SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Download full schedule here
9:45 – 10:45 a.m.
Opening General Session: “The Power of Unity Behind Great Experiences”
Speaker: Chris Singleton
Sponsored by IMGlobal
In this keynote, Chris delivers a powerful message on the importance of love, connection, and unity in creating unforgettable experiences. Through personal stories and clear instruction, Chris will inspire attendees to always find common ground and recognize that true strength is found in standing united.
11 a.m. – noon
“Perfecting Your Sales Process & Mastering the Art of the Close”
Speaker: Andrea Ross
Join Andrea for a dynamic workshop designed to help you sharpen your sales skills and drive bigger results. Here’s what you will learn:
- Master the buyer’s journey: Understand the stages of Awareness, Consideration, and Decision to meet your prospects exactly where they are.
- Shift to consultative selling: Move beyond pitching to investigate needs, resist jumping to solutions, and master the art of “selling to the next step.”
- Implement the POAD framework: Learn to define the Purpose, Outcome, Agenda, and Decision for every step of your sales process to maintain focus and control.
- Overcome objections: Discover proactive questioning and powerful techniques like LAMA (Listen, Acknowledge, Make a Statement, Ask a Question) and Feel, Felt & Found to surface and handle common objections like “too expensive” or “need time to think.”
- Increase your conversion rate: Identify critical gaps in your current process and gain two immediate, actionable takeaways that can lead to big results and a higher closing ratio.
“AI for Tour Operators: Having a Strategic Plan to Optimize Your Business”
Speaker: Dan Flores, Satisfi Labs
Tour operators have a powerful advantage in the AI era: rich destination content, repeatable workflows, and constant traveler questions. But many businesses are still using AI in scattered, experimental ways—testing tools for quick copy or basic answers without a clear plan for scaling results. This session is designed to help tour operators move from “trying AI” to using it as a practical business capability that improves efficiency, guest experience, and revenue. We’ll explore how AI can support the entire tour lifecycle, from trip discovery and booking to pre-departure support, on-trip communication, and post-trip retention. This session will cover how AI can help tour operators create and scale content faster (tour descriptions, itineraries, FAQs, destination guides, ads, emails, and social posts), improve response times and consistency across customer communications, and streamline operational tasks that often slow teams down. Finally, we’ll walk through a simple framework for writing a strategic AI plan: defining business objectives, selecting priority use cases, preparing content and data, choosing the right tools, establishing governance and quality control, and measuring success with clear KPIs. Attendees will leave with a roadmap for turning AI into a scalable advantage—not just a one-off experiment.
1:30 – 2:45 p.m.
“2026 Travel Trends: Opportunities for the Taking”
Speaker: Michelle Stark, Red Sage Communications
In this high-energy presentation, Michelle Stark will share core trends shaping travel in 2026. Drawing on the latest data, as well as on Red Sage’s work marketing destinations, attractions, and experience providers, Michelle’s collaborative presentation will help you discover what’s motivating today’s travelers, how planning and booking patterns are shifting, and what it takes to keep visitors coming back. You’ll also leave with meaningful advice on how to improve integrated digital strategies for a pipeline aligned with modern behavior across diverse segments. No matter what type of business you represent, this is truly a don’t miss!
“The Legal Realities of Managing Your People, Your Customers, and Your Travel Partners”
Speaker: Jeff Ment, The Ment Law Group
Join attorney Jeff Ment for 60 minutes of interactive, interesting, and thought-provoking discussions to help tour operators navigate the legal world of packaged travel.
2:45 – 3:45 p.m.
“Make it Work(able): 3 Principles to Get Teams to Work Together”
Speaker: Jon Yarian
Your people have better tools and resources than ever before … so why can’t they get anything done? Human relationships and decision-making are your biggest weakness. Turn them into strengths with intentional teambuilding and proven techniques that streamline communication, reduce unproductive friction, and make performance predictable and nearly inevitable. Jon will discuss three concrete, practical principles you can implement immediately with any team.
4 – 5:15 p.m.
Biznet
Facilitator: Bob Rouse, NTA
Sponsored by Sight & Sound Theatres and Delta Air Lines
Make the most of our time together by joining with your colleagues in this all-attendee, interactive, thought-provoking session. Participants will share information and solutions, discuss industry trends, and create new ventures. You’ll leave this session with ideas for new projects and potential partnerships that you can get to work on as soon as you get home—and you’ll have plenty of contacts to help you.
9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
“The Transformative Power of Travel”
Speaker: Sucheta Rawal
Travel can break down stereotypes, preserve culture, uplift local voices, and inspire visitors to become lifelong ambassadors for the places they experience. In this compelling keynote, Sucheta Rawal draws from 130-plus countries and over a decade of on-the-ground storytelling to illustrate how simple acts can shift worldviews and change lives. Through vivid personal stories of breaking bread across continents, Sucheta shows how intentional, people-first travel doesn’t just transform travelers—it strengthens the destinations that welcome them. She offers a practical, actionable lens for attendees to design programs that foster deeper cultural understanding, encourage responsible behavior, and generate lasting positive impact. Attendees will leave inspired and equipped with ideas to shape travel that is more empathetic, more inclusive, and more transformative for everyone involved.
9:45 – 10:45 a.m.
“From Foodie to Changemaker: The Next Wave of Culinary Travel”
Speaker: Sucheta Rawal
Travelers are no longer satisfied with just a meal—they want to know whose recipe it is, what story it tells, and how their visit makes a difference. In this session, culinary travel expert Sucheta Rawal reveals how destinations can use food to spotlight underrepresented communities, preserve heritage, and future-proof their brand in a crowded marketplace. She’ll show attendees how to move beyond generic food tours and restaurant lists, and instead co-create experiences with grandmas, street vendors, farmers, immigrant chefs, and culinary changemakers. Attendees will leave with concrete tools to design and sell culinary journeys that command higher value, attract purpose-driven travelers, and generate measurable benefits for local communities. Come hungry for ideas—and leave with an “edible playbook.”
9:45 – 10:45 a.m.
“From Intention to Action: Operationalizing Meaningful Travel for Tour Operators”
Speakers: Greg Takehara, Tourism Cares; and Christina Werner, Custom Holidays
Sustainability and meaningful travel are no longer “nice to have”—but for many tour operators, the question remains: Where do I actually start, and how do I make this work in my business? In this fireside chat, we’ll dig into the how behind meaningful travel, building on the foundations of the NTA Meaningful Travel Guide and turning principles into practical action. Moderated as a candid, conversational exchange, this session will focus on real-world application—from itinerary design and supplier relationships to traveler communication and operational decision-making. Together, we’ll explore the following:
- Practical ways tour operators are integrating meaningful travel into their tours today
- Common misconceptions that make sustainability feel overwhelming—and how to move past them
- Simple first steps operators can take without reinventing their business model
- How to navigate challenges around cost, time, sourcing, and traveler expectations
- The role of partnerships, tools, and shared standards in making progress easier
This conversation meets you where you are, whether you’re just beginning your sustainability journey or you’re looking to strengthen what you’ve already started. We’ll also highlight how Tourism Cares supports operators with actionable tools, vetted partners, and a clear pathway to move from intent to impact. If you’re ready to move beyond theory and start taking meaningful action, this session is for you.
11 a.m. – noon
All-attendee Power Hour
Speakers: Catherine Prather, NTA, and Michelle Pino, Northeast Limited Tours
Wrap up your time at Contact by joining your NTA colleagues for an interactive capstone session. You’ll have the chance to share key takeaways from what you learned during our time in Charleston, and you can also discuss practical next steps for implementing these ideas once you get home.