CHICAGO — Over 300 travel advisors and suppliers recently converged in Chicago for Direct Travel’s annual conference.

Taking place from Oct. 7-9 at the Hilton Chicago, the ‘Direct Access’ conference welcomed agency managers, advisors, ICs and supplier partners from across North America to network and learn tips on how to enhance their businesses into 2025.

The event kicked off with great fanfare with the ‘Blues Brothers’ (aka Gerard Bellino, Direct Travel’s President, Leisure Travel, and Stephen Smit, SVP, Leisure Strategy & Marketing, North) making their grand entrance at the welcome reception. 

Events included Strategic Partner panels that focused on trending topics, as well as small group ideation sessions. Over 3,000 matched appointments between advisors and partners also took place. In addition, Professional Development sessions highlighted Direct Travel’s latest technology release, Direct Tracker, a custom-built commission management platform.

During the annual ‘Give Back’ event, held this year in cooperation with the Collette Foundation, attendees made 278 blankets to support a local chapter of Project Linus. And on Tuesday night, the GEM Awards gala dinner recognized over 150 top performing advisors across North America who achieved Sapphire, Diamond or Ruby sales status with Direct Travel. 

“It was a wonderful event for learning, networking and motivation,” said Bellino. “And it is always a highlight to have the opportunity to recognize the incredible achievements of so many of our advisors.”