I have been asked to do a one-hour talk at my non-profit's next training. These are 4 day seminars where we are basically re-grouping and getting some new info. I will be part of the "re-grouping".

Demographics: My colleagues are all frequent travelers who do not have the same interest in mileage accrual as me. Only a few of them travel during our downtime. Half of our travel is international. I imagine some of them accrue 100,000 miles/year but on various airlines. Some may accrue only 10,000. Our typcal hotel stay is in a Hampton Inn/Courtyard or private-school housing (yuck). We are ALL speakers/presenters and they are a super witty group.

I can hold my own in the speaking part. But any tips that have gone over well with your colleagues or friends would be appreciated. I was thinking I would do some participatory stuff(what is in your carry-on), some lecture, some hand-outs with airline/airport info/links and then Q and A.

(This is August in BOS, BTW.)

Thanks!

Joe

What is your objective: To inform them? To persuade them of an opinion? To motivate them to take action? Without that, we can't help you (and, if I may be so bold, you can't give a good talk either with or without our help).

Also, consider cultural factors: are they all from a "mainstream" North American cultural background, or do you have to take different thought patterns and educational backgrounds into account?

In other words: please say more!

Joe,

If I recall, Punki has posted here before that she shares travel tips with her trade show people. You may want to touch base with her on what she shares and believes is important.

It sounds like she has a lot of experience with doing these types of presentations.

William

This is so obvious and so simple I am embarrassed to post it, but I have found that even in this day and age it is not followed by many of my colleagues.

1) Never, ever, get on a plane or stay in a hotel without a ff# and 2) get at least one affinity credit card.

I hear so many excuses - I don't fly enough; I never fly the same airline twice; it's too much trouble; I don't charge enough, etc etc.

My daughter-in-law flies about 2-3 times a year on business. My son never flies on business. She never bothered to sign up. I had signed up my son but he never bothered with partner mileage. Last summer I offered to help them build their accounts. Now they have accumulated over 100,000 miles in less than a year.

[This message has been edited by JerryFF (edited 06-02-2003).]

All good posts. Thank you.

I will email Punki.

No matter how obvious the tip is, it is good to hear it. When I can say, "The one tip every single one of the frequent fliers I asked had was...blah, blahblah", I think it will carry weight.

The goals are to

1) Tell funny stories.

2) Give everyone travel leads and tips that they have a) not known about OR b)not think applied to them .

3) Keep them from putiing us on China Air.

(Especially number two.)

The group is well-educated. Motivated by doing good will rather than money. Most of us are taking a $$$ hit to do this job. So keeping our points/miles has always been a greta benefit. Different cultural backgrounds originally. Some of us grew up wealthy, some inner-city and very poor. Now, all at the same place emotionally and mentally, though some our cultures ARE different. Gay, black, white, latin, old and young, all American born, coincidentally, hopefully that will change again. Small group, about 25 people.

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Just trying to keep up with the gals in the trailer park next door.

Some real basic ones that I find many people don't do:

Keep photocopies of your passport, drivers liscence, green card, visas ect... with you. Ok, so you've never lost one YET. I usually keep two copies, one in checked luggage and one in carry-on.

Keep a list of your credit card phone numbers in case they are lost/stolen so you can report them. Or make sure someone at home or in the office has a list of the account numbers AND phone numbers to call to report them lost/stolen. Just make sure that they are accessable to someone.

Make a business card (with your computer) that has important phone numbers on it. These are easy to put into wallets, luggage ect. List your home,office, relatives/ friends names and phone numbers. If the PDA or computer can't be used a low tech business card with all the numbers comes in handy. We made up lots of these and gave them out to relatives and friends. That way if an emergency happens then they can contact each other easily. Also might be handy if there is an emergency and you aren't able to tell who to contact, the emergency worker can just start calling people.

Have your picture and signature put on your credit and debit cards. Most banks and CC do this now.

Always keep some kind of food in your carry-on. Even if it is just a cereal bar. This can be a lifesaver when you're stuck on the runway for an extra hour.
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Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else.

[This message has been edited by MoreMilesPlease (edited 06-03-2003).]

It sounds like the objectives are (a) bonding and (2) informing. Persuasion/motivation aren't major factors. That's good, because cultural issues are most important for persuading and motivating. (See my forthcoming book on multicultural issues in presentations. Anyone who would like to participate in the research, especially if you're not Caucasian North American, can contact me via my e-mail link above.)

Given the bonding objective, tell about some interesting things that happened to you while traveling. Only to you. Things that happened to me, or to anyone else posting here, do not serve this purpose.

Given the informing objective, pick a few key points you'd like to make. One, IMHO, ought to be the value of focus in FT programs. If you're using visual aids, you might make two charts, both for a hypothetical 70,000 mi/yr traveler over three years. One would show his/her award accumulation with random choice of carriers and hotels. The other would show what happens if 80 percent of the travel is concentrated in one airline and one hotel chain. While the group may not be motivated by money, they probably value comfort, so early boarding and upgrades will matter. You can illustrate upgrades with photos or clip art of someone squeezed into a miniature seat and someone relaxing in luxury, and so on for other things.

If you have a funny story about someone else that relates directly to a point you want to make, you can tell it in that context.

I would keep the number of messages to three or four. Nobody will remember more anyhow.

You can vary the monotony of a "sage on stage" presentation by polling the group on different travel-related items, like "How many nights did you stay in a hotel last year? How many of those were for business, how many for personal reasons? How many of those were free? If the room wasn't free, how many times were you upgraded to the executive floor or given some other benefit?" and the same for airlines and perhaps car rentals. Track the answers on flipchart pages you can tape to the conference room walls. That will also help with the overall group bonding objective, to say nothing of helping you fill the hour without trying to stuff too many different points into it or belaboring them.

Excellent advice.

Also, I agree that the best anecdotes are the ones that are personal to me. Of course, I may be able to make the "pudding guy" story and the $20 BA fare story personal to me, too!

I will bump this up as the summer drags on. Also I will ask FTers some questioins in other threads to keep it simple.

Thanks Everyone!


p.s I LOVE this one: Always keep some kind of food in your carry-on. Even if it is just a cereal bar. This can be a lifesaver when you're stuck on the runway for an extra hour. I do it but I wonder how many others do it?




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Just trying to keep up with the gals in the trailer park next door.

I used to do it. But I never ate the candy bar and it got mushy and old. Nowadays I just ask for an extra snack on the plane and eat it within a few days...