Freedom - Conference 2013

“Share Today - Succeed Tomorrow”

Conference 2013 Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow. 30th November – 1st December.

Thank you to our Headline Sponsors…

Alison Holmes Head of The Freedom Travel Group & The Co-operative Personal Travel Advisors On behalf of the team a very warm welcome to the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow, the venue for this year’s 2013 combined Freedom Travel Group and The Co-operative Personal Travel Advisors conference. We have chosen Glasgow this year, as the venue for our conference, as we have never before held the conference in Scotland, so in order to recognise those members and homeworkers who are based in Scotland, we have come north of the border.

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and is the Scottish city with the highest population density with 3,395 people per square kilometre. Also, Glasgow has also been awarded ‘Top Intelligent Community of the Year!’ and we shall be sampling the delights of Glasgow city centre during our dine arounds of the various restaurants on Saturday night.

Our conference theme this year is ‘Share today – Succeed tomorrow’ which reflects the feedback received from our focus groups during the year, in terms of the agenda for the conference. As you continue to adapt your business to keep up with our fast paced industry, the conference is a great opportunity to network and chat with colleagues and suppliers, experiencing the same challenges as yourselves. We understand that the most important part of our conference is your opportunity to network and therefore you will notice, there is less time allocated to listening to speakers in business sessions, but more networking opportunities, both with colleagues and suppliers. In place of the breakout sessions, we will be holding ‘The Travel Trail Challenge’, which I am sure you will enjoy. The supplier meeting zone will not have the usual appointments this year, but will be free for you to mingle and meet suppliers during Saturday afternoon and during the coffee breaks, which will ensure you get the time and opportunity to meet everyone.

In addition, presentations will include a panel debate, updates and talks from a couple of external speakers.

Once again a huge thank you goes to all our 50+ suppliers who have very kindly offered their generous support again this year. As you know, the conference would not be possible without their support, so please ensure you make the most of the networking opportunities with our key business partners, throughout the 2 day conference.

As a team, we have certainly experienced some changes this year, the main one being the combined management team for our two specialist businesses, but as there are many synergies in our two businesses, this is working well and we are enjoying having a much larger team offering you the support you need from us, so over the next 2 days, hopefully you will get the opportunity to meet as many of the management team as possible.

Myself and my team are looking forward to catching up with you all over the weekend and I hope the more relaxed approach to the sessions this year, will enable us to do just that. I wish you all a very successful conference, with some fun along the way.

Thank you for joining us and your continued support.

Best wishes

Meet the Team...

Paul Hemmingway Commercial Director

Kelly Cookes Relationship Manager

Jason Williams Suzanne Brunt Business Development Manager Business Development Manager North East South West

Rhian Herbert Business Development Manager North West

Rachel Wood Business Development Manager South East

Richard Simpson Compliance Manager

Tracy Goodman Media Trading Manager

Jo Welling Project Manager

Steve Riley Operations Manager

Colin Williamson Operations Team Manager

Paul Storey Operations Team Manager

Karen Hodgin Operations Team Manager

Jo Turney Supplier Relations Manager

Diane Lander Supplier Relations Manager

DAY 1 – SATURDAY 30TH NOVEMBER 2013 Dress Code: Smart Casual 11:00

Arrive and check in Luggage will be stored until rooms are available Registration will be open in the reception area of the Crowne Plaza Hotel Tea & Coffee will be available upon arrival

12:00

Lunch - Served in the One Restaurant - Hot Table Selection

13:00

Tea & Coffee available - The Argyle Suite Foyer

13:30

Welcome address - The Argyle Suite - Closed Session Alison Holmes Head of The Freedom Travel Group & The Co-operative Personal Travel Advisors

14:00

Update from Paul Hemingway - Closed Session Commercial Director - Thomas Cook Group

14:15

Headline Sponsor Presentation - Closed Session Damian McDonough Director - Bedbank/Transfers4Travel

14:45

‘Who’d be a Travel Agent?’ - Open Session Ian Taylor - Session Moderator Executive Editor - Travel Weekly Panel debate discussing how to overcome the challenges of today’s ever changing travel industry.

