Article written by Christopher Lingren, Owner of Wonderful Adventures Travel Group. Christopher Lingren has been in the travel industry since 2010, but has been a storyteller since childhood, in adulthood becoming a professional adventurer, adventure & expedition travel expert, and travel agency owner along the way. He’d love to be a source of inspiration to you and your team too. 

When Travel SMG reached out and asked me to share my perspective about the importance of bringing your team together for an annual gathering or retreat, I was both gob smacked and flattered at the same time. I thought to myself, how lovely that they think enough of me as an agency owner within our beloved industry to want to hear my thoughts about it; yet at the same time I was perplexed since I don’t have a very large agency nor am I as out there or known across in the industry as those who would “typically” be writing pieces such as this.

It’s an honor and delight to be able to share a little about team gatherings especially after taking my team for a delightful week exploring the wonders of Alaska in September 2024 for, what we call The Gathering, our annual team retreat.  Thanks to a long-fostered relationship with friends at Visit Anchorage, the Alaska Railroad, and Explore Fairbanks, we were able to have an incredible agency FAM as our annual team retreat. The week that we spent together was the best possible investment in camaraderie and interpersonal bonding that could have ever happened for the Wonderful Adventures Travel Group team, and as a result of that experience, everyone is excited about future Gathering events bringing the team back together again.

Prior to joining the travel industry in 2010, I spent nearly 20 years in Corporate America where annual conferences were the norm bringing key department heads, managers, and executives from around the country together in a conference room at a location of the company’s choosing for 3-5 days of round robin meetings, shared meals, presentations, focused time on where the company was heading, goals, objectives and more;  all followed by time in the evenings that typically included some team building activities – or as those of us who endured them preferred to call it, “forced fun.”  Many times, those conferences or “retreats” as one of the companies liked to call them could have been cut in half, with most of the information shared via email or had it existed yet, zoom calls.

In the travel industry, as agency owners and advisors, it is well understood how important personal experience and knowledge of a destination can be. FAMS, and in-destination seminars or learning experiences can be a great help to better selling a destination to clients. In addition to seeing resorts or experiencing ships first-hand, we all know that some FAMS build in a little free time, and many advisors choose to spend that time at a bar or in the pool. When gathering with others attending the FAM, some great networking opportunities present themselves. Attending conferences and seminars is also critical for an agent’s personal development, not just for the learning opportunities from suppliers and industry experts, but so too, for the networking and camaraderie that invariably comes from being exposed to others in the industry who share your passion but happen to be associated with other agencies or simply live far away that you wouldn’t normally get to interact with.

Prior to building my current agency, I spent nearly a dozen years as a franchise owner with a large national brand. For the first half of that time, the majority of annual events I participated in was focused primarily on their agency events, while the minority of my training events were industry related events such as CLIA’s Cruise360 or TravelSMG’s Las Vegas Travel Agent Forum. These were sprinkled in for industry training opportunities and ship inspections.

While I certainly did interact with other agents at the industry events, most of my social interactions were with my peers from within the franchise, therefore my circle of friends and sphere of influence within the industry was fairly limited to a small segment based on that franchise group. Over time, I began to branch out by attending other industry events. As I began to meet more advisors and owners, my view of the industry began to evolve beyond that of just the view the franchise brand presented, and soon my personal mix of event participation flipped where the larger majority of events I attended became industry events, and the minority were franchise events.

During the past 5 years, I have had some great large-agency owner mentors to learn from and bounce ideas off including Shayla Northcutt, Tim Sawhook, Kim Thompson, and Monday Evans who all selflessly poured into me, and have been encouragers and supporters as I have been growing my agency.  Each of them is a remarkable individual, owning agencies filled with fantastic teams who interact together well, in large part because of the incredible leadership that they each bring to the table, coupled with their numerous agency events that they provide for their team, along with the support of their people participating in industry-sponsored events. Dynamic leadership is critical for a team’s long-term success. 

As I was transitioning away from building my own agency, I understood and recognized the importance of bringing people together in a variety of ways. Using Microsoft Teams for day-to-day conversations and quick connections, monthly virtual team calls, a semi-annual training conference, and our annual Gathering retreat event are the ways that we stay connected and build our team rapport.  True camaraderie amongst a team of advisors doesn’t simply come from a monthly virtual call or shared dialogue via Microsoft Teams, but through personal interaction.

We see that on FAMS, and it has been very evident to me with each of the Travel Agency Owners Forums I have participated in since 2021.  With each Agency Owner’s event that I have participated in, I have gained a deeper appreciation for these facts, along with the inspiration brought to the table initially from these different areas:

• • years of “forced fun” team building conferences in Corporate America, 

• • the franchise agency hosted an annual convention which brought together hundreds of franchise owners from around the country for some fun, learning, and rah-rah time celebrating the successes of the prior year

• • some great advice from mentor colleagues and agency-owner mentors. 

Both agency-sponsored and industry-sponsored events have merit and should absolutely be included in the annual plan for an agency owner’s and an advisor’s networking purposes and continuing education purposes. Over the past decade, some of my best learning as an agency owner came from industry-sponsored events, but quite honestly though not so much from the assorted supplier presentations or vendor panels, but rather from the time spent with peers interacting over a meal, around a table at a bar, or even at a pool’s swim-up bar with other agency owners and seasoned travel advisors. Unfettered time without the distraction of email or taking/returning client calls. Being able to spend some quality time just shooting the breeze, asking questions, sharing challenges and successes with others is so needed in our hectic industry environment. 

In the fall of 2022, my team and I went for our first retreat experience, and together we enjoyed Universal Orlando Resort before, during, and after Hurricane Ian. We used the park closure days during the storm for some great team building and bonding over food and beverages. That singular event cemented the need for an annual retreat, not just for me, but for those team members who were there with me.

In the fall of 2023, we spent a week together at Walt Disney World, exploring the parks together in the mornings, having free time for personal exploration during the afternoons, and then doing some fun team dining and other activities in the evening.  At that time, we drafted a tentative plan mapping out our potential retreat plans and destinations for the next 10 years, knowing that the individual possibilities might shift around based on the needs of the team, relationships with suppliers or DMCs, and more.

One of my goals when building my agency was to have a well-rounded team of professionals who thrive in different niches yet are able to come together and support each other through great rapport. Having a vision and plan is another important step for long-term success.

At Wonderful Adventures Travel Group, one of our core values is to create lasting relationships with each other, and with our clients, so that they will want to return to us repeatedly for all their travel needs. Fostering relationships is much easier when you share a solid rapport with one another. If you are part of any agency with a few advisors or a lot, and you haven’t taken the dive into hosting a team retreat yet, what’s holding you back?  The time spent can be well worth it in many ways for owners and advisors alike.

Being able to talk business, in informal ways and in varying destinations can take your business to the next level. Too many corporate conferences take place in boring conference rooms in non-descript hotels around the country every week.  We work in the most fun industry available and should be leading the way with enjoyable and informative events for our teams, while helping each other build each other up, both owner and agent. Get out and explore new destinations, ships, or resorts – building the team rapport along the way!  I promise you it really will improve the rapport and support for each other and the agency’s long-term goals.