FORT LAUDERDALE — The Think Tank kicked off, and so did the hosts' shoes.
Joanie Ogg and Mary Pat Sullivan, who literally ran the Think Tank at Travel Weekly's CruiseWorld conference here, raced around the room with microphones and encouraged agents to share business tips and stories.
This year, Ogg and Sullivan were joined by Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises sales executives Vicki Freed and Dondra Ritzenthaler, who sponsored and co-hosted the Think Tank — barefoot, of course.
Following Sullivan's kickoff question about technology, Freed had a question for the agent audience: "What can we be doing differently or better for you?"
The audience didn't hold back. "We need a new BDM in Northeast Pennsylvania!" came the answer almost immediately.
The discussion quickly segued into the responsiveness — or lack of responsiveness — of the two lines' business development representatives.
Freed talked about her penchant for handwritten notes and bemoaned when home-based agents don't put an address on their business card: "It drives me nuts! I can't send you something like a beautiful gift, an iPad. I can't send you anything."
"She is not sending you an iPad," Ritzenthaler interrupted to laughter. "I'm just saying."
Freed continued, "I know that you're home-based and I know you don't want your home address on there, then go to Mailboxes Etc. I've worked with travel partners for 30 years, and I know your clients may want to send you a nice little gift or a handwritten note or something. It is still about relationships and the personal touch."
Next topic from Sullivan: Does anyone have a sales story to share? "Something you did, something really cool."
"I'm the reason you have boarding passes," said one agent. She confessed that her first cruise was a one-night stowaway from San Juan to St. Thomas.
The next story: "I used to be a cosmetician/aesthetician 100 years ago," said the agent. "Took my first cruise, broke up an engagement, threw the ring back at him, called a girlfriend, watching the 'Love Boat' one night, and said: 'We're going on a cruise!' She said OK.
"Nobody had credit cards or cell phones or anything like that in those days. Next day, went down to the bank ... went to our travel agent, booked the cruise. Went on the cruise. Got off the ship and said, 'If I can sell a lipstick I can sell a cruise!' And I became a travel agent after that."
The room erupted in laughter and applause.
Near the end of the Think Tank, a discussion about weddings at sea included the observation from Freed that if a couple gets married on Royal Caribbean, "the marriage is guaranteed to last."
More laughter.
View highlights from the Think Tank.