AWTE held their legendary Christmas lunch at the Café Royal heralding the official start of the travel industry's festive season.

This year the guest speaker was Dame Stella Rimington, the first female director general of MI5 and the first DG to be named publicly.

Dame Stella is patron of the charity Refuge, which this year benefited from the fund raising at the lunch. Many travel industry friends donated superb prizes for a raffle, silent auction and a very vocal and enthusiastic stage auction conducted by Travel Weekly's own Trevor Harding.

Refuge provides safe houses for women and children escaping domestic violence. AWTE Chairwoman Julia Feuell said: "Almost 500 guests attended the lunch this year and I am delighted that we have raised a fabulous contribution of more than £18,000 which will go towards providing safe house accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence."

Click HERE for the pictures of a great event!

AWTE Chairman Julia Feuell, MD of New Frontiers, was chosen by the BBC to respond to recent high profile news items relating to changing employment conditions within the travel industry. You can read Julia’s blog to Travel Weekly below for details of the full interview.

You can still catch the news item on BBC News 24 today. Alternatively you can click here to view the item on the internet.

Julia’s blog to Travel Weekly Editor Martin Couzins:

"Today I was interviewed by the BBC regarding the potential job losses to be announced on Thursday 14th December.

Why am I telling you all this! Well, very worryingly, I have no idea how the BBC will report my comments and wanted you to know what I said. I do hope I’ve done the industry proud and that all those people facing potential redundancy can feel a little better knowing that it is not their fault and that if they wish to continue in travel, there is still loads of opportunity for them."

Once again we had a fabulous Christmas Lunch, this time at the Café Royal. Almost 500 members and their guests enjoyed a traditional Christmas dinner, with all the trimmings. We raised over £18,000 for Chairman Julia Feuell's chosen charity, Refuge, with the help of our excellent auctioneer, Travel Weekly's inimitable Trevor Harding.

Dame Stella Rimington, former head of MI5, gave a most entertaining speech about her time at the agency. Click here and go to page 23 to read all about it in the digital edition of Travel Weekly.

A full report, including pictures, will be published shortly.

The following sad message has come to us from Derek Butters:

'It is with deep regret that I must inform you that Jenna passed away during the night of Thursday Nov 16th. She had been having chemotherapy for lung cancer for about 2 months and was showing some positive response but after tests in St Mary's hospital last Thursday she went home, was very comfortable, if rather weak and enjoyed a lamb biryani before turning in at 7pm. She was found to have left this life after the nurse called to see her the following morning and was unable to gain access.

Details of the funeral will be sent to you as soon as these are known.'

The SKÅL World Travel Market Lunch, which has been an annual tradition for many years, took place once again at the Crowne Plaza Docklands Hotel. Almost 100 Skålleagues from all around the world came to network and enjoy the company of their friends and business partners over a delicious lunch.

This year marked the first time that AWTE offically joined the event as a member club under the umbrella of the SKÅL Atlantic Region. AWTE Chairman Julia Feuell and almost 20 AWTE members participated. Most prominent was our own Janet Kevan-Marcelo who acted as the official host in her capacity as President SKÅL London.

Janet is seen here with SKÅL International Immediate Past President Jan Sunde

We also welcomed Jim Power, Secretary General, SKÅL International

An altogether enjoyable occasion that gave us the opportunity to see many friends, old and new.

We held another of our NetWORKing Rendezvous at the Heights Restaurant and Bar of the Saint Georges Hotel on 1 November. With preparations for next week's World Travel Market in full swing, not too many of our members could join us but those who did obviously had a good time.

(l-r) Maggie Dobson, Helen Simpson and Hoda Lacey enjoying a glass and a giggle.

The AWTE Entrepreneurs Club launch was a great success and my thanks particularly to Gita Patel from Stargate Investment Capital and Trapezia for hosting this event.

My vision for the Entrepreneurs Club going forward is two-fold. Firstly, the sponsored event we held was really interesting and useful and we would like to organise further formal events open to female and male entrepreneurs/senior managers to attend. This environment encourages networking with other Entrepreneurs Club women members but also - by invitation - with men, who own and run businesses and who are keen to share ideas and best practice. If you have any suggestions for topics or speakers (who could of course also be male!), do let me know – julia@newfrontiers.co.uk.

Secondly, the informal way in which women gain trust in each other and share ideas and concerns about business is invaluable. I’d like to keep this environment exclusive to people, who meet two criteria

      1) they are a member of the Association of Women Travel Executives and
      2) they have a shareholding in their business.

