2017 Conference Programme

Travel Centres Conference 2017 Mullingar Park Hotel

“Getting Back to Basics�

Novem

ber 10t

h & 11th

Table of Contents 2 3 5 5 6 7 9 11 15 17

Sponsor Acknowledgements Programme Details Awards Supplier Workshop Changing the Face of Travel General Information Advisory Board Speaker profiles Your Entertainment Testimonials and Photos from 2015 conference

Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join with fellow colleagues and friends for what has become an established event on the annual travel industry calendar in Ireland. We know you all lead busy and demanding lives and so we appreciate the conscious effort that you make to join us for 48 hours every November!

2017 has been a busy year for Travel Centres and a lot has happened since we all met 12 months ago in Mullingar. This year we celebrate our 13th conference and in somewhat of a departure from every other year, we have decided not to feature external experts as part of our owners/managers programme on the Friday, preferring instead to look inwards at our own abilities, potential and expertise — hence the theme for this year’s conference — ‘Getting back to basics!’

Consortiums such as Travel Centres succeed or fail on two things: strength of numbers and compliance levels. Whilst we continue to be the largest such agent grouping in Ireland we need to review our compliance levels for preferred suppliers as this is a twoway relationship and we need to be able to deliver discretionary sales to our supplier partners in return for the enhanced commercial terms that we enjoy with them.

As that famous saying goes ‘There are no free lunches’ Always at your service

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Sponsors Friday Owners/Managers Dinner Conference Refreshment Breaks Funkycam Photo Booth ‘Saturday Night Silent Disco’ Saturday Dinner Wines Saturday Dinner Beers Prosecco Van Friday Dinner Wines Saturday Themed Lunch Friday Lunch Gala Dinner Prize — 2 x tickets anywhere on Turkish Airlines global network *Travel Centres would also like to acknowledge the support of the following two companies: Hertz — Discounted car rental for conference weekend, Travelport — ‘Changing the face of travel’ — Agent makeovers. Tayto sandwich packs

Sponsor Acknowledgements* Events such as this depend on the generous sponsorship that underpins much of the content featured over the course of the two-day programme. Although all our suppliers have contributed to the central funding that covers much of the main running costs, these suppliers in particular have dug deep into their pockets in order to show their appreciation for the business that you, our members generate for them year round. It is therefore only right and fitting that we should acknowledge them here.

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Publisher’s Note: Whilst care has been taken in compiling the information contained in this manual, the publishers cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions. © Travel Centres 2017.

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Friday 10th November 08.45 — 09.30

Registration

09.30 — 10.00

Delegate welcome & year review (Aoife Suites 1 & 2)

10.00 — 11.15

Closed Session # 1*

11.15 — 11.30

Morning refreshment break — Sponsored by Amadeus

11.30

Closed Session # 2*

— 12.45

12.45 — 13.00

Market update from MSC Cruises

13.00 — 14.00

Lunch (Restaurant) — sponsored by Travelport

14.00 — 15.15

Closed Session # 3* (Aoife Suites 1 & 2)

15.15

— 15.45

Facebook case study with Travel Media

15.45 — 16.00

Afternoon refreshment break — sponsored by Amadeus

16.00 — 16.15

TravTab Presentation

16.15 — 16.30

Q&A

16.30 — 19.45

At your leisure

19.45 — 20.30

Pre-dinner drinks

20.30 — 23.00

Owners/managers dinner (Glora/Moyle Suite) — sponsored by Aer Lingus

Dinner wines sponsored by Intrepid Travel

*Morning sessions closed to Travel Centres members only. Afternoon presentations open to all.

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Saturday 11th November 08.45 —

09.30

Workshop registration

09.30 — 09.45

Welcome introduction and explanation of rules for workshop

09.45 — 11.15

Speed-dating workshops (Lir Suite)

11.15

—

11.30

Tea/Coffee break (sponsored by Amadeus)

11.30

—

12.45

Speed-dating workshops (Lir Suite)

12.45

—

13.00

Market Update — Royal Caribbean

13.00 —

14.00

Themed Lunch — sponsored by Royal Caribbean (Moyle/Glora Suite)

14.00 —

14.45

Speed-dating workshops

14.45

— 15.00

Celebrity Cruises Presentation/Game

15.00

—

Speed-dating workshops (Lir Suite)

15.45

15.45 — 16.00

Tea/Coffee break (sponsored by Amadeus)

16.00 —

16.30

Kahoot Quiz and prize giving

16.30

19.30

At your leisure

—

19.30 — 21.30

Ireland v Denmark world cup qualifier (beers & wines sponsored jointly by Crystal Holidays & Hertz)

21.30

‘Lookalikes’, Selfies, Funky Cam Photo booth, Paparazzi Wall, Prizes for ‘Best Conference Tweet’ & ‘Best Fancy Dress’

— 22.30

22.30 —

23.00

Blank table plans for the Gala Dinner will be displayed on notice boards in the main function room throughout the day on Saturday. Please fill in your name on one of these table plans no later than 15.45 as the completed or partially completed table plans will be collected at 16.00. If your agency has four or more staff attending, a table plan with your name details will already have been pre-populated.

