REGISTER EARLY FOR THE BEST SAVINGS! The 23rd Annual Educational Travel Conference
February 18-21, 2009 
LOCATION: Marriott New Orleans Hotel
Fronting the French Quarter
Are you concerned about how to effectively move your travel program forward in these tough economic times? There has never been a year more vital for attending ETC, as colleagues focus on how to survive—and thrive—in the current economic downturn. Perhaps this is why registration for ETC has never been stronger, with current registration numbers exceeding those for ETC 2008 as of December last year.
Gather with your colleagues in New Orleans for the 2009 Educational Travel Conference, from February 18-21, for three substantive days of cost-effective, information-packed, and solutions-directed sessions and roundtables. Colleagues have made the commitment to register for ETC 2009 in New Orleans in order to share and strategize about solutions and innovative ways to sustain their business, partnerships and programming for the short- and long-term. You’ll have an opportunity to explore challenges and opportunities with colleagues and industry experts, hear best practices, get an edge on proactive travel planning, and learn of business and risk management strategies being deployed to weather the ongoing economic and geopolitical storms.
If you have not already registered for ETC 2009, be sure to do so before Dec. 18th to secure the early bird discount of $50 and to avoid late registration fees, which take effect after January 8, 2009. The deeply discounted hotel rate of $165 is available as long as the room block is open at the New Orleans Marriott Hotel. To accommodate high demand, we have also started a second room block at the JW Marriott, our overflow hotel. However, we anticipate that all rooms will sell out in this block soon.
If budgets are tight, you may also want to consider sharing a hotel room. Contact ETC for a growing list of those seeking roommates.
For colleagues who wish to consider work/study options at ETC 2009 to receive a discounted registration fee, please contact carole@travelearning.com.
Do you have the knowledge and resources you need to turn adversity into opportunity?
How seriously and for how long will the downturn economy impact Educational Travel and small businesses serving this niche? How can your travel program continue to serve your institution without a near-term financial reward? How will the changing economic landscape affect affinity travelers and trends in 2009-10? How do you attract and retain travelers given the current economy? Are you panicking or proactively planning to guide your program forward? Is it all bad news—or where do opportunities lie? ETC’s dynamic 2009 agenda will provide answers to these questions, and so much more.
Come prepared to contribute to one of the most progressive and solutions-oriented ETC gatherings in the past 23 years! In tough times you need to fortify your business, look beyond traditional constituencies for future growth, and utilize new and different applications of programming and marketing services. When you attend ETC 2009 be prepared to dig deeper into marketplace challenges, case studies, actionable research, and compelling partnership ideas with an unparalleled international network of the best and brightest in the educational travel industry.
Enlarge your network of support at ETC 2009 and speak with colleagues who are confronting challenges proactively! This is your opportunity to plan ahead for success through investment and shared risk. Be in New Orleans to learn where and how the changes of today will affect your bottom line and your program plans of tomorrow, as ETC’s 2009 agenda will address the top three issues facing our industry: the economy, marketing, and staffing.
Click here to access ETC's 2009 agenda.
(Pictured above is a picture of a saying that has become very common in post-Katrina New Orleans: "New Orleans gave me patience and passion." This saying was painted onto one of the levies and provided courtesy of OnSite Relief, an organization with which ETC 2009 will be volunteering to rebuild a home in the 9th Ward on February 18, 2009.)
Navigating Uncertainty ... ETC’s 2009 agenda sets a course for business ahead!
There’s no need to tell you that there is a lot of turmoil in the affinity travel world, with declining sales, staff layoffs, and cutbacks. Travel planners, suppliers, and operators alike are facing difficult times … all of which present challenges and opportunities for all players in the affinity travel market. In response to the issues at urgent play today, ETC 2009 will include a special four-part Navigating Uncertainty track that features CEO perspectives on business strategies deployed to respond to a downturn economy; veteran travel planners’ responses to recreating or rebuilding travel programs under pressure; industry insights on risk management strategies deployed for weathering the economic and geopolitical storms; and promotional strategies for effectively marketing through recession.
A prestigious lineup of guest experts will take a look at the economy’s effect on discretionary spending, the impact ahead for affinity travel and small businesses, the new risk and liability, and safety and security issues. They’ll equip you to shore up your foundation and make improvements for facing real challenges and problems in travel so that you can sell through a recession and deliver traveler value now and into the future.
Knowing the top trends is critical to your successful planning cycle! Market research and trend sessions take center stage as Peter Yesawich focuses on pivotal market research in troubled times, followed by a three-part series on generational marketing with Ann Fishman, including two hands-on workshops (limited to 50 persons each) spanning every cohort generation. Media sessions and hot, best-selling trip types including culinary travel today are spearheaded by Peter Greenberg. A host of leading travel journalists, as well as affinity travelers, give voice to their concerns and preferences in travel in the midst of an economic downturn.
In the Online Marketing Forum, learn of strategies and techniques for communicating online, using blogs and other online collaborative tools, as well as designing effective web-based organizations. A series of sessions focusing on Web 2.0+ tools, how to cut costs, and how to profit from the next wave of communication and digital marketing will be covered. As the Internet has transformed the way all businesses operate today, a series of two sessions will focus on stretching beyond traditional marketing to the importance and value of branding affinity travel programs to institutional sponsors in a digital age critical to maintaining a presence and connection to your travelers in times of adversity.
The Responsible Tourism Forum will focus on communicating your message to travelers. A two-part session series will shed light on what will improve and expand your market appeal to travelers, riding the wave of the next major travel trends in sustainable tourism and service-learning programming to engage travelers—in spite of the economic downturn.
The Alumni Travel Forum will help you think outside the box to focus on future growth and opportunities for alumni travel. The intent is to open the window of opportunity to new business, travelers, and internal communications that will directly benefit alumni travel programs, alumni/ae outreach, engagement, and fiscal sustainability. A series of three sessions looks at potential for growth in diversifying the demographics of travel programs, crossing institutional silos as creative collaborations to connect to new travelers, and the issues facing small alumni travel programs today.
And keeping true to the raison d’être of educational travel, Gerry Ellis opens ETC 2009 with his inspiring perspectives on education as the most powerful tool for expanding minds and travel as the greatest teacher.
Mardi Gras is a fabulous event—and it coincides with ETC 2009!
The city of New Orleans provides a fitting setting for tough discussions focusing on how to transcend and move beyond hardships. The cultural, festive atmosphere of the “Big Easy,” especially during this pre-Mardi Gras time, will help balance the hard-hitting discussions planned for sessions and roundtables by providing levity at the end of each day. Among the highlights are the Festivals of Mexico Welcome Mixer and an ETC parade through the French Quarter to Michaul's Live Cajun Music Restaurant for a Cajun/Creole buffet, a live Cajun band, and Cajun dancers.
ETC has had an unprecedented number of hotel rooms booked for ETC 2009 already at the New Orleans Marriott Hotel. With more than 1,400 rooms secured by attendees at the LOW discounted rate of $165 single/double, the night of February 17th is sold-out at the New Orleans Marriott. Rest assured, we have created a second block of rooms for Feb. 17th at our overflow hotel, the JW Marriott Hotel, right across the street. We will not be able to secure additional rooms after these ETC blocks sell out. Mardi Gras hotel rates are easily $300-$400 for the dates Feb. 20-24—so do not wait to book. Click here to make your hotel reservation.
Also great airfare deals are available this month! For an overview of nonstop flights into New Orleans Airport (MSY), please refer to www.travelearning.com/content/airlines.A Behind-the-Scenes Tour of New Orleans—from water issues to cultural and culinary celebrations!
If you want to know what really happened during Katrina and experience a truly “private access only” tour of New Orleans, don’t miss this one-time offering! The Feb. 18th pre-conference Water and Culture program delivers an incredible behind-the-scenes exploration of life in New Orleans as interpreted through public works projects, new as well as established cultural institutions, and down-home ethnic cuisine.
By special invitation, Dr. (Brigadier General) Gerry Galloway travels from Washington, D.C., to provide ETC delegates with a short, incisive lecture on the Mississippi River flood control and the hurricane protection systems in New Orleans—what failed during Katrina and why and what is being done to deal with future challenges. One of the nation’s premiere experts on flood control and levees, Dr. Galloway’s analysis will be based on the technical U.S. national academy and international review team studies, the history of decisions made on hurricane protection over the last 50 years in New Orleans, his seven years as a member of the Mississippi River Commission, and his current service as a member of the Louisiana Governor’s Advisory Commission on Coastal Restoration and Protection. Following the lecture, Dr. Galloway will personally conduct a field tour of the flood and hurricane protection systems in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the City of New Orleans. Behind-the-scenes visits to pump stations and levees will provide you with a first-hand look at the flood protection, current levee reconstruction, and water systems of New Orleans. The afternoon features curator- and/or director-led visits and receptions at three major cultural institutions in New Orleans—the new Southern Food & Beverage Museum, the National World War II Museum, and the Historic New Orleans Collection in the French Quarter.
Space is limited due to the private access components of this tour, so sign up early! Registration information is available by clicking here.