We will organise lunches quarterly in a private dining restaurant to get member entrepreneurs together.

I would like to keep this group intimate as conversation needs to be in a comfortable and confidential environment (so more than one lunch date may be available according to demand.) Our Events and Vice Chairman, Tricia Handley, will shortly be releasing details about where our first ‘informal’ meeting of the Entrepreneurs Club will be held. It will be a date in January 2007.

If you have an interest in joining the Entrepreneurs Club and coming to the lunches, please find attached an application form, which also contains confidentiality clauses. If you know anyone who isn’t yet a member and who you think would be interested, please direct them to our MEMBERSHIP page and let Membership Chairman Teresa Brain know. We’d love to convince them to join us.

Finally, we are about to embark on a recruitment drive for new members. We will be pro-actively approaching senior women, initially from Tourist Boards, and will then be systematically approaching other sectors. This will be in the form of a telephone call about the Association and followed up with membership details and our new brochure as relevant. If you know anyone we should be approaching, do please email us their details – awteuk@awte.org.uk.

09 October saw the launch of the AWTE Entrepreneurs Club, sponsored by Stargate Capital and Trapezia. Guest speaker Gita Patel related her experiences en route to creating Trapezia - the first ever investment fund with a focus on supporting women in business. Gita’s impressive track record includes being a board member of the London Chamber of Commerce Asian Business Committee, a business angel investor, and she is listed in the 'Asian Power 100' as one of the most influential women of today.

(l-r) AWTE Chairman Julia Feuell with Gita Patel, Director of Stargate Capital and founder of Trapezia

29 budding AWTE entrepreneurs attended the reception and participated in an active Q&A session which was so obviously inspirational, leaving members with good contacts for sound business expansion advice and food for thought. This event leads the way forward to AWTE members who seek to consult with like-minded members who share their ambition for growth and need a forum for further discussion.

(l-r) Karen Ramirez making a point to Vice Chairman Tricia Handley



(l-r) Tricia Handley, Julia Feuell, Gita Patel, Mandy Nickerson and Patricia Rossello-Palmer

As one of our participants said:

'Thank you for a wonderfully stimulating evening with like-minded entrepreneurial women! What a joy! It was an absolute pleasure to meet you and thank you again for an inspiring evening.'

NB: The next Entrepreneurs Club will meet in January 2007 at the Millennium Copthorne Tara, with lunch and guest speaker, (date tbc). In order to attend, guests must be AWTE members and have signed the confidentiality agreement for submission to the Committee. For further information on how to join the AWTE Entrepreneurs Club please contact Julia Feuell by email or telephone 020 7923 6429.

As the weather cools, the opportunities to network hot up! Your Committee is keen to ensure that being a member of the AWTE provides some of the best opportunities to network, learn, make friends and do business.

I’m very pleased to launch the travel industry’s first Entrepreneurs’ Club run exclusively by the AWTE. Our launch event, fully sponsored by Stargate Capital and Trapezia, on Monday 9th October, is open to women running their own business. Gita Patel will share tips about how to grow their business and raise finance.

This event is closely followed by our very first conference in association with everywoman.co.uk on Wednesday, 15th November 2006. We are so excited to join this very stimulating conference and to be able to host our own panel debates. We’ll be reflecting, debating and discussing why people are leaving the industry in huge numbers. We’ll also be looking at how our companies and staff cope with terrorist alerts and terror campaigns and the impact this has on business. Details of this conference will be on the AWTE website > Events page next week. We’ve negotiated an incredible rate of £75 + VAT, exclusive to AWTE members to attend.

As we progress into winter, why not join some friends and associates at the networking lunch with SKÅL at World Travel Market on Tuesday, 7th November. If you can’t make that - or even if you do - come to the AWTE NetWORKING Rendezvous after work on Wednesday, 1 November, at the Saint Georges Hotel – you’re sure to meet interesting people there! No need to book, just show up and enjoy a glass of wine, compliments of your Committee, and bring along colleagues and friends.

Bookings are also now open for our annual Christmas Lunch on Wednesday, 6th December, and places are already going fast. This year, we’re at the Café Royal so places will be limited. Click here to see which companies have already booked. I’m really looking forward to this glittering, prestigious event, which starts the Christmas festivities with panache.