Charity Raffle, ‘Changing the Face of Travel’ (sponsored by Travelport) & Conference Awards

23.00 — 01.00

Dancing to ‘The Legends’ featuring Freddie Mercury

01.00 — 01.15

Tayto ‘revival’ packs — sponsored by Travelport

01.00 —

Silent Disco, sponsored by Celebrity Cruises

03.00

Table Plans for Gala Dinner

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AWARDS This year, as in 2016, there are 11 separate awards up for grabs across six different categories, together with one single award for ‘Supplier of the Year’. All the agent categories have been voted on by our supplier partners and reflect evaluations based on a combination of overall sales performance in 2017, year-on-year improvement, marketing initiatives and product knowledge/engagement in training amongst others. The ‘Supplier of the Year’ award is based on a detailed online evaluation of all current preferred suppliers based on eight different criteria such as product quality, price competitiveness, problem resolution etc.

SUPPLIER WORKSHOP The cornerstone of the conference each year is the speed-dating workshop that takes place on the Saturday. The challenge each year is trying to ensure that all conference delegates fully engage with their supplier partners throughout the day so that, ideally, all agents visit all suppliers in equal measure. What tends to happen is that agents only end up visiting those suppliers that they already do business with, thus defeating the whole point of learning about new preferred suppliers that have been added to the portfolio. This year, in order to try and incentivize delegates’ 5

behavior more than in previous years, we have decided to ‘gamify’ the whole process and there will be a large cash prize up for grabs at the end of the speed-dating workshop on Saturday afternoon.

As there will be more suppliers in attendance than there will be available speed-dating slots in which to visit them all, agency staff are encouraged to split up across the room so that, collectively, they get to meet more suppliers/exhibitors within the allocated time. Each agent will be provided with a passport when registering in the morning and each passport will contain details of all exhibitors participating in the room, listed in alphabetical order. Each agent will have to have their passport manually date-stamped at each desk by the supplier/exhibitor in question. The order of exhibitors/suppliers within the room will, however, be completely random.

At the appointed time in the afternoon (plenty of advance notice will be provided), Kahoot will be launched on the screen at the main stage.

Kahoot is an online game based around multiple-choice questions.

Participants can either download the app from iTunes or the Google App Store or go directly to the Kahoot website: www.kahoot.it On the home page, you will be asked to key in a numeric password which will take you to the pre-designed quiz that has been prepared for the speed-dating workshop.

Points are allocated not only to correct answers but also to the speed with which those answers are provided so this will give sole participants a slight advantage over teams because of presumably faster reaction

times. The questions that will be asked will reflect a combination of information disseminated throughout the course of the day by participating exhibitors, together with some general travel knowledge questions. The team/individual with the highest score in points at the end of the game will be deemed the winners and will be provided with the big cash prize!

All passports must be personalized by writing in your full name and agency in the spaces provided on the front. They must also be date-stamped, every time you visit an exhibitor desk.

Passports must be surrendered at the end of the afternoon by placing them in the boxes provided as these will be used to choose some additional, random winners of smaller cash prizes!

WIN ¤2500 Agent Nam

e:

Agency:

Changing the Face of Travel make-over’ prize One of the most innovative additions to the Travel Centres conference weekend in recent years has been the introduction of Travelport’s ‘Changing the Face of Travel’ business card draw where four lucky winners are selected at random to have a complete makeover done by a professional makeup artist. Aside from the obvious benefit to each of the recipients, the purpose of this conference feature is to reiterate the significant role that Travelport play in literally changing the face of travel in Ireland due to their industry-leading role in empowering travel agents through the functionality of their GDS platform and other complementary and innovative technologies.

Anyone interested in getting their make-up done by a professional make-up artist should ensure that they hand in their business cards to Joanne Madden from Travelport who will be in circulation throughout the day, during the course of the speed dating. Travelport will pick 4 winners at random at 4pm to get made up for the night ahead by make-up artist par excellence, Lisa Gibson. You need to be in the room when your name is called out as otherwise, we will move on and select another business card!

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GENERAL INFORMATION Check in Please note that check in at the hotel is not before 12.00 noon so if you are arriving on Saturday, please proceed directly to registration and either leave your luggage in the car (if using own transport) or leave in the care of the porter (if arriving via public transport). All luggage will be kept in a secure location until such time as you are in a position to check-in later — i.e. after 5.30 p.m. when the supplier workshop finishes.

Punctuality As we are working to extremely tight schedules, it is important that every agent delegate and exhibitor observe the times allocated for each event throughout the conference weekend such as closed sessions, workshop segments, presentations and meals etc. This will ensure the smooth running of the event and a batter overall conference experience for all concerned. Please note that we are experimenting with nondefined refreshment breaks throughout the Saturday workshops this year — i.e. tea/coffee/biscuits will be available at designated stations in the workshop area throughout the day so at to maximise productivity amongst participants and avoid unnecessary logjams.

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Closed Forum Please note that the morning sessions and first afternoon session on the Friday are closed to non-members, trade press and suppliers but all are welcome to attend the last presentation of the afternoon which starts at immediately after the afternoon refreshment break at 4.00p.m.

Remembering your table number Anytime we break for refreshments or lunch over the course of both days, we recommend that you leave your conference bag containing all your paperwork, notes and giveaways on the seat that you have been occupying and just remember the number of your table so that when the workshop resumes after each break, you can collect your belongings and move to the next numbered table in the room.

Remembering your table name immediately before each break will help us streamline our proceedings throughout both days.

Interim Presentations Because of the fast pace of the individual speed-dating sessions on Saturday, we have scheduled two interim presentations (one immediately before lunch at 12.45 and one mid-afternoon) tio help punctuate the day and allow exhibitors (particularly those working on their own) to take additional rest breaks. Each presentation will be made from the stage area and be a maximum of 15 minutes in duration.

The pre-lunch presentation will be by Royal Caribbean and the midafternoon one will be by Celebrity Cruises and will take the form of a Bingo game!

Charity Fundraiser Five years ago, a group of high profile travel professionals comprising Ciaran Mulligan (Blue Insurance), Dave Walsh (Etihad Airlines), Yvonne Muldoon (Aer Lingus), Sinead Reilly (Travelport), Philip Airey (Sunway) and Lorraine Quinn (Royal Caribbean) organised an amazing family event called Travel Funday (www.travelfunday.ie). On August 27th this year, the annual family outing which was hosted at Wanderers Rugby football club in Dublin raised an amazing ¤40,000+ for the various nominated charities so Travel Centres wants to play its part in raising as much money as possible for these deserving causes. On each banquet table at the Gala Dinner, you will find an envelope containing a book of raffle tickets. Guests are encouraged to purchase a sheet of 5 tickets for ¤20 (or multiples thereof) by detaching any sheet(s) and depositing the relevant amount back in the envelope along with the book containing the counterfoils. Don’t forget to clearly write out your name and telephone number on the back of the counterfoils that you put back into the envelope. These counterfoils will be entered into a draw for one limited edition, signed and framed print by the internationally renowned Irish artist and sculptor, Graham Knuttel whose works have been collected by celebrities such as Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stallone, Frank Sinatra, Eddie Jordan and Michael Stipe!

Suggestions A lot of thought and planning goes into arranging each year’s conference but we’re always receptive to new suggestions as to how we can improve on the delegate experience and make the content of these weekends more relevant to your business. Ideas on a postcard please.

(Better still, just email them!)

Testimonials Some of your colleagues will be absent from this year’s event and for a variety of reasons. If you enjoy yourself this weekend, then we’d like to hear from you so we can share your comments/observations with those who perhaps take a little bit more convincing that such events are both relevant and worthwhile.

Conference Hashtag# Help us promote this year’s conference through social media by tweeting your comments and observations to the Twitterverse at large by using the following designated hashtag #travelcconf. Our colleagues at TravelMedia.ie will be monitoring all communications and the best tweet or Facebook posting will receive a nice prize, courtesy of Travel Centres!

Welcome packs Each delegate staying at the conference hotel will find a welcome pack in their room which will provide them with details of the various leisure options and local attractions that are available to spouses/partners who are not participating in any of the business sessions over the weekend.

