The AWTE has gone from strength to strength in 2007 and I can hardly believe another year has whistled by!

We set up the first Entrepreneurs Club providing a private meeting for those running their own businesses to meet like-minded associates in a confidential setting. Successful Entrepreneurs, Patricia Rosello Palmer, founder of £20million business Medinland, and Nikki Spoor, founder and partner of Whitehart Associates, were guest speakers at our lunches.

In July, we teamed up with delegates from the Institute of Travel and Tourism to hear our member, Jane Dyson, successful Entrepreneur and founder of The Network, speak at our Summer Lunch. The event was very well attended at the Royal Garden Hotel and has now become a calendar event.

A new event for AWTE was the inaugural Chairman’s Lunch, giving the Chairman an opportunity to honour an important person in the industry. Trevor Harding has always been a loyal supporter of the AWTE and has helped us to raise thousands of pounds for charity over many years. It was my great pleasure to thank Trevor for all his support at a lunch, which took place in November at No1 Whitehall.

We are very pleased that our Christmas lunch (< click here for pictures), sponsored by abc Connection, Lotus UK and Onlinetraveltraining was a huge success. Fiona Bruce, staunch supporter of Childline, was our after dinner speaker and was very entertaining. All in all, you helped us to raise £15,659 for Childline and AnimalsAsia. The Benevolent Fund raffle raised an impressive £1,976. Thank you so much to all the wonderful companies, who donated prizes and to the people who bid for the prizes too.

Thank you to all our prize donors (in alphabetical order):

• AA Appointments
• Air France/KLM
• At Home In London
• Austrian Airlines
• Bellissima B
• Best Loved Hotels
• Cathy Matos Mexican Tours
• Chelsea Hotel Dubai
• Clarion Hotel IFSC Dublin
• Eurotunnel
• Gulf Air
• Hilton Hotels
• Hotels4U.com
• Hurtigruten
• Lufthansa
• Management Solutions
• Martin Roberts and Property QC
• Mexicana
• Mosimanns Private Dining Club
• New Connaught Rooms
• New Frontiers
• Onlinetraveltraining
• Real Hotel Company
• Royal Garden Hotel
• Silverjet
• Working Websites

In 2008, we look forward to meeting you at four wonderful lunches:

• Members Lunch for members only
• Summer Lunch in association with ITT and featuring one of our Entrepreneurs
• Chairman’s Honorary Lunch for members only
• Christmas Lunch for members and guests

We will also be holding three lunches in 2008 for the Private Entrepreneurs Club, exclusively for those running their own businesses.

All dates and guest speakers will be sent to you in January.

Other events such as seminars or networking events will be notified to you during the course of the year.

I am pleased to inform you that our founder Joan Richardson, who died in September 2007 aged 89, has left us a legacy. The legacy has been entrusted to June Liddiard and members of the Benevolent Committee, who will be making suggestions to the Executive Committee about how we should use the money. June is keen to capture the Entrepreneurial spirit of Joan and is happy to hear from any member regarding ideas you may have. We look forward to informing you in the New Year regarding our decision.

Our membership is increasing steadily and we are very pleased to welcome so many new members this year and with such high profiles in the industry. Do continue to encourage other women achievers to join. Just email their contact details to teresa.brain@btconnect.com.

I would like to thank the Committee for working so hard during 2007 despite such pressing personal and work demands on their time.

On behalf of the Committee I would like to warmly wish you all a very happy Christmas and most prosperous 2008.

Best Wishes,

Julia Feuell
Chairman – Association of Women Travel Executives

We held our legendary Christmas lunch at the New Connaught Rooms on our traditional day, the first Monday in December, heralding the official start of the travel industry's festive season.

Many travel industry friends donated superb prizes for a raffle, online auction and a very vocal and enthusiastic stage auction conducted by the indefatigable Trevor Harding.

This year the guest speaker was Fiona Bruce. Fiona has been with the BBC since 1989 presenting programmes that include the corporation's Ten O'Clock News, Real Story and Crimewatch UK and also appearing in programmes such as Call my Bluff.

Fiona is also a patron of Childline, one of the charities chosen by AWTE Chairman Julia Feuell to benefit from funds raised at the lunch.