This year, the event is being sponsored by The Network, New Frontiers, Pinpoint communications and our media partner Travel Weekly, enabling us to help keep the cost of corporate entertaining really low (compared to many events!) My sincere thanks go to First Choice, Property QC and Emirates for their most generous auction donations to raise money for a most worthy cause – Refuge. Two women die every week from domestic violence and thousands are affected by this gross abuse of human rights. If you have any prizes to donate for the auction, please let me know as soon as possible.

Finally, I am pleased to announce that we have set up a Careers Advice Line run by New Frontiers. Click here for confidential careers advice by email. We will shortly be able to offer legal advice on any matter too – so watch this space.

I do look forward to meeting you at the events, which promise to be a fun, informative and productive time.

What's Happening at AWTE?

        Loads.. is the answer!!

Your committee held a Strategy Day to discuss where the Association was heading and what we could do to improve. Monika Warburton, Company Secretary, commissioned some member research and discovered some interesting facts:

• 61.7% of our members are Owner Managers, Partners or Directors of companies.
• Over 85% of members hoped to get business opportunities as a result of their membership followed by
• 66% hoping to form new friendships.

The AWTE is best known for its caring ethos with many members having made life-long friends. I believe we are one of the few associations that has a benevolent fund to look after any member's hardships. Increasingly however, with time and business pressures, the necessity to gain business from memberships is pressing. We believe we can do both – women multi-task after all!

SO what are we introducing..

ENTREPRENEURS' CLUB – After meeting two very dynamic, high achieving ladies at our Chairman’s Supper, it struck me that it would be beneficial to form an ‘Entrepreneurs' Club’ for members who run their own business. The club will be to share ideas and troubles in a safe, confidential environment and help members to develop their businesses. The AWTE Entrepreneurs Club will be by invitation/ application and open to all members to apply. Watch for further details which will be published shortly!

IMPROVING NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES – The importance of ‘doing business’ at networking events drives the theme for the future. All networking events will be for members working in or servicing the travel industry and every effort will be made to ensure people meet each other easily and in a fun way. Some suggestions have included: moving places at lunches/ dinners, speed networking, a business card notice board to pick up each other's cards (useful for people you didn’t quite get to meet), better identification of committee members for you to chat to directly about any AWTE matter.

FIRST TRAVEL WOMEN’S CONFERENCE – We are very excited to participate in this years Everywoman.co.uk conference. AWTE will be hosting their own speakers for women in travel. Over 300 women from all types of businesses go to the conference and a small exhibition of finance companies, image consultants, business angels, training companies make the day very interesting and enjoyable. Watch out for further details on our website.

BETTER COMMUNICATION – We feel that we need to improve our communication to both members and the travel industry. Tricia Handley, Vice Chairman, has organised a monthly AWTE column in Travel Weekly to communicate women’s issues and inform about our events. Jane Richards has had great success getting AWTE events and stories to many trade publications to raise our profile. I felt that it is also important for your Chairman to let you know some of the issues raised at committee meetings and what our strategy/ plans are going forward. So you will receive ‘Chairman’s Newsletters’ periodically. Teresa Brain also intends to send emails about new members’ backgrounds and company services to get e-networking started early!

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE – Our membership still needs to be increased to improve the quality of networking. We are particularly keen to attract members from airlines, tourist boards, hotels and attraction companies. In order to update our membership offering, we’re going to introduce ‘corporate membership’ to allow multiple members from one company to attend an event at members’ rates.

Apologies if you found this newsletter rather long! We’ve had a lot to say!!

Julia Feuell
Chairman

Long-standing AWTE member Colleen Loney passed away a few days ago. Many members will remember her from her days at Air France, where she spent a good part of her career. Colleen was a member of AWTE for almost 30 years, having joined the Women's Travel Club, as it was known then, in 1978.

The funeral will be at Mortlake Crematorium at 2 pm on 23 August. Anyone planning to attend should please let Di Collins know, as she will be organising tea afterwards.

Flowers may be sent to the Funeral Directors, TH Sanders & Sons, 28/30 Kew Road, Richmond TW9 2NA.

Donations can be sent to either of these two charities : Kew Community Trust; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

About 20 members took up the invitation of the Executive Committee to network at our second Rendezvous over a complimentary glass of wine at the Saint Georges Hotel. We are planning to make this a regular event, giving current and potential members the chance to meet in an informal setting after work so look out for the next date and bring along your guests !

Chairman Julia Feuell raises a glass with Treasurer Linda Smith and members Gillian Green and Annie Lawler.

The last weekend in June was indeed a busy one for AWTE. On Saturday, 24 June, the Benevolent Fund held the Annual Summer Lunch for all Honorary and Associate Members at the Saint Georges Hotel and invited the Executive Committee to share in the festivities. More than 30 members came for this jolly occasion which has been a fixture in the AWTE calendar for many years. Benevolent Chairman Bella Rangel Callan once again had organised a superb event to which she warmly welcomed all the guests, including our current Chairman Julia Feuell and several members of the Executive Committee, Life President Joan Richardson and several Past Chairmen.

Founder and Life President Joan Richardson with the new AWTE logo.





Valerie Stone and Aileen Sweeney holding up the new banner.





Cynthia Alcantra and Barbara Hayward shared a table and a laugh with Past Chairmen Teresa Brain and Jackie Steadman, and Jackie's mother Doris Williams.





Founders Joan Richardson (just visible on the left) and Kay Holloway with current Chairman Julia Feuell and Past Chairmen Phil Bocarro and Dorothea Galewski. Treasurer Linda Smith and Federation Director and Benevolent Trustee Lolo Wivesson can just be seen at the next table.

Seminar and Chairman's Farewell Supper
22 May 06/Meza Restaurant

New member Karen Ramirez, Director of Lingo OMS Ltd., led a seminar on "Web Analytics" and gave us a fascinating insight into up-to-the-minute marketing methods which make use of the new medium, the world-wide web. Karen demonstrated that - coupled with the judicious use of email - web marketing can bring in new customers but importantly also maintain an ongoing relationship with established clients and so generate repeat business. Some 30 members and guests attended this very interesting seminar*, the first in a series we hope to be running over the next few months.

Chairman Julia Feuell with Karen Ramirez and Events Chairman Tricia Handley

Monika Warburton then introduced the new AWTE website which has been given a new look and a new address: http://www.awte.org.uk to reflect our new status as a company. She gave us a very brief overview of our own website, stressing the importance of using the 'Business Directory' as a platform for member-to-member business - do visit it and make yourself familiar with the many useful features you'll find there.

Gudrun Sullivan, Deputy General Manager, Austrian Airlines, with
Gaby Marcon, Director, SHINE People & Places,
and the new AWTE website.

After all this demanding brainwork it was time for the second, fun part of the evening: the Chairman's Farewell Supper. New Chairman Julia Feuell thanked Past Chairman Jackie Steadman for the sterling work she had done over the past year, overcoming the challenge of a severe injury at the start of her year in office to take us on our new path to a dynamic organization. Julia presented Jackie with a lovely piece of jewellery, made by our own Bella Rangel Callan, as a token of our appreciation.

Julia Feuell presenting a gift to Jackie Steadman

We were very pleased to see a number of new members at this gathering at Meza, a Spanish-themed tapas bar in Soho:

Jackie Anderson and guest, Jo Rix, both of DG & G Travel, with Kathryn Bullock,
Managing Director of her new venture, Villas for Travel Ltd.

Sharing a happy moment and a well-deserved glass of wine:

PR Chairman Jane Richards, Director, Brighter Group, and a
smiling Past Chairman Jackie Steadman, Director, Traveltime World.

A great evening, mixing education with networking in a funky setting!

* If you would like a CD of Karen's presentation send her an email.

IFWTO 37th Convention
Athens, 28 March-2 April 2006

Annual General Meeting
26 April 06/Saint Georges Hotel

Our new Committee was elected at the Annual General Meeting, held Wednesday, 26 April, at the Saint Georges Hotel, London. Vice Chairman Julia Feuell took over from Chairman Jackie Steadman and Tricia Handley was elected Vice Chairman, whilst continuing to hold the brief of Events. All the other members of the Committee were re-elected to their current posts.

Details of the new Committee can be found on our Committee page, the reports of the Officers and Chairmen of the various sub-committees in our Member's Pages; the Minutes will be published shortly.

Almost 30 members came to the AGM which was very lively and positive. We thanked outgoing Chairman Jackie Steadman for her excellent leadership in what has been a challenging year and welcomed new Chairman Julia Feuell who will continue to take the Association forward in new directions.

We also introduced AWTE's new logo which will appear on all our stationery and the re-vamped website which will be launched shortly.

Altogether a very successful evening that ended on a very optimistic note.

Do put Monday, 22 May, into your diary for the next interesting AWTE event - details on the EVENTS page.