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ADVISORY BOARD The advisory board comprises seven member agents who, between them, represent the interests of the general membership and who, in conjunction with the management team, define the policies and supplier preferences of the group. The board positions are voluntary so board members donate freely of their time and expertise throughout the year in order to help drive the collective agenda of members. The board meets periodically throughout the year. The advisory board currently consists of the following members: Carolyn Davis, Liberty Travel, Letterkenny In 2002 and with over thirty years experience working in the travel and hospitality sectors in the UK, Cyprus and Ireland, Carolyn established Liberty Travel in Letterkenny. The agency has since grown in size and reputation to become Donegal’s leading travel agency. Her team of six staff has vast experience and love to travel themselves, bringing a wealth of knowledge to the client. Carolyn has embraced digital marketing and social media and identifies this as an important strategy for the way forward. Carolyn is the ‘Travel Section Expert’ for Highland Radio, Irelands leading independent radio station.

Maria Dilworth, Blackpool Travel, Cork Maria has been involved in the travel industry since 1976 and opened the doors of Blackpool Travel in 2000. After many years of living and breathing travel 9

Maria took a sabbatical from the industry and earned her BCL Law Degree from UCC and practised as a solicitor specialising in Employment Law. Maria made a return to the travel industry in recent years and favours America and Spain as her holiday destinations!

Linda McNamara, Ace Travel, Newcastle West Linda opened Ace Travel 17 years ago to service clients in the West Limerick area and has grown over the years to become one of the top agents in the Munster area. Ace Travel has won several awards over the years and has a fantastic staff which offers professional and friendly service thus retaining clients year in and year out. Linda enjoys travelling and has undertaken some excellent trips all over the world. She also enjoys a good game of hurling whether at local level or the All Ireland finals.

Declan O’Connell, Lee Travel, Cork Declan has been in the Travel Industry since 1975.

Based in Cork City with offices in Midleton, Youghal and Ballincollig, Lee Travel now employs 26 people.

Declan is a former board member of the ITAA and strongly believes in the future of the travel agent.

He enjoys travelling very much and has recently clocked up his 60th country with a few more to go.

Michael Bowe, Bowe Travel, Thurles Michael Bowe Jnr. is the 4th Generation of the Bowe family to run Bowe Travel. First established in 1906

by Michael’s great- grandfather — it has continued to thrive down through the intervening decades and is based in Thurles, Co. Tipperary. Michael was reared in the travel industry and like the rest of us, loves to travel!

Michael Geraghty, Cavan Travel, Cavan Cavan Travel was established in February 1988 by Michael and his wife Margaret, so he will be celebrating 28 years in business in 2015! His second office — Virginia Travel, was subsequently opened in November 2011 – great timing! Michael now employs seven staff between the two offices. Michael has been involved with Travel Centres since its inception. Italy is Michael’s favourite holiday destination.

Tom Britton, Marble City Travel, Kilkenny Tom started in the travel industry in 1995. He is managing director of Marble City Travel, Kilkenny.

Since 2010 Marble City Travel has increased its staffing from 3 to 10 with continued growth into 2018 planned. Marble City Travel have been the recipient of several award categories in recent years at the annual Travel Centres conference and Tom describes himself as a ‘cruise anorak’, having completed over 20 cruises in recent years Clare Dunne, The Travel Broker, Dublin Clare began her travel career with Aer Lingus in 1979 and since then has experienced many aspects of the travel business. She established her own independent travel company The Travel Broker in 1994, providing corporate, leisure and incentive travel services to a wide range of customers, in Ireland and abroad, offline and online. She has also developed and taught several ‘What Do Travel Agents Do’ introductory courses for job seekers.

Clare has served as President of Network Ireland both in Dublin and Nationally. She served as President of ITAA from 2012-2014. Clare is currently a member of the board of ITAA, on the committee of Clontarf Business Association and on the Advisory Board of Travel Centres.

She is also an active member of Dublin Chamber of Commerce and North Dublin Business Network.

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SPEAKERS This year, we’ve decided to dispense with third-party experts as we’ve found over the years that they appear to contribute little to the sum total of the knowledge that we need to run our respective businesses.

Instead, we’ve decided this year to allocate more time to industry partners with whom we already enjoy strong working relationships and who can more effectively influence positive outcomes in either our productivity or profitability. The morning sessions will include discussions on a variety of challenges coming down the line in 2018 such as the Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and the Package Travel Directive, whilst time will also be dedicated to discussing the more pressing issue of the Commission for Aviation Regulations’ recent consultation paper which proposes, amongst other options, the possible doubling of bonding requirements for both travel agents and tour operators as a result of the collapse of Low Cost Holidays in 2016.

