I have previously organised client events in my role as manager of a shop-based travel agency and they always went well, with lots of local interest.
With my own business being online and clients located all over the UK, holding an event has not been quite so practical - until now.
After the last year, most of us have had little choice but to become more comfortable with online participation and although I have become used to this ‘new way’ of interacting, I am not embarrassed to admit to some extreme nerves and uncertainty as to how my first client presentation on Zoom would be received.
The chosen destination was Japan, and the evening was to be hosted in conjunction with Matt, Agency Sales Manager from specialists, InsideJapan.
This boosted my confidence considerably, as having lived and worked there for several years, there is not much that Matt doesn’t know about Japan.
Also, having received fantastic feedback from clients that have travelled with InsideJapan made a huge difference, as I was familiar with how well their tours and holidays operated.
A comprehensive advance training with Matt was set up, in which we discussed his presentation and took a trip around this fascinating country season by season.
Matt’s enthusiasm, knowledge, and passion stood out and I knew the event would be relaxed, informative, entertaining, and engaging for guests.
Joining up with three of my close colleagues to co-host the event worked well as we each invited clients who were extremely interested in hearing more about Japan, thus ensuring we had like-minded attendees.
It was important for the evening to be interactive and have our guests feel like they were being immersed in Japanese culture.
To help provide this experience, guest packs were collated and sent out to the attendees who were asked not to open them until the presentation commenced.
Each contained a lovely tote bag with a brochure with postcards, an authentic recipe card, Japanese green tea to be brewed during an interval, a note from their travel consultant, and an unfinished origami stork that Matt would talk through how to complete.
It was so nice to be able to put faces to names as I don’t often get to meet clients in person unless they happen to live close by. Hopefully, they were equally happy to see what I looked like after so many telephone conversations over the years.
The evening flowed well. After initial introductions and the first half of Matt’s presentation, we had a short break for guests to make their cup of green tea to sip whilst trying to follow instructions to complete the stork origami.
This caused much laughter, and I am not sure many of the results looked quite how they should have done but it was great to see everyone getting involved.
We continued with the second part of the presentation and at its conclusion had time to answer any questions.
Matt made the evening great fun - his personal stories from his time living there and subsequent visits really added to the presentation, which concluded with a chance to win a lovely bottle of Japanese gin, won by the guest who provided the closest answer to Matt’s question about active volcanoes in Japan.
My clients that had already booked on an InsideJapan tour for October found the evening especially useful as it provided them with more information of what to expect regarding food, culture and how the small group tour operates.
InsideJapan offers both tours and tailor-made itineraries, so I also had clients attend that were more interested in independent travel.
Sarah and Keith kindly sent me their feedback:
"Thank you so much for inviting us to be part of such an informative and fun evening. You had all worked so hard to make a 'virtual' evening such a success - surprise packages to open on the night, origami (we were dreadful at making the stork!) and Japanese tea to refresh us in the break. It meant we were all engaged throughout and there was no Zoom fatigue. It was certainly a great start to our understanding about the amazing country that is Japan and it would undoubtedly be a holiday full of new adventures and experiences."
My first online client event was definitely a big success, and I will be co-hosting more in the future in conjunction with our specialist operators.
Some clients have already expressed interest in wildlife presentations on Costa Rica, Africa and Borneo, with others wanting to know more about Australia, Vietnam and Cambodia - so watch this space for details on future events.
Thanks so much to Matt and my fellow Holidaysplease colleagues; and to my clients for joining and supporting me.
