After visiting my dad in Lexington, KY at the end of November, it was good to have the rest of the Thanksgiving Holiday at home with the kids.  We mostly spent putting up our extensive Christmas display which took a long time since Cathy was home at her family farm in The Poconos hunting with her dad, which has been her tradition every year since childhood.

As I looked at my travel schedule which had me crisscrossing the continent for four stops in 9 days, conducting training on 7 of those and working all the way, rather than stressing out about the travel and time away during this busy holiday season I decided to count some blessings.  First, that we at KTN were fortunate enough to have so many clients in such bad economic times when training is the usually the first thing to get cut.  In looking at my client list that week I realized that I have some of the most excellent lodging companies in the business and it reminded me that the best in any field always reach for even higher goals, especially when under adversarial conditions.  Besides having dedicated clients in a down market, I also felt blessed to coming off the road for the rest of the month once I was back home in Fort Lauderdale with my immediate family for the holidays.

My first stop took me to a city I’ve always loved, San Diego, to train the reservations team at the soon-to-open Hotel Setai, which was yet another Gemstone property we were adding to our client list.  Since the hotel wasn’t opened yet I ended up staying at the San Diego Marriott thanks to my wife Cathy’s career and Marriott’s Friends and Family rate, I had a great room and view as well. The next morning Sausha Sherbin, the Corporate Director of Training for Gemstone Hotels & Resorts, who I’d met in October at another engagement, picked me up personally at my hotel and brought me to the training site at Hotel Setai.  While I thought this was a nice gesture, I appreciated it even more when we got there as the hotel was still very much in the final stages of construction and pre-opening and it was challenging to find your way around.

Despite all the would-be distractions, it was great have such a terrific group of participants for the reservations SAILS training workshop I was to present over the next two days.  Pre-openings are always such an exciting atmosphere, and it was clear that Gemstone was right on-track with this opening and that they had done the best job at recruiting and selecting just the right team.  Here’s a picture of me with the reservations team at the Hotel Setai that day:

                               

After finishing my workshop I made my usual mad dash to the airport to hop the very next flight home to Hollywood/Ft. Lauderdale.  Arriving home after 1am didn’t leave much time to unpack and re-pack for my next trip, but I was glad to be back in town as I had an extremely important duty to fulfill the next day. By 8am I was reporting for duty at Hollywood Hills Elementary, where I am only one of a few male volunteers who has gone through the necessary level two security background authorization process necessary.  Since our school board requires male chaperones on every field trip, it was important reason for me to be there.  But an even more important reason is that Julia really wanted me to do this.  As it turned out it was me who benefited the most as it turned out to be quite memorable.  The field trip was for their 5^th grade chorus to go and sing at the laceType w:st="on">Ft.laceType> Lauderdale/Hollywood airport; coincidentally they were performing at the same terminal which I was scheduled to fly out of right after school!  It was so enjoyable to hear them perform their holiday songs for the passing travelers, which surprisingly many stopped to listen to.  Now every time I walk past Terminal 1 I’ll have fond memories of that day.  Here’s a picture of me with some of Julia’s closest classmates that day:

                                    

After taking the bus back to school I hoped back into the minivan and headed back to the same terminal for my next stop, which was a non-stop Southwest flight to Norfolk followed by a two hour drive to the Outer Banks.  The road was familiar and thankfully the weather cooperated and the cold didn’t shock my Florida blood too much and the roads and traffic were clear.  But still I was definitely feeling the jet lag and lack of sleep.  So as I pulled up to the Duck office of Twiddy & Company I was both honored and especially relieved to be greeted personally by Clark Twiddy, their Director of Operations.  Although I’d known Twiddy & Co. for years through various associations as one of the top-tier vacation home rental companies in the Outer Banks, I’d only met Clark briefly once before.  As I worked with him to finalize plans for this engagement I sensed he was a special person, but as the three day visit progressed I realized he and his entire family truly understand they are in the hospitality business.  It’s not just a commitment made on some poster at a staff retreat, but something they live every day.