Other forums will also consider relevant matters such as NDC (New Distribution Capability) and PCI compliance. The morning will finish with a market update presentation by Rebecca Kelly of MSC Cruises.

These sessions will be chaired in the morning by the following members of the Advisory Board, Michael Geraghty, Michael Bowe and Clare Dunne. After Lunch, the closed sessions will continue until the afternoon tea-break at 3.30 p.m. with brief presentations by Lorraine Quinn of Celebrity Cruises and possibly also Travelport, time permitting, after

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which the sessions will be open to other conference delegates such as suppliers. The final two presentations of the day will be made by Niamh Waters (bio sent previously — please also use two logos from last year’s programme) of Travel Media and Darren Murray and Alex Masterson of Travtab who have developed a new mobile app which enables agents to automate the process of clients making interim payments for their travel arrangements via their smart phones.

Other Presentations: MSC Cruises Rebecca Kelly Aer Lingus Yvonne Muldoon Royal Caribbean Jennifer Callister Celebrity Cruises Lorraine Quinn

(Friday @ 12.45) (Friday @ 20.45) (Saturday @ 12.45) (Saturday @ 14.30)

Niamh Waters Niamh Waters has been with TravelMedia.ie and www.

TravelTradeRepresentation.com for six years and is an Account Manager. Previously, she was Head of PR and Marketing at the flagship Irish department store Clerys, and prior to that, a Communications Executive at Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, where she specialised in crisis communications.

On a day-to-day basis, Niamh manages social media content creation, distribution and advertising for a number of worldwide travel brands and companies including airlines, hotels, tourist boards and CVBs, tour operators, travel agents and online travel providers. In addition to meeting the digital marketing needs of her clients, Niamh also speaks at conferences on the topic of social media and provides training for travel agencies in Ireland and the UK. To keep up to date with on-going changes in social media and digital marketing, Niamh attends world-renowned conferences including Social Media Marketing World in San Diego and Content Marketing World in Ohio.

Darren Murray Darren is the Co-Founder and COO of TravTab. Having worked in IBM for a number of years, he and business partner Alan Masterson started TravTab after experiencing a pain point after booking a holiday with a Travel Agency here in Ireland.

As someone that has always booked his holidays with a Travel Agent, he is loving every minute of working in the travel industry and engaging with travel agents. TravTabs’ goal is to improve travel agent’s overall customer experience by providing them with the technology to keep up to date with customer needs and saving agents valuable time to focus on revenue generating tasks. Darren has always loved travelling and fully believes in the travel agency booking experience. His favourite holiday destination to date is New York (at Christmas time).

Alan Masterson Alan Masterson is the CoFounder & CEO of TravTab. He first conceived the idea of TravTab shortly after booking a holiday and realized the need for a seamless mobile payment option for travel agencies.

From this, TravTab was formed along with business partner Darren Murray. Alan is excited to be a part of the travel industry and is thoroughly looking forward to working with Travel Centres going forward. Both Expedia and Etihad have introduced instalment-based plans for their customers in recent times, further validating the concept that underpins TravTab. TravTab is here to help you and your business as much as possible by providing all members with a state of the art mobile payment platform and mobile presence.

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THE LEGENDS The Legends bring Rock & Roll royalty to every performance they play. Having backed a roster of global superstars that include Hans Zimmer, Robert Plant, Rick Parfitt, Amy Macdonald, Lou Gramm, Mel C, Nick Kershaw, Belinda Carlisle, Ian Gillian, Dizzee Rascal, Girls Aloud, Sister Sledge, Mika and many more, the members of this group are seasoned road-warriors, and they’re bringing the party to you!

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… and as if that wasn’t enough, this year, Travel Centres bring you the world’s top Freddie Mercury tribute act along too! Hailed by audiences across the globe as the finest Freddie Mercury working today, Joseph Lee Jackson will bring all the songs, pomp and outrageous showmanship of rock music’s greatest lead vocalist in a show unlike any other.

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Hertz would like to welcome all delegates to the Mullingar Park Hotel for the Travel Centres Conference 2017.

Please feel free to contact our Travel Sales Team for any assistance you require providing support you will not find anywhere else!

Jason Shauna -

E: jkearns@hertz.ie T: +353 (0)53 915 2505 E: smullery@hertz.ie T: +353 (0)53 915 2553

hertz-gsa.ie 19

M: +353 (0)87 968 3953