Panel to include:-

David Hoyle Co-operative Personal Travel Advisors

Paul Dale Specialist Retail Group Manager Anglia Co-operative Society

Andrew Earle Andrew Earles World of Travel

15:30

Business Partner Networking (incorporating afternoon tea & coffee) The Argyle Suite Foyer

17:30

Day 1 Close

19:45

Transfers to Dine-arounds venues - Dress Code: Smart/Casual Departing times: 19:45 Urban & Zizzi 20:15 The Corinthian Club & Metropolitan

Peter Healey Chief Executive Office Vertical Group

22:30-00:00 Transfers to the Crowne Plaza Hotel will commence - half hourly intervals

Dine-around details The venues for Dine-around and our sponsors...

Freedom & CPTA venue: The Corinthian Club

Sponsored by:

Freedom & CPTA venue: Metropolitan Bar

Sponsored by:

Freedom & CPTA venue: Urban Bar & Brasserie

Sponsored by:

Business Partner Venue: Zizzi - Royal Exchange Square

Sponsored by:

DAY 2 – SUNDAY 1ST DECEMBER 2013 Breakfast at leisure from 7:00am 09:45

‘The Travel Trail Challenge’ briefing - The Argyle Suite - Open Session Please note: warm clothes and comfortable footwear required

12:45

Lunch - Served in the One Restaurant - Hot Table Selection Kindly sponsored by Regent Seven Seas Cruises

14:00

Operational Update - The Argyle Suite - Closed Session Steve Riley Altrincham Head Office - Operations Manager

14:20

Understanding our customers attitudes & booking trends - Open Session Richard Cope Director of Insight & Trends - Mintel

15:00

Tea & Coffee Break The Argyle Suite Foyer

15:20

Headline Sponsor Presentation - The Argyle Suite - Closed Session Carla Ball Sales Promotion Manager - Fred Olsen Cruise Lines

15:50

Great Rail Journeys, kind sponsor of our keynote speaker Tony Byrne National Sales Manager

16:00

Gerald Ratner - Keynote Speaker - Open Session British Businessman and jewellery retailer who came back from disaster Won - lost and won again - A man who understands the tough business world and how to overcome adversity.

16:50

Conference Close - Open Session Alison Holmes An overview and closing remarks on this year’s conference

19:00

Pre dinner drinks sponsored by Attraction World Presented by LA Bar The Argyle Suite Foyer

20:00

Gala dinner & Entertainment - The Argyle Suite Dress code for Gala Dinner is Black Tie/Cocktail dresses Carriages: 2:00am

This year’s Key Note speakers...

Gerald Ratner British businessman and jewellery retailer who came back from disaster.

Gerald Ratner is a British businessman and household name who knows all about overcoming setbacks and recovering from disaster.

As CEO of the family jewellery firm Ratners, he was at the top of his game before losing it all with a jokey remark about the quality of one of his products.

Learning to accept tough lessons and having the strength to get back in the game are what sets Gerald Ratner apart and have put him on the road to success once again with a new jewellery business Gerald online.

Won - lost and won again - a man who understands the tough business world and how to overcome adversity.

Ian Taylor Ian Taylor is executive editor of Travel Weekly Group, reporting online and in print for Travel Weekly and Travel Weekly Business:am, and producing the monthly Travel Weekly Insight.

He is a career journalist who has worked in travel for most of the last 15 years.

Ian helped to devise the scenarios for the industry’s Tourism 2023 project. He has extensive freelance experience on newspapers and magazines.

Richard Cope Richard has ten years' experience at Mintel and excels in identifying consumer trends and applying them for clients. As Managing Editor, he has been leading our Mintel Futures project, identifying those meta trends that will impact most on consumers worldwide over the next 5 to 10 years, and he is currently engaged in personally delivering this on site to our clients.

In his client work, Richard has worked on projects exploring everything from how to engage young people in retirement planning, to the untapped opportunities of reality TV advertising and the futures of wine retailing, coffee shops and the automotive industry.

A regular speaker, he has been a key presenter at Mintel London’s ‘Big Conversation’ client events, presenting alongside guests such as GQ Editor Dylan Jones and M&S’s Director of Communications Dominic Fry. He has also delivered bespoke conference presentations for the Association of Publishing Agencies, Brand Republic, the Financial Services Forum and Homes & Gardens magazine and represented Mintel at conferences in Philadelphia, Aruba and Whistler. Richard has been commissioned to write trend articles for the Financial Services Forum’s Argent and fashion publication Viewpoint and delivered the keynote consumer features for Mintel’s inaugural book Loop.