Hi Travel Edgers,
I hope you are all enjoying the summer, wherever you are. I saw firsthand how hard you all worked over the winter months, curating those amazing trips for your clients. Now that summer is here, I trust you are all managing some downtime for yourselves, whether it is to travel to new destinations or just hang out with family and friends. Personally, I am opting for the latter. Canadian summers are shorter than most, so taking advantage of the good weather is a must in July and August!!
It’s been a number of months since I last blogged about all things Travel Edge, and in that time, I have been travelling extensively. Here are some of the highlights:
Late April saw a quick visit to New York to have dinner with a key Travel Edge affiliate, Regal Wings - they focus on “front of the bus” air clients and have built a very solid business.
April also saw our inaugural TEN Advisory Board meeting. We thought it would be good practice to have a diverse cross section of ICs to represent the interests and collective feedback of all Travel Edgers. We decided to hold the first meeting in Toronto, as a number of Advisory Board members had either never been or not visited for a long time.
We had some excellent discussions, and the Advisory Board members gave us a lot of thoughtful and constructive feedback. Our next meeting is virtual, so please feel free to reach out to any of them with feedback. There is also room for one more member of the Advisory Board, so if you are interested in joining, please let Michelle Leal know.
I took off for some vacation time in early May with my family and we ended up enjoying an AMA Waterways River Cruise down the Danube. It was our first time river cruising and it was quite the experience - definitely a serene way of seeing diverse European cultures at their best. AMA runs a very good operation too!
I attended an Ensemble Top Performers’ trip, which took place in Paris while the French Open (Tennis) was happening in early June. Two of Ensemble’s Top Performers in Travel Edge last year were Roger Kershaw and Jenny Malka, and it was a pleasure to spend some quality time with them and with key suppliers.
On the subject of Ensemble, September is fast approaching, and this year’s Horizons conference takes place in Las Vegas from Sep 16th-20th. I did hear quite a bit of feedback about last year’s event and not all of it was good, especially around the choice of location. This year, the event takes place at Resort World, so the quality of accommodation will be much better. We are also hosting a pre-Horizons networking event on Sunday the 15th (dinner) and Monday the 16th (meeting and lunch) just for Travel Edge. I hope to see as many of you there as possible.
As I was already in Europe, it was a short trek to join the Silversea shake down of their latest ship, the Silver Ray. Although I have a background in travel, cruise was not part of my experiences, so hearing terms like “shake down” have been a whole new world for me. I had also never been to a naming ceremony for a new vessel before, so it was a fascinating couple of days. The Silver Ray, by the way, is an amazing ship, if you get the chance to experience it.
In June, Jeff hosted the Senior Executives from Navigatr Group in Jamaica. We reviewed plans for the new financial year and, as always, team building was in full force!!
More recently, we hosted a TEN social for ICs in Toronto…
and I swung by New York again and had a fantastic lunch with a group of amazing ICs.
I joined the new Head of Travel Edge Network, Kevin O’Brien, in NYC. Kevin had hosted a round table that morning and had his first feedback session directly from the people who curate the luxury trips that clients love so much.
I know he took a lot away from it and really enjoyed meeting everybody. In fact, Kevin will be very much engaging with Travel Edgers across the network, and so it makes sense that he takes over this blog moving forward. I will still be very much around and engaged with TEN, as it is the crown jewel of the businesses I run within Travel Edge.
Wishing you all a joyful remainder of the summer.
Very best,
Andy