The National Tour Association’s annual convention has been a standard part of my November activities since 1996. I’ve watched the NTA evolve through the wild twists and turns of the travel industry and my respect for the organization has grown, in particular my appreciation for how it runs its convention. The convention is an impressively conceived and executed conference, one of the most effective forums for a business meeting I have seen. The NTA really knows how to run a convention and how to make the most out of the occasion so its members draw the most value from it.

In its membership surveys, NTA’s convention always comes in as one of the top reasons why NTA members choose to be members. An American Express rep I met on the trade show floor confirmed my observations. “I attend 50 shows a year,” he said, “and this is a really well-run show.”

It’s a big convention. NTA’s membership includes approximately 700 tour operators, 600 destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and 1,800 suppliers. It’s a business meeting extraordinaire, designed to maximize the opportunities for networking among hundreds of business professionals whose interests intersect in the tour industry.

The convention is a deftly organized combination of structured and unstructured, formal and informal events, from hundreds of synchronized and precisely timed business meetings to lunches, dinners, receptions, performances and dance parties. NTA is constantly tweaking the agenda and devising new mechanisms for organizing business meetings. Then it watches closely for the reaction of the members to see how well each tweak worked and go back to the drawing board for the next year.

This year in Reno, for example, NTA reorganized its trade show floor for one of the days, setting up a destination pavilion that tour operators and suppliers could walk around to approach the DMOs. Destination exhibitor booths were organized geographically so tour operators could approach them according to geography, as they would organize an actual tour. This arrangement was made only for one day, and then the previous booth map was re-established with the operators stationary while destinations and suppliers walked to their booths.

Meetings were pre-scheduled and seven to 10 minutes long, with a timekeeper notifying participants over a loudspeaker when the current time slot was finished. Members responded enthusiastically, so the change will probably be incorporated again next year.

At its core, NTA is a very democratic organization, with mechanisms in place to channel ideas from the grassroots of the organization to its revolving governing body. NTA’s one historical failure in this regard was the attempt to rename the organization to CrossSphere a few years ago. When the new name was presented to the membership, many of them objected vehemently and a grassroots rebellion took root, growing in momentum until NTA reversed the decision and got its old name back. CrossSphere was tossed aside and virtually forgotten within months of its being introduced. In the ensuing turmoil, NTA strongly reaffirmed its populist orientation. The governing board increased its efforts to listen and respond to the needs of NTA’s membership and the organization was strengthened.

One of NTA’s innovations this year was to hold its convention with the World Religious Travel Association (WRTA). This experiment in “co-locating” tradeshows was a way to make it easier for potential attendees of both events and for the two organizations to benefit from each other’s membership. One of the benefits for NTA was that the 180 travel agents who attended the WRTA event also were able to visit NTA’s conference. That was another recent innovation -- the opening of the convention to travel agents during one of its days.

NTA’s alliance with WRTA is one of many partnerships that NTA has fostered in recent years. It recently formalized partnerships with the Africa Travel Association, The International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association and the United Motorcoach Association. “We’ve learned that our members are doing so many things that we can’t serve them all,” says NTA President Lisa Simon. “So we have formed all these partnerships with other organizations that can serve some of those needs better.”

Apart from the business functions of the NTA convention, there is always informal networking that takes place at the meal functions and receptions. And then there is the entertainment, which offers some of the most memorable and educational experiences of the entire event.

Every year Theater Direct, a wholesaler of Broadway theater tickets, sponsors a luncheon that features a performance from current Broadway musicals. The event introduces a transcendent element to the business event. For an hour or so in the middle of the day between the business of the morning and the business of the afternoon, the attendees gather and the lights go down for a true Broadway experience. I have NTA and Theater Direct to thank for opening my mind to the great quality of theater that is offered on Broadway year after year.

This year NTA also featured a small group of Flamenco singers, dancers and guitarists from Seville, Spain, at one of the lunches to promote NTA’s spring meet next year in Seville, the first convention ever to be held overseas. The presentation was spellbinding as a beautiful Spanish dancer filled the stage with her elaborate green and red dress, the guitarists played with their long dexterous fingers, and the singer opened his mouth and let out a sound that seemed to echo down through the ages. It was one of those moments that the NTA convention provides every year that go above and beyond the immediate purposes of the business meeting. For more information, visit www.ntaonline.com.

David Cogswell is executive editor covering tours for TravelPulse.com.

Reader Comments

login or register to comment

     

Share:

More Headlines Like This ...