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Welcome to the TATC Student Lounge!
The National Forum this year was fun and as always educational. We had some excellent speakers and the "think tank" discussion groups using the Six Thinking Hats concept was very successful. I am going to give you a quick overview of the forum and share some of the speakers comments.
Gail Han, CSP was the first speaker on Friday and really gave us all a boost of energy. Her topic was discussing how to have fun at work and practice safe stress! She discussed ways to improve your motivation, morale and meaning at work and how morale in the workplace can affect everyone's performance on the job.
Sam Bowers spoke on Saturday to discuss making a profit in a commodity world. Sam focused on the claim that the rise of Internet-savvy transactional oriented buyers signals the end of the traditional salesmanship, meaning we no longer sell, customer's buy! Customers are smarter and expect better, faster, cheaper products and services. Sam discussed e-commerce and the importance of your position on the Internet. You need to get your site in front of people and be on the top list to be seen. The more you are seen the better changes of people buying from you.
Barbara Stennes, CSP, Master Trainer was our speaker to teach the audience how to use the concept of the "Six Thinking Hats." I trained with Barbara prior to the forum to act as one of the discussion group leaders for the convention. I highly recommend you read this book written by Edward De Bono to learn how to use this concept. It is an excellent tool to use when conducting meetings, making decisions or leading discussion groups. It gives everyone the opportunity to "think" and share their feelings and opinions on topics. Read the book to get a good understanding of the concept but here is a basic introduction to how it works:
Each colored hat represents a certain type of thinking. It is up to the facilitator (blue hat) to manage the meeting and set the color of hats to be used at certain times. A topic is given and the facilitator will direct the color of thinking. Everyone will be give a few minutes to think about the topic and the color hat to be discussed and then everyone is given the opportunity to share one idea or thought. Here are the hat colors and what they represent:
BLUE HAT
 | The facilitator |
| Organizes the thinking process |
| Control |
| Gives next steps and offers overview |
| Opens and closes the meeting |
White Hat
| Information only |
| Neutral & objective |
| Proven facts |
| Facts believed to be true |
RED HAT
| Feelings |
| Emotions |
| Intuition |
| Emotional view |
| Usually given in one word feelings (Example: love it, undecided, etc.) |
BLACK HAT
| Cautious and careful |
| The negative |
| Risk assessment |
| Somber and serious |
YELLOW HAT
| Sunny and positive |
| Optimistic |
| Benefits & value |
| Positive thinking |
Green Hat
| New ideas |
| Creativity |
| Energy |
| Options & alternatives |
The topics we used in our discussion groups were:
1. Telecommuting in the travel industry.
2. Adding value in the travel industry.
3. Recruiting and compensating in the travel industry.
4. Staying profitable in the travel industry.
The Travel Institute will be posting all of our ideas on these topics and when they are available I will let you know!
The convention ended with the president of The Travel Institute reviewing some of the changes and new products being added to the programs. The new Destination Specialist programs that will soon be available are:
| Mexico |
| Bahamas |
| New York City |
| Italy |
| China |
| Egypt |
| London |
| Paris |
A new industry certification will be available next year, the Certified Travel Industry Executive (CTIE). This will be available to industry executives with 10 years experience in an executive position with 5 years in the travel industry.
The Certified Destination Specialist programs are being well received and will only be available for destination specific programs, for example, Hawaii, St. Lucia, Paris, etc.
You can learn more about all of the programs at www.thetravelinstitute.com
The Travel Agent Training Center will be adding online study options for all of The Travel Institute programs in the near future. Now available online is the Hawaii DS and CTA. Coming soon will be the Caribbean DS, St. Lucia DS and Alaska DS.
9/25/2004
Destination of the Month!
Arizona
The destination of the month will feature my visit to Arizona for the National Forum. After the forum was over, we took off to explore the Grand Canyon and Sedona. It was about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon with a beautiful drive from Flagstaff to the Canyon. Once we arrived we went straight to the view area and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. It almost doesn't look real when you look out over the canyon! We went to the Visitor Center to become familiar with the canyon and areas we could explore. We drove the east rim and stopped along the way at all of the viewing points.
We stayed at the Yavapai Lodge which is closest to the Visitor Center and outside of the Village. I liked this location because the hotels in the village can get crowded. The canyon has a paved trail you can walk around the rim starting from the Village taking you to the viewing area at the Visitor Center. We got up early to watch the sunrise one morning and walked the trail for about an hour. We did not want to do any hiking in the canyon (the trails can be steep!) so we went into the Kaibab National Forest and did our hiking. We found an Indian cave with petroglyphs and spend some time cooling off. We hiked here for about two hours and enjoyed the scenery the forest had to offer.
We enjoyed dinner both nights in the Village at the Arizona Room. It is located right on the rim so the view was spectacular. We had an early dinner then walked the rim watching the sunset. We visited some of the gift shops and viewed the beautiful turquoise jewelry and Indiana arts and crafts.
When we left the Grand Canyon we headed towards Sedona traveling I-40 W to Hwy 89A by way of Jerome. The mountain road to Jerome was a beautiful drive but very winding! A 158 curves in 12 miles! Needless to say my husband keep his eyes on the road while I enjoyed the views! Jerome is an old, restored ghost town and is a tourist stop to enjoy the many shops and restaurants.
We finally arrived Sedona and after checking into our hotel, we went for a hike at Bell Rock Canyon. I have been to Sedona before and absolutely love it here. The red rocks are spectacular and the hiking is great. We took a hike in the State Park the morning before we left. Sedona also has lots of shops with southwestern art, pottery and jewelry. We always stop at one shop to explore and this time we bought some of the peppers!
Below are some pictures from my trip, so enjoy!
The Grand Canyon
Sedona
9/25/2004
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