The Animals Asia Foundation will also be a beneficiary of the funds raised at the event.

Your Committee has been working hard behind the scenes to create the best Christmas lunch ever on Monday, 3rd December 2007!!

Our new events Chairman, Aphrodite Burton, has booked the multi-million pound, beautifully refurbished New Connaught Rooms and you will be absolutely delighted with the results (and won’t care anyway after the haze of a happy lunch!)

The theme this year is a Christmas without Cruelty as the charities chosen are Childline and Animals Asia Foundation.

Our main charity is Childline and Fiona Bruce, supportive patron of the charity, has agreed to appear as guest speaker. Trevor Harding will auction 10 special prizes to raise money for this very valuable charity. We desperately need your support for this charity and all donations will be gratefully received.

We will also be running the first online travel auction before and during the event. This type of auction is simply a high tech version of the highly popular silent auction. Thanks to The abc Connection for sponsoring this cutting edge technology, this auction will now raise much needed money for both charities. Raffle prizes will also be available on the day.

For those of you who book corporate tables, you will be delighted to know that you’ll be able to meet your guests at pre-designated tables in the reception area – no more hovering around the bar trying to spot your lunch guests and colleagues! Your table will be clearly marked along with any extra drinks you wish to order – a stress-free experience!!

The children’s choir will be back by popular demand and although we won’t have the ‘red bar’ to enjoy after lunch, the Champagne Bar is set to be even better – complete with a ‘wheel of fortune’ and prizes for all to win!!

Cost:
Individual tickets:

• Member £68 + VAT £11.90, total £70.90
• Non-member £75 + VAT £13.12, total £88.12

Contacts:

To reserve your tickets click here.

For Auction donations – contact Aphrodite Burton at aphroditeburton@hotmail.com or 07775 584 725. Thank you for your generosity!!!!

Sponsorship opportunities available!

Reception and Main event

We maintain a policy of selecting just three sponsors to ensure that we fully promote the organisation and recognise their contribution effectively.

Sponsorship includes:

• Table of 10
• Opportunity to brand reception and main event halls
• Inclusion in photos shoot and press information
• Logo on tickets and programmes
• Logo on AWTE website
• Logo on plasma screens during lunch
• Mentions by Trevor Harding and Toastmaster

Choir

£400 donation to local school in sponsorship of the children’s choir

Your company logo will be printed on brochure and listed on the website.(You may wish to have a logo visibility with the choir such as hats, clothing, etc.)

Contact Aphrodite Burton if you are interested in sponsorship!
email: aphroditeburton@hotmail.com
tel: 07775 584 725

I look forward to seeing you all on the day!

Julia Feuell
Chairman AWTE UK Ltd
Managing Director
New Frontiers
DDI: 020 7923 6429
email: julia@newfrontiers.co.uk

AWTE - A Bit of Old Hat ? - NEVER!

Recently a well known travel industry man, who shall remain nameless, asked me why there was such a thing as a female association - "A bit old hat, isn't it, Julia? I wouldn't be seen dead in an all-male association!" Well, taken aback I may have been, but reflect on this I certainly did and when the Committee's shrieks died down, we all came to one conclusion … which you'll have to read at the end of this newsletter … oy, no scrolling!!

Your Committee held a Strategy Day recently to consider the views and ideas of many members from the Members' Lunch we held earlier in the year. We also decided to reflect on our 'reason for being' - as our rather outspoken male colleague had started quite a debate!

We decided to focus on the kind of events that we do best. It seems that business and social lunches are well attended and enjoyed and most other associations nowadays really focus on evening events. We reflected on the very successful Summer Lunch in association with ITT, which featured entrepreneur Jayne Dyson. We also feel the private entrepreneurs' lunches for our members are very unusual too and not offered by other associations. The AWTE Christmas Lunch is of course the most talked about event in the industry.

We have decided to focus on quality lunch events with industry and member guest speakers. We will run four main lunches each year:

Members' Lunch - Feb
Summer Lunch - July
Chairman's Lunch - October
Christmas Lunch - December

We will continue to run the private Entrepreneurs' lunch three times a year. Any other events - such as training seminars or product showcases - will be run at members' request. Any member can request to host an event and we will be happy to market this to our members.

