Sandals Unveiling trade show
Adam Stewart, CEO, Sandals Resorts with Toronto Raptors dancers and mascot
Someone told me that Sandals is a cult.
Someone actually said that to me last night at Sandals’ Unveiling event and it seemed fitting because the vibe inside Mississauga’s Sheraton Conference Centre definitely had that “devoted believer” feel to it.
The guests in attendance seemed hypnotized by everything that the Sandals, Beaches & Grand Pineapple Beach folks had to say… and they sure do know how to put on an enticing show.
As soon as I walked into the conference centre I felt enmeshed in the Sandals spirit. Colourful, ceiling-high banners towered over the travel agents as they bustled from display to display picking up brochures and taking notes. The various resort properties and their representatives promoted everything to the max: honeymoon packages, family entertainment, culinary experiences, new Red Lane spa treatments, romantic ‘Love Nests’ and the new Sandals LaSource Grenada resort as well as the Sandals Barbados resort – which will open in January 2015.
The tradeshow displays led to the banquet hall that was covered in more colourful banners boasting more Sandals properties and slogans. Music blasted throughout the room as guests made their way in for dinner. The stage was front and centre and included a backdrop splashed with Sandals and Beaches logos – this is where the charismatic preaches, I mean speeches, took place. Some of the Toronto Raptors dancers, as well as the mascot, were at the event to help whip the crowd into a frenzy. It’s hard not to be hypnotized.
Perhaps the most captivating figures of the Sandals clan from last night were Gary Sadler and Adam Stewart. What sermons delivered! The agents seemed so in awe that I was sure someone was going to shout out ‘hallelujah.’
Listen to Stewart: “When we get a call to come and pay our respects to the travel agents we have to respond. We must respond because it’s the travel agent community that 1st made Sandals a success… it was the travel agent community that made Sandals effectively become a stable organization, put us in the black and built us to what we are today. So give yourself a round of applause.” …And they did just as their leader told them to.
