Hank Oostveen, V.P. Supplier & Agency Relations, with some of the Uniglobe staff
Silk Holidays' Johnny Chan and Kenny Fan, with Tourism Malaysia's Haydn Aman
Azmina Pirani and Chi Pham, Bestway Tours & Safaris
Inspired and feeling good about oneself – that was the main thrust of the keynote speech at this year’s Uniglobe Travel (Western Canada) Spring Conference held at the Sheraton Wall Centre in Vancouver April 27th -29th.
In his “It’s All About The Small Stuff” speech, Kelowna-based motivational speaker Hugh Culver gave attendees some things to think about in terms of positive attitude that would equate to personal happiness and satisfaction.
According to Uniglobe V.P. Hank Oostveen, “In terms of personal development, we want people to strive for excellence and learn new things about themselves. And what you can do to make yourself happy.”
Besides creating happy folks, Oostveen said that the conference was all about educating travel professionals and delegates were provided with in-depth specialist training sessions.
At this conference there were 205 delegates comprising owners, managers and consultants. Part of the conference included an oversubscribed supplier trade show featuring 82 exhibitors including Jamaica, Malaysia and Mexico tourist boards; cruise lines; airlines AC, EK, VS and WS and a host of other sellers.
Recognition awards were given out to mark both individual and company excellence during the gala dinner on Saturday evening.
Back to the part about making people happy. An Elvis impersonator rocked the Friday night “Viva Las Vegas” party. Apparently a great time was had by all as people couldn’t stop talking about it during the trade show on Saturday!
Uniglobe must be doing it right as this was one of the few conferences where the general overall atmosphere was one of professional well-being. Judging from the enthusiastic crowd, Elvis could still have been in the building. Delegates left the conference pumped and eagerly awaiting next year’s edition. The 2013’s conference is slated to be held in either Calgary or Vancouver.