“Your job may be 9 to 5, but your career is 24/7,” she told the bankers in attendance. “Every person you meet deserves your undivided attention. It’s not about what they can do for you — it’s about what you can do for them.
“Once they understand that, they’ll become key to your success and your bank’s success.”
Schwartz’s message was even more meaningful when she shared with the bankers in the room how her own grandparents had traveled for years with their hometown bank in Wisconsin.
“And even though I now travel the world in my work, I myself still bank with my hometown bank back in Wisconsin,” she said.
Other seminar sessions were led by bankers themselves as three participated in a panel discussion about banking trends, four more led breakout sessions, and another shared her bank’s programs for protecting older clients against financial fraud.
Three Meet the Banker sessions took place and more than 8,000 individual six-minute appointments were held between bank travel directors and travel industry members. Underscoring the significance of this market segment, more than three-dozen tour operators were in attendance, many of them coming as major sponