TDC’s national conference spotlights personal development

Transat Distribution Canada (TDC)’s National Leadership Conference is on now, running through March 27.

Hosted at the Club Med Magna Marbella, on the Spanish Costa del Sol, the event has attracted owners and managers of franchised and affiliated agencies of the TDC network, the regional managers of Transat/Travel agencies, the members of the TDC management team and many preferred partners.

The kick-off was given by TDC General Manager Karine Gagnon at a welcome cocktail on March 23, hosted by Manulife, in the presence of all the participants, special partners, and speaker and executive coach Cloé Caron. “It’s always exciting to feel the energy of everyone together, and this year, with this revamped version, it’s particularly exhilarating,” said Gagnon. “We focused on three main elements to maximize the experience of each participant: individual reflection on business objectives, a longer conference to better structure their reflection, and the ongoing support and advice of our executive coach Cloé Caron.”

Personal and professional development

Gagnon reiterates the fundamental importance of personal and professional development at TDC.

“Each of our members is different, none has the same profile or the same business needs. So, we had to refine our approach even further to equip them so that they could specifically get what they needed from this event. We, therefore, offered them a virtual reflection session, combined with a Playbook, a follow-up document allowing participants to collect their thoughts via a structured approach, reviewed and approved by our coach Cloé Caron.”

A la carte meetings

The first day of activities was largely devoted to Partners Business Reviews, individual meetings between owners and managers and preferred partners.

“Allowing these players to meet, to take stock together of the state of their business relationship, and above all, how they can improve it to achieve their mutual objectives, is high on our agenda this year. The reason is simple: selling travel products is the basis of what we do,” said Gagnon. “These business reviews have been planned and thought out in advance by both parties, to be as beneficial as possible. Our wish is that everyone comes away with a clear action plan to optimize the business relationship, and if I trust the feedback from yesterday’s corridor, we have achieved our objective.”

In order to maximize participants’ time, business partner reviews are presented alternately with TDC Talks, short presentations in the style of TED Talks, as well as individual meetings with members of the TDC leadership team for those who wish to do so. The management of all these time slots is greatly facilitated by the brand-new Go TDC mobile event application, in which each participant has access to their personalized schedule.

Any TDC event obviously involves Transat.

“As always, we were able to count on the presence of Joseph Adamo, president of TDC and Transat’s chief sales and marketing officer, and by far TDC’s most important business partner, who gave us a high-level update on the company’s activities,” the general manager said.

Adamo placed particular emphasis on the evolution of Air Transat’s fleet and airline network, the scope of the Transat brand in the market, and the impact this brand has on the travel agency network, not to mention the importance of customer loyalty in today’s competitive environment.

This close relationship between the two organizations is also embodied by the on-site presence of several Transat expert managers, who make their knowledge and expertise available to the owners and managers of the TDC network, by acting as speakers or being available for individual meetings. This is the case of Renée Boisvert, Vice-President, Tour Operator Products and Sales, Alain Brouillard, Senior Director of finance, and Julie Bilodeau, Senior Director of organizational Development and Talent Management.