After taking me out themselves my first full evening there, the executive team had scheduled this special dinner for me on the second night to be able to spend time with some of their supervisors and assistant managers who are the foundation of the future.  We had a wonderful diner at the very best local fine dining spot, and Patrick our waiter (pictured far left) had us all enthralled with his stories of growing up in the mountains of Jamaica.  Turns out he had also worked at my next stop, The Breakers of Palm Beach, which made it that much more interesting for me. Here’s a picture of us that evening:

On the very last stop I had a wrap up meeting with their executive team, including Jon Summerton, Vice President, Laura, their IT Director, and others.  Afterwards I had just enough time to snap this picture of myself with the Twiddy family pictured here (from left): Clark Twiddy, Director of Operations, Sharon Twiddy, co-founder, Ross Twiddy, Director of Marketing, and Doug Twiddy, company founder and President:
             
                                 

Just a few days after this picture was snapped Clark Twiddy was headed back to Afghanistan for his second tour with the U.S. Military Special Forces.  Being in the Reserve, Clark was very enthusiastic about having been recalled and dedicated to his mission.  Clark, know that we appreciate all that you’re doing over there for our country and the world and we wish you Godspeed.  I look forward to tipping back another Bud Lite and taking you up on the offer to do some fishing when you’re back home soon enough!

The weather was even better for my drive back to Norfolk and my last airplane trip for the year, which was to conduct reservations sales consulting and training for The Venetian in Las Vegas.  It’s always exciting to arrive in Las Vegas just to be around the energy of the city, and although I was dragging a bit upon arrival I found it hard to go right to sleep.  But after taking in just a quick walk on The Strip I decided to turn in for the night as there were two more days of training ahead.

Thanks to the time change I managed to get a good nights sleep and was very energized to begin my day of consulting with a meeting with Mark Molinari, their Executive Director of Revenue Management & Strategic Marketing.  I’d met Mark a few years back at one of our HSMAI Revenue Management functions when I was the advisor to the association, and we’d stayed in touch by phone over time.  When I was last in Las Vegas we were able to meet, and Mark was very excited about our contemporary new reservations sales training approach. 

As I began my day of consulting for this, the world’s largest hotel, it was clear that this was also one of the very best run companies in the industry too.  Not only to they have the best systems, technology, and product possible, but also some of the best people too.  The  next day I conducted a train-the-trainer program for their reservations managers and departmental trainers.  It was amazing to see how much Mark carved out time to participate personally as he was there most of the day, despite all that was going on in this busy hotel.   Here’s a picture I took the first night outside The Venetian, along with a picture of me with the group that day.  (Unfortunately Mark wasn't there for the picture.)

                     

Again the alarm went off way too early but it didn’t matter, as I was finally headed back home to Florida through New Years.  Again my timing was perfect as my two-day pit-stop in the office also coincided with the date for my son Adam’s school holiday concert.  When I saw how much he actually performed the songs, to the delight of his wonderful music teacher Mrs. Million, I was so glad not to have missed it.  Adam is in the middle of this picture below doing the gestures:

                                

My last training engagement of the year was thankfully very close to home, as I was headed back to The Breakers in Palm Beach which is only a 45 minute drive where I was to conduct a Saturday workshop for the entire 20 person reservations team.  Having stayed there in October with Cathy I knew it was going to be a great guest experience.  Thanks to the incredible hospitality extended by my client contact, Jim Mostad, we also had a special family weekend.  Since Jim really needed a Saturday training I had fairly warned him that there were some strings attached in that the only Saturday I had left was my daughter’s 11^th birthday, which traditionally includes a sleepover with some of her closest friends.  Jim was extremely accommodating as not only did we have a two-bedroom, ocean front suite, he also invited us to dinner in their family-oriented Italian restaurant located right next to the kid’s activity center.  Here’s a picture of Cathy and I with the kids that day.

                                  

After the kids quickly consumed their food and headed back to the interactive play area Cathy and I were able to catch up on all that had happened while she was home hunting with her dad on her family farm in The Poconos and while I’d been on the road. The next morning I headed down to train, while Cathy ensured that Julia and her entourage had a wonderful day celebrating her birthday.  They even stopped by the workshop and offered a “focus group” of input about The Breakers from the grade schooler’s perspective.  The celebration continued the rest of the weekend when I was done with work. 

What a fun group of people they have on their reservations sales team at The Breakers. Their enthusiasm just resonated back with me that much more, which was really nice since most of them had given up their Saturday day off during the busy holiday season to be there with me.  I was especially grateful for such an energetic group at the end of such a long stretch of training.  Here’s a picture of me with the group that day: