Become a Home Based Travel Agent

An Open Letter From
Bob Sullivan
Executive Vice President / Group Publisher
Travel Weekly

Dear Travel Professional Community Member,

Our entire Travel Weekly team is gearing up for an incredible conference in November as we return to Fort Lauderdale for Travel Weekly's CruiseWorld 2011 and Home Based Agent Show. I truly hope you will be able to join us November 2-5, as we bring in our editors, our friends and colleagues from throughout the industry and gather our travel professional readers to learn and grow together.

I want to personally thank Joanie and Tom Ogg for being a part of our show family from the beginning. Joanie and Tom joined us when we kicked off our first show in Fort Lauderdale. We appreciate their willingness to share their years of experience in the home-based market.

During this year's event, Joanie and Tom are helping us present an entire day, November 2, dedicated to building and growing a home-based business. In fact, you will want to pre-register for their workshop on the 2^nd entitled “Professional Engagement: The Seven Secrets to Success Starting and Operating Your Home Based Travel Business. We will offer options for those still trying to establish their business and advanced sessions for those who want to take their business to the next level.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Travel Weekly events is the fact that we want our readers, the travel agents themselves, to be part of our speaker roster. We know that you learn from your peers and we are proud of the growing number of travel agents who are presenting at CruiseWorld this year. Please check out our speaker roster today, http://www.travelweekly.com/cruiseworld/2011/speakerlist.aspx, see your friends and colleagues, and be sure to let us know if you want to be considered for a specific topic in the future.

If you are seeking industry certification and training, we will be able to provide you with several excellent options. On Wednesday and Saturday, November 2 and 5, we will offer a selection of certification courses from industry leaders including CLIA, Sandals, The Specialty Cruise Certification Program and Avalon Waterways. For a full roster of certification options, visit http://www.travelweekly.com/cruiseworld/2011/event-schedule.aspx.

Several of our sponsor partners will be offering their own training classes as well. Among those offerings, attendees can choose courses from Trafalgar Tours, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Vacation.com, CruiseOne & Cruises Inc., Globus Family of Brands, Travel Impressions, Nexion, Disney Cruise Line, the destination of Israel and Captain Lou's Group Cruise training. These courses will be offered on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Our breakout sessions provide you with more than 30 different options on November 3 and 4. We have four tracks of courses and you can certainly mix and match to build your perfect conference experience. The tracks include: Building Your Business, Driving Digital, Engaging Clients and Promising Products. Several of your peers will be leading some of these sessions. I encourage you to read through the program and get motivated.

In addition to all the classes and content available, we know how important it is for those working directly with the consumers every day to hear from the leaders of the companies you are selling. We want to bring the best and the brightest our industry has to offer right to you. We will offer five keynote panels and give you the opportunity to hear from the cruise line presidents and CEOs, the marketing and sales leaders from the top cruise lines and tour companies, the leaders of the largest host agencies and consortia. And we challenge you to come to these sessions and engage with these leaders. They are giving their time because they know how important you are to their companies.

Visit www.cruiseworld2011.com today and explore all the options. Reserve your spot today so you can take advantage of the nine different ship inspections offered on November 2, 5, and 6. Register for your certification classes. Start planning your days in Fort Lauderdale to make them extremely productive.

And please, come get to know our team! We strive to build the best conferences in the business and we know, as the industry's leader in travel news, we owe it to all of you to be innovative and inclusive!

Thanks again to Tom and Joanie and remember, use their code HBTA and get the best rates available on our VIP Package. To register right away click here. Hope to see you all in Fort Lauderdale,

Bob Sullivan