After playing catch-up in the office Saturday morning, having “date night” with Cathy on Saturday, and spending all day Sunday with the kids, I was back on another flight, this time a non-stop to San Juan, where I was to be a guest speaker at their SKAL meeting. SKAL club is an older, well-established tourism organization that brings together the hoteliers, transportation companies, excursion companies, attractions, restaurants, and other industry players for social and educational programming.
This booking was exciting because it was a result of my speech to the Caribbean Hotel Association’s annual meeting this past June in Miami. Right afterwards I had been approached by a gentleman named Hans-Georg Rohrbein, who asked for my business card and said he’d be calling. Sure enough a week or two later he did, and this event was set. Turns out it was the first event in some time for this SKAL chapter, which Hans-Georg is re-starting. I have always thought that the wisest hoteliers participate actively in their area tourism events, as “the rising tide floats all boats,” and the real competitors are not the hotel down the road or across the street. I’ve seen personally how some destinations pull together to promote tourism collectively, and the long-term advantages of doing so, and it was great to support Hans-Georg’s efforts.
After an empty and non-eventful flight and short taxi ride, I found myself checking in to the San Jan Marriott at about 10pm, only to find plenty going on. Walking in the doors I was allured by the drums of a hot salsa band, which was performing in the lobby bar as dozens of couples danced to the latin beat. Made me miss Cathy, and also made me wish we could get back to taking the dance lesson we took before our wedding last year. After check-in a observed a few songs from the back, and even visited their casino where I played an entire role of quarters before retiring to my room to watch the waves from my balcony and drift off to sleep.
The next morning I was up early and soon greeting the participants of the SKAL meeting as they arrived for a trendy breakfast refreshment break and some great coffee. Here is a picture of me with Hans-Georg Rohrbein followed by one from the view just outside our meeting room (didn’t I want to stay!):
I was to be the first of two speakers that day, and after I saw the second presenter – my friend John Fareed – I was glad to have gone first! I have known John for some time know through our mutual affiliation with HSMAI and also as presenters at some of the same meetings, such as the HSMAI Caribbean Hotels Strategy Conference, but I’d never seen him present. What an informative, enlightening and educational presentation he gave based on trends in the industry and also on marketing dynamics for various “generational marketing” trends. John was incredibly funny, engaging, energetic, and entertaining, and his research only lent credibility to my message about how we need a new approach to sales training for today’s over-informed, multi-tasking callers with way too many choices.
The best part was that afterwards John and I got to share a cab back to the airport, and due to my flight delay, he even bought me lunch. We found that we share an incredible bond as entrepreneurs who have seen the tides rise, fall and rise again, that we both have wonderful wives we adore, and that we are both blessed with imaginative, strong-willed 8 year old boys! We are certain to be good friends for years to come, and I look forward to the day I make a blog entry about how our son’s met and interacted. Here’s my picture with John:
After two nights at home it was time for another trip, but this one was almost a commute since I only had to drive over to Naples, FL. I’m always happy to take this drive, especially this time since I was to be training the agents from Premier Resorts, who have been through my training at least 4 or 5 times. The pressure was really one even more than usual to bring value, as I felt personally indebted to my dear friends Hilary Young and Josie Minnie, their managers, who had so graciously arranged for the luxury condos for our summer vacation this year (see Naples, July 2007). Not to mention that they have some of the best imaginable agents, which always raises my bar to the next level. I was very relieved and happy that day when Bob, one of their top agents and if you ask me as good as any in the business, said it had been my best yet! Here’s my picture with the group that day:
Thankfully after this booking I had a week in the office to make final arrangements to launch my new two-day Reservations SAILS Trainer “Boot Camp” seminar, as I ended up needing the extra time to put all the finishing touches on the content and materials. Despite that this program simply pulled together all of my exiting content, it was a major endeavor design the agenda, collateral, etc… It was a good reminder that we trainers tend to under-estimate the time required for proper instructional design. Since I ended up working late the days prior to the training, it was perfect that I’d scheduled the launch of this program to be a specialized training for resort vacation property rental clients offered at the hotel adjacent to my offices in downtown Hollywood, FL.
For me, it was a strange dynamic the next morning as I was the one who had slept in my own bed, while the participants were the ones who had traveled-in, which is usually the opposite, and I was excited that numerous members of our own KTN team would also be able to participant. What a pleasure it was when the participants themselves started arriving, as each and every one seemed enthusiastic and eager to be there. Over the next two days we covered not only the sales and hospitality/service programs, but also how to measure the results and recognize/incentivize success. The participants had great input and each brought a unique perspective. I must admit it was also great socializing with everyone on the night of Day One, when Colleen, Heidi, and I from KTN got to take them to some of our favorite bars and restaurants. Rumor has it that there’s some incriminating photos of me dancing to “Play That Funky Music” at O’Hara’s pub that night, but they haven’t surfaced yet. The only downside was that my Cathy was out of town unexpectedly, so she didn’t get to join us. Here’s a picture of me with the group that day, Colleen Tuttle is on the far left:
