10th Annual UNIGLOBE Travel Regional Conference creates the magic

The 10th Annual UNIGLOBE Travel Regional Conference and Excellence Awards were conducted recently at The Radisson Blu, Udaipur. Themed ‘Go for the Magic’ this year’s conference was hosted in the magnificent city of Udaipur, known for its lakes.

With over 300 UNIGLOBE Travel professionals attending, insightful education sessions and entertainment packed evenings, the two-day conference turned out to be a great event. UNIGLOBE Travel (South Asia), organizes the conference every year to support inter-agency networking, professional development and to build relationships with each other and with key suppliers from the South Asian region, as well as other parts of the globe.

The conference saw the unveiling of the first ever television commercial by UNIGLOBE Travel. Taglined, ‘Travel Simplified’, the commercial targets corporate and leisure travelers, positioning UNIGLOBE as travel procurement specialists, delivering high quality service and cost containment solutions to client.

“We are very excited as we cover another milestone by moving our brand story to the world of television, with a brand new hot-off-the-press TV commercial. The commercial effectively underlines how Uniglobe Travel, meets the needs of travellers and travel buyers, the UNIGLOBE Way - Travel Simplified,” says Ritika Modi, Regional President, UNIGLOBE Travel (South Asia).

Says Michelle Desreux, COO and Executive Director, UNIGLOBE Travel (South Asia), “Our theme for this year, ‘Go for the Magic’, was chosen to inspire UNIGLOBE Travel professionals to unleash the hidden potential of their mind to deliver magical services to our clients by using knowledge, skills, talents and the power of the UNIGLOBE system.”

The conference was marked by an array of educational, team building and experiential sessions. These included a session on the ‘Art of Persuasion’ by world renowned mentalist, Roy Zaltsman, where he shared techniques of persuasion that could be instrumental in effective client communication. His second session focused on ways of channelizing the power of the mind with the right effort for success in personal and professional lives. Another highlight of the conference was a session by celebrated actor, theatre artist and ad man, Bharat Dabholkar, that stressed on the significance of practice in a service driven industry like travel. His session where he also spoke about his journey to success, further inspired audiences to tread their own path of success.

Other insightful sessions at the conference included one by Michelle Desreux, COO and Executive Director, that focused on imparting the importance of understanding habits and using them effectively, and another by Amadeus, leading travel technology solutions company, that elaborated on the different segment of travelers and how technology was playing a role in simplifying travel for them.

Over 20 suppliers from different categories including leisure, technology, insurance, banks, hotels, airlines and destination management companies came together for The Supplier Showcase, that served as a platform for participants to establish, renew and build successful partnerships with their preferred suppliers and gain a better understanding of their offerings.

Top performing agencies were rewarded for achieving the organization’s highest standards of growth through professionalism and customer satisfaction at the conference. Awards for top-level sales and revenue growth achievements were given to the owners of UNIGLOBE member agencies from across the South Asia region. Also awarded were the top performing agency personnel for continually pushing the benchmark of excellence higher. The awards included recognition for Counselors, Managers, Sales, Accounts, Leisure and Facilitation personnel at various levels of performance assessment. The awards, organised by Tata AIG, saw the introduction of three new categories this year to include Manager Admin/HR, Manager Accounts, Manager Leisure making a total of 11 categories and 96 awards.

 “The two days at the conference have been both insightful and inspirational. After attending the conference, we are better positioned to make improvements that can make all difference and lead us towards greater success,” says, a UNIGLOBE agency owner.

The conference concluded with a gala dinner themed, ‘The Big Fat Indian Wedding’, preceded by a comical play, ‘Bottoms Up’, starring Anant Mahadevan, Jayati Bhatia and Bharat Dabholkar.