Guest blogger # 3 - Andy Washington (again)

Andy Washington, sales director at Cosmos, emails again (thoughts on the first day):

"The conference sessions are due to begin at 9 , But by the look of some people they've only just got in from the night before! Work hard/play hard!

"The sessions kick off with the introductions of local officials followed by Prof Richard Scase's view on the Global Remix and customer demographics.

"This guy needs to slow down otherwise he'll blow a gasket. He rattles off an entertaining and informative presentation which suggests men and women are far happier being single or divorced.

"Jeff Gazzard puts his stance forward in session 2 for saving the environment. His 15 minutes are summed up much clearer by Dermot Blastland with a follow presentation in 2 minutes.

"There is clearly a lot of work for the industry to do to tackle and influence climate change iin a positive way and Dermot's passion for this subject is inspiring.

"Manny is up next to tell us how Cook's will take on the world and how they will do it. Unfortunately he can't really tell us because quite rightly he had a loyalty to his own staff first and they will be briefed on the 18 June.

"Manny's honest shines through but 10 minutes before this session we all received the news about the new TC board and some shock waves swept through the audience.

"Next up Richard Reeves who gives more marriage counselling. It pays to be single they keep telling us! I thought this was a travel conference.

"The marriage made in heaven though was the water volley ball competition in partnership with the travel inndustry. Oh dear, the view from my balcony has just been ruined!

"Surely the winning team would be the team that actually could get the ball over the net. I'm not sure this event will be back, but it's more liekly than some of the random comments from some speakers!

"All in all a good and entertaining day. I've had some excellent meetings too, so trust me there is lots of work being done too.

"Now where's the bar, more networking to do before another early start!"