It may not be the biggest conference for travel agents but the passion present at ATAC’s Future Focus Conference was palpable as members, suppliers and special guests enjoyed the three-day event at the luxurious The Langham on the Gold Coast.

While the Board held its meeting on Thursday afternoon, visitors were welcomed with drinks on arrival at the impressive Gold Coast hotel’s conference centre foyer on Thursday night before attendees got down to business on Friday, starting with a yoga session for those keen enough.

The conference opening by ATAC chair Jack Taylor gave a taste of things to come, while Experience Gold Coast boss John Warn showcased the region with some astounding tourism numbers. Taylor would later follow up with a major announcement, the ATAC brand would be getting a major refresh to encourage new members to join.

ATAC reveals major brand refresh to help drive quality membership

While Taylor declined to offer exact member numbers, or new targets, he said a 10 per cent volume increase would total just eight members.

“The broader picture here remains that you don’t need to compete with Helloworld, Flight Centre, you don’t,” Taylor told Travel Weekly. “You need to know what the value proposition you have to folks in the industry are and what outcome that can be. And through quality partnership … that levels the playing field and gives equal respect to people.

“You’re never going to get a quantitative approach from ATAC, but you will get a qualitative approach. So again, it’s acknowledging that while the bigger end can do quantity, because there’s natural quality within a larger quantity, we just focus on that quality path, which is not the easier path by any means, but it’s certainly a more fruitful path for an organization of our size.”

Taylor also reaffirmed that despite securing big deals with the likes of Helloword’s Air Tickets, ATAC was not for sale, being fully owned by its members.

ATAC Future Focus Conference opens at The Langham, Gold Coast

Conference speaker highlights were many – and instructive – and included an excellent panel on using Virtual Assistants, with panellists Kirsty Eccles of Meridien Travel & Cruise and Holly Velardo from Holly Day Travel, plus real life VA ATAC’s own Chii Tseng-Macaraig, who travelled to Australia from the Philippines for the first time. Tseng-Macaraig explained first-hand the benefits it brought both to her, to ATAC and to its members, Eccles said “I should have done it five years ago”, while Velardo offered insights into selection of a VA and practical training.

If data security has you worried and if you haven’t done anything about it, then you probably need to worry more and do something, advised Jess Dodson, senior cloud solution architect at Microsoft. Dodson did not use purple prose when she shared what scammers can do to unprotected systems and data, either yours or your clients. It even prompted us to check our security status.

ATAC chair Jack Taylor at Saturday night’s gala dinner.

Another excellent panel which focused on tapping into the youth market was the very-switched on Gemma Boyd, TTC’s Queensland South and Far North sales manager, who urged those in the room to tap into TikTok if they wanted to continue in business, especially if they had clients already in the 65-plus age bracket. Plus she invited those present to participate in a Tik-Tok of the whole event.

There was also an earlier ATIA update and presentations from major sponsors, including Singapore Airlines and Expedia with presenting suppliers including Air Tickets, AmaWaterways, The Travel Corporation, VIVA Holidays, Beyond Travel, Scenic and Intrepid.

New year’s three-day conference is heading to Adelaide.

ATAC shout out to Women in Travels awards

At Saturday night’s gala dinner, Taylor also gave a huge shout-out to the five ATAC members who were named as finalists in the Travel Weekly Women in Travels awards which coming up on December 4. Buy your tickets HERE.

Travel Weekly editor Grant Jones with Women in Travel Finalists: (from left) Kelly Smith, Room Res; Kylie Wapp, Anzcro; ATAC’s Holly Velardo, Holly Day Travel; Liz Beattie, Amadeus; and Kristy Moore, Travel Moore.

10 ATAC ‘high flyers’ were also announced on Saturday night:

Meridian Travel – Kirsty Eccles and Jodie Quick

Mr Chocolates Travel – Rebecca Mason (not in attendance)

Travel Studio/Travel Masters – Neil Kirby and Julie Marshall

Colosseum Travel – Danijela Petrovic

National Warrnambool Travel – Virginia Paton

Cruise Express – Meg Hill

Esplanade Travel – Michelle Watts

The Travel Bug – Melanie Web and Julia Blanche

Holiday and Cruise Centre – Nicole King

Travel Insights – Belinda Galenti

They shared in a array of prizes, provided by sponsors and suppliers.

And the winner of the ATAC Future Focus Conference competition is…

Kylinda Potter of Perth’s Travel Hotspot who will be heading off on a 8-day Croatian Cruise Best of Dalmatian Coast.

ATAC Board changes

Jack Taylor was reappointed as chair by special resolution of the membership, extending his term by two years following his initial six-year term.

Following the weekends board elections, the elected members are:

Kirsty Eccles – Meridian Travel

Meg Hill – Cruise Express

Jack Taylor – Performance Travel

Holly Velardo – HollyDay Travel

Office bearers are:

Chair: Jack Taylor

Vice chair: Holly Velardo

Treasurer: Ken Morgan

Secretary: Nicole King

The general director roles are held by Meg Hill from Cruise Express, Kirsty Eccles from Meridian Travel, and Sandra Ferraro from Time 4 Travel.