Comment: Shortlist is a real inspiration

All the keynote speeches were designed to inspire members – one encouraging them to choose a positive attitude each day, another telling them to venture outside their comfort zone, and the last urging them to live and work with passion, love and enthusiasm.

And all told delegates to put customers at the heart of their businesses, focusing less on the basic product function and more on the way they make customers feel.

I was certainly inspired by how quickly agents took these messages to heart to improve their businesses.

Paul opened a Twitter account after hearing of the importance of engaging via social media and embracing a new skill. Sue said she was going to respond to the suggestion that ‘perceptions are the enemy of insight’ and give all staff a blank piece of paper to put forward ideas. And Ann told me she’d been given the fire in her belly to finally launch a business she’d been thinking about.

Engaged, professional and driven agents like these are the lifeblood of our industry, and also form the shortlist for this year’s Travel Weekly Agent Achievement Awards, which we reveal this week.

We had an unprecedented number of entries and nominations, so to have even made it to the shortlist is a phenomenal achievement.

Congratulations to all those listed – I can’t wait until July 13 when the winners of the most prestigious and coveted awards foragents will be revealed.content.yudu.com/A3zn2v/120516/resources/34.htm