor and reality-tested techniques, Steve Gilliland reveals the way to face conflicting demands in an unforgiving business environment that keeps getting tougher. From showing people how to reignite their passion, to his compelling challenge to never lose your focus, Steve releases an “explosion of enthusiasm” that is absolutely contagious. If you’re tired of hearing the same old topics rehashed over and over again, this is the perfect session to attend. It is simple, clear, and easy to grasp – yet profound. Fasten your seat belt and hold on as you learn how to Enjoy the Ride!
Common Sense Selling: Clint Swindall
Session HandoutsSponsored By: Live Nation
Every person in a sales position has developed a set of skills that work in their particular environment. In fact, most salespeople have been through various sales training programs, hoping to learn new techniques for selling. Although speakers and trainers may put a new spin on techniques to sell, the reality is that successful sales comes down to more than just technique. By focusing on the four aspects of sales, each salesperson begins to build relationships for long-term success and helps customers feel they truly are buying a product, instead of being sold.
Industry Leaders Panel
What are the issues facing the group travel industry? How can you better market your company or destination? Listen to these and other topics at ABA’s annual Industry Leaders Panel, where your colleagues from the bus, tour and travel segments discuss issues affecting their business. Panel moderated by ABA’s President and CEO Peter Pantuso.
Your Script to STARdom Orientation Seminar: First Time Delegates
Whether you are a first-time STAR delegate or a Marketplace veteran, this workshop will help you prepare for an exciting and valuable Marketplace week. Marketplace leaders willingly share their expertise and insights and help you discover the “ins and outs” of Marketplace. Discover the secrets to preparing yourself for the Marketplace business floor and ABA’s uniquely different Marketplace. Don’t miss this dynamic session!
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