Work Hard, Play Hard

One year ago I was headed off on my first conference with Liberty Travel. I had no idea what our conferences were all about or what to expect- so as I send my novice off on her first conference I decided to reminiss on the conference experience slash why I have the coolest job in the world. 

 When you start a career in the travel industry, the most appealing aspect of the job for any travel enthusiast is the opportunity to travel the world. While the chance to travel to ANY destination for free doesn't come around all that often, Flight Centre not only encourages us to travel, but actually insists we travel at least once a year by sending us on conferences in the Caribbean. My first experience at a Liberty Travel conference was my novice conference which was held at Beaches Ocho Rios and Sandals Grand Riviera in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Within the first year of your career with Liberty Travel, they send you on a conference to further train you, inspire you and provide you with valuable product knowledge. Sandals and Beaches (one of our top preferred partners) put us up for a few nights, showed us their properties, gave us valuable product training and of course-threw awesome parties for us! We were on the go from 7am to about 2am every single day, this was the conference experience. As I would come to learn, conferences are part of what makes Liberty Travel such an amazing company to work for- we work hard, but we play just as hard too.

Once you land in Montego Bay there is a Margaritaville ready and waiting!

View from my oceanfront walkout at Beaches Ocho Rios

View from the beach

It isn't only your novice year that you get to go to conference. Once a year all ATL's (assistant managers) have a conference and then all TL's (managers) have a conference. Recently in a leadership meeting I was asked "what was my best memory during my career with Liberty?" There have been so many, but nothing beats my first TL conference in Riviera Maya, Mexico. I had just been promoted to TL (for those of you who don't know, TL stands for Team Leader aka manager), and I had just been named #1 novice in all of Liberty Travel sending me to Global Ball in Macau this summer. I had officially accomplished my two career goals, I was beyond happy with my life, had made so many close friends, and I think all of this really hit me at TL conference. Once again it was all about working hard during the day but playing hard at night- we always get maybe 3 hours of sleep a night at conference, but it is SO worth it. 

Our TL conference was hosted by the RIU in Riviera Maya. On the first night my friends and I decided to explore Riviera Maya on our own. I was so impressed by cultural Spanish feel of Playa del Carmen. In Jamaica, we were taken right to the resort and the drive from Montego Bay to Ocho Rios is extremely desolate. What I enjoyed about being in Playa Del Carmen was the unique feel it had with the cobblestone streets and authentic taco stands where the locals crowded. On night two, after a great dinner party on the beach, we all headed back into Play Del Carmen to party at Coco Bongo. I can't really explain how much fun Coco Bongo is, but if you ever are in Mexico you MUST go. It is a dance club/live show with acrobats swinging from the ceiling and people dancing on the bar..... yes, I was at work. Let me re-iterate....BEST JOB EVER.

Live from Coco Bongo's

My good friend Alex and I at the beach dinner party.

Me and the great mentor and good friend, who hired me.

The following day we had the opportunity to visit Xcaret a natural reserve park where you experience Mayan culture, wildlife, and many adventure activities. My friends and I decided to do the underground cave swim, where we swam through caves across the park and came out on the other side at the beach. Xcaret is a truly breath taking place and after experiencing it for myself I now insist all my clients traveling to Mexico go here.

Back by the pool at the Riu

 I came out of that TL conference confident in myself and excited to be apart of such an amazing group of TL's. They have all been so supportive of me and mentored me through the good and bad this year. At the end of the day I couldn't ask for a better job- I get to travel for a living and have gained so many new friends along the way. This is just the beginning- looking forward to many more conferences and many more memories NYCH's <3

NYCH TL CONFERENCE 2013

stayed tuned......next stop Global Ball Conference in MACAU!! Looking for a job in the travel industry ? We are always hiring, visit www.libertytravel.com/careers  to apply!