TPI’s annual TPI Summit events will take place May 4-14 in nine major centres across Canada. In an interview with Sphere, VP Tim Morgan said TPI has seen increased attendance at its Summits every year for the last three years since the organization changed its format to visit a new city nearly every day over a period of a week and a half, rather than over nine weekends.

The Summit meetings are now TPI’s cumulatively the most-attended training and networking events, with more than 350 travel advisors expected to attend.

“This annual trek is an important connection point between our preferred partners, our senior management, and our advisors across the country as we continue to lead and innovative in the independent travel advisor space,” said Morris Chia, TPI President & CEO.

Christine Winchester, National Director of Sales, VP Morgan and Sheila Lamirande, Senior Operations Manager will be travelling across the country to deliver industry and TPI-specific updates on new programs and services.

In addition, Regional Sales Managers, Linda Dinsmore (Western Canada), Rhonda LaFosse (Ontario), and Lisa Geddes (Atlantic Canada), will be hosting best practice group exercises and multiple preferred partner presentations.

Following the daytime events, advisors are able to network with their peers and preferred partner representatives during a cocktail and trade show event plus take part in an exclusive dinner for TPI’s top producing advisors.

2016 TPI Summit dates and locations: May 4, Winnipeg; May 5, Edmonton; May 6, Calgary; May 7, Saskatoon; May 9, Vancouver; May 11, Ottawa; May 12, Toronto; May 13, St. John’s; and May 14, Halifax.

Sponsors include Air Canada and Air Canada Vacations, Allianz Global Assistance and Transat Holidays/Nolitours, among others.

“The main priority of Summit is to further engagement (relationship- and knowledge-building) between our head office team (both national and regional teams) our advisors and our preferred partners,” said Morgan. “The second priority is to updated our advisors on what’s new with the industry, TPI (including the announcement of new programs and services to help our advisors grow their business). So each year at Summit there are always many new things to talk about.”

Priorities for this year revolve around success stories from the last Summit series and new programs and services coming between this Summit and next “and how we are planning for those to positively impact our travel advisor’s bottom lines,” he added.

Morgan said he consistently hears from TPI travel advisors that networking time is key to their success to both build relationships and knowledge. “Relationships and knowledge best flourish through consistent personal contact which is why we host in-person (in addition to virtual on-camera) events throughout the year in all regions where we operate.”

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