week in the life Lisa Hopgood
A week in the life of Lisa Hopgood
WTM Portfolio North America sales manager I
am the sales manager for North America looking after USA, Canada and Mexico across the WTM Portfolio (WTM London, Africa, Latin America & Arabian Travel Market). I also manage a team of six Sales Executives.
Sunday
It’s WTM London, so I’m picked up at 7.15am and collect some colleagues en route to ExCeL. We check into our hotel and have a big team meeting including people from our overseas offices in Brazil, Dubai, India and Africa. We run through safety, security and show floor highlights and have a quiz to help us remember registration figures and keynote speakers.
I join a senior sales team meeting for updates on the spring shows. After, we visit the show floor in hi-vis vests and safety boots, as it’s still a building site. We check in on all our clients to ensure they are fully prepared and help out with any last-minute requirements and requests. We enjoy a team dinner with our overseas colleagues.
Monday
We hold a sales meeting at 7.45am to run through our plans for the day then we all head out onto the show floor to meet our clients.
I’m on the Mexico stand for its official ribbon cutting then head to Vegas where there’s a queue to try its virtual reality experience. I speak to Liberty Helicopters about plans for WTM and 2019, and new client Air Transat that is displaying its new seats. I meet with the CEO of the Association of Group Travel
Organisers along with my UK sales executive to see how we can work together more closely next year.
Tuesday
Lisa’s biography Studied: German at Hull University
Worked: As a Majorca rep for Thomson Holidays and in a long-haul travel agency. Then I joined TTG as an advertising account manager and became sponsorship and event manager including looking after the prestigious TTG Travel Awards. I’ve been at Reed Travel Exhibitions for 10 years
Lives: In Isleworth, London, with my partner Paddy
Likes: Learning golf, hiking and travel, especially to the USA. This year I took a Cruise America campervan through Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, saw amazing scenery, went horse- riding in the Teton mountains, white-water rafting down Snake River and even met Kayne West at a bar in Jackson Hole!
Most looking forward to: Christmas and my birthday in December. It’s a special one and I’m celebrating in style in Australia with my former TTG and WTM colleague Deborah Dewe
I’m on site at 7.45am to check the Visit USA guys are organised for their Breakfast Briefing, an important part of WTM. They run through figures and airlift then there are insightful and interesting presentations from Aer Lingus and Virgin Holidays. I meet with Visit Florida, Brand USA and NYC & Company to get feedback and discuss their objectives for 2019. I have a chat with Bike Rent NYC and am delighted to hear they are having an amazing show due to them using all the PR & Promotion opportunities WTM offers such as Exhibitor news, utilising the appointment setting tool, uploading a lot of information into the online profile. There’s a coaching meeting with one of my sales team then, with our video company, I do impromptu filming in and around the Brand USA Pavilions with exhibitors such as Great Lakes, United Airlines and Escape Campervans. I visit the Americas Inspiration Zone for the luxury seminar – I’ve helped set up the British Columbia and Vegas speakers on the panel – and in the evening I take some clients to a Thai restaurant.
Wednesday
Today is my busiest day: I try to visit all my clients to get feedback, find out about their business deals, their show highlights and hear about the new products/ services they are launching in 2019. This includes the likes of Visit California, Discover New England, Mexico and exhibitors on the Brand USA Pavilions. I say goodbye to my clients then it’s off for an end-of-show team photo and a glass of fizz to celebrate the biggest and most successful WTM to date!
Thursday
The Brand USA stand at WTM London
58 wtm insights winter 2018
We’re still busy looking at the 2019 floor plan, collating ideas from the show floor and getting back to clients we met. It’ll be busy right up to Christmas working on the spring shows.
wtm.com
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