We felt we needed to have fixed dates in the calendar for all of these events and to give plenty of advance notice to encourage maximum attendance. We also reflected on payment methods and will be improving the booking system to make it easier, with online registration and payments to be introduced shortly. We'll encourage more companies to participate in sponsorship to help keep ticket prices down. We are hoping to improve our online technology with links to photos and guest attendee lists from previous lunches/events.

There were other outstanding ideas to work on, too, such as a small business support area online, comprising of standard employment contracts, advice sheets written by members for members (e.g. 10 Golden Rules to media buying, recruiting, negotiating, etc.) Also to give more help for women climbing the career ladder with the very large corporates and the challenges they face. All these ideas will be given further consideration (and costings!).

In short, our Association is set to go from strength to strength. We want to run relevant events enjoyed by our members with plenty of opportunity for quality networking with peers and business associates.

So for that conclusion then…

Women like to lunch and enjoy both male and female company and have a good ole chat about what goes on in their lives, both professionally and personally. Within AWTE this has been going on for more than 50 years (when in fact women did wear beautiful hats, I'm told, at the Dorchester events!) and I don't see why that should change.. (well, hats and gloves aren't obligatory any more!). We still like to look beautiful in business and I'm sure our cheeky, nameless, shameless man and his chums will want to continue to admire us!!

Look out for the next events coming up! Emails following very shortly and don't forget to check the EVENTS page on our website!

Julia Feuell
Chairman AWTE UK Ltd
Managing Director
New Frontiers
DDI: 020 7923 6429
email: julia@newfrontiers.co.uk

Some 90 members of AWTE and ITT met on Thursday, 5 July, for a wonderful Summer Lunch at the Royal Gardens Hotel in Kensington. AWTE member and winner of the CBI 'First Woman of Media' award Jane Dyson gave a riveting presentation which was followed by a question-and-answer session with Travel Weekly columnist Juliet Dennis.

It was a great occasion and is destined to become a fixture in the travel industry's calendar in years to come. Click here for more of the story, lots of pictures and see who came to the party!

The Benevolent Fund celebrated its Ruby Anniversary - 40 years of sterling work of assisting AWTE members in difficult times - with a wonderful celebration at the InterContinental Hotel in London. Chairman Bella Rangel Callan created a truly 'ruby' ambience as you can see from the stunning table decorations:

The festivities started with a champagne reception in memory of Phyllis Chapman who left us a generous legacy and would certainly have approved. Seen here enjoying a glass of pink bubbly

(l-r) Founder Kay Holloway, Dorothea Galewski, Kay Marshall and Bella Rangel Callan



(l-r) Audrey Ladeveze, Phil Bocarro and Diane Austin



Lunch was a lively affair enjoyed by some 45 guests



... and we even had a duo who entertained us with a medley of popular and jazz songs



AWTE Chairman Julia Feuell thanked Bella for arranging such a wonderful event and presented her with a beautiful bouquet of flowers - echoing the ruby theme - assisted by Phil Bocarro, Kay Holloway and June Liddiard.



We also said farewell and thank you to two AWTE members who had done so much for the Benevolent Fund
Linda Smith and Lolo Wivesson (spot the trademark handbag?)



Altogether a wonderful celebration enjoyed by so many of our long-standing members:
(l-r) Vera Bono, Janet Driver, Audrey Chessell, Dita Boettcher and Aileen Sweeney.

Jane Dyson, managing director of The Network, one of the UK’s top ten field marketing companies, was a winner at the Real Business/CBI First Women Awards held last night at the London Marriott, Grosvenor Square.

The Real Business/CBI First Women Awards were set up three years ago to recognize women who are trailblazers and pioneers in business and whose achievements and ‘firsts’ have helped to remove barriers and open up opportunities for others.

The judges said: “Jane is an inspiration to young people. Her story shows that you don’t have to be born rich to succeed. She spotted a niche, took it seriously and built a successful business distributing newspapers. Her business also helps many working women by enabling them to work flexible hours.”

Jane Dyson started the business in 1990 with an initial investment of only a couple of hundred pounds of savings and worked out of her mother’s dining room. The company now employs 78 permanent staff and has an army of nearly 20,000 field workers.

Initially specializing in the travel industry the Network has since added a media division and it was Jane Dyson’s entry in the media category of the Real Business/CBI First Women Awards that has won her this accolade. In 2000 Jane had pitched for her first media client and successfully launched newspapers in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh. More recently The Network were charged with planning and organizing, in great secrecy, the launch of London Lite against rival The London Paper, which 400 merchandisers now distribute daily.

Jane said of her award, “I am proud to have won this very prestigious award. The seventeen years since I set up The Network have gone like a flash, the company originally specialised in field marketing services for the travel industry with the media division added later. Although I won the award in the Media category it is the travel industry where my heart is!”

For further information visit The Network.

Dear members,

First of all I’d like to wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year! I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas holidays and are managing to keep to your New Year resolutions.

The AWTE enjoyed increased membership in 2006 and is looking forward to greeting many new members in 2007. Our annual Christmas luncheon was very well attended at Café Royal and Dame Stella Rimington’s speech was truly captivating. We raised £18,801.25 for Refuge, the charity for women and children suffering domestic violence. This generous donation to Refuge has only been made possible by the generous support of those companies that donated prizes and the kind people that bid for them. We are hoping to organize blogs and photographs of people enjoying their prizes during 2007. You can read all about the Christmas Lunch and see some photos on our NEWS page.

Now in 2007, we are looking forward to an exciting year.

In February, we will have the first informal meeting of the Entrepreneurs Club. This will be at the Millennium Copthorne Tara, Kensington. The lunch meeting will provide a confidential environment to hear from new member Patricia Rossello-Palmer, Director of Medinland Ltd, who will be chatting about her business successes and concerns. This meeting is open to any AWTE member with a shareholding in her business, who has signed the confidentiality agreement.

We are organising more formal events (non-confidential) in April and September for the Entrepreneurs Club, which will feature prominent business leaders and will be open to Entrepreneurs Club members and non-members, including all AWTE members with an interest in business subjects, to attend.

A ‘Members Only’ lunch will be organized on 7th March 2007 for new and old members to enjoy networking, exchanging business and catching up with friends and colleagues.

The AGM will be held on 24th April 2007. However, you will shortly receive a ballot paper regarding your view on remaining a member of IFWTO. A letter explaining our membership will be sent to you along with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ vote to be returned to the Committee as soon as possible, no later than 24 January 2007.

The Benevolent Fund celebrates its 40th year in 2007 and so special arrangements are underway for a fantastic lunch, which is to be held on 30th June 2007.

As corporate members of CIMTIG and partners with SHINE, the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, SKAL, Everywoman and other organizations, AWTE will continue to let you know about relevant seminars and other events as they arise, which you may want to attend. You can attend some of these events at reduced prices, which we have negotiated. We will also be arranging various networking events during the course of 2007 for members to get together. Keep an eye on our EVENTS page.

Your Committee works very hard to arrange interesting events and to keep the association running smoothly. Our Vice-Chairman Tricia Handley’s own business, Pinpoint Communications, has been really taking off. Whilst Tricia will continue as Vice-Chairman, we urgently need a member to step forward to help organize and run events. Creative ideas and contacts with hoteliers and venues would be very useful. The member would shadow Tricia initially during a ‘hand-over’ period and can then be formally elected at the AGM in April. Linda Smith has also been working very hard on Finance but will soon be relocating. We urgently need a new member to shadow Linda and handle AWTE’s financial affairs. Knowledge of accounts and AWTE’s accounting package ‘QuickBooks’ would be very useful.

The Committee is voluntary and meets monthly to discuss Association business. Please contact tricia@pinpointcomms.com if you can help on events and linda@thesmithsmailbox.net if you can help on finance. We would love you to get involved and help us to push the Association ahead in 2007.

Finally, if you have any suggestions regarding the Association or events you would like to attend, please let me know – I’d love to hear from you!

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: "Over 500 attended the lunch this year and I am delighted that we have raised a fabulous contribution of around £20,000 which will go towards providing safe house accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence."

Click HERE for the pictures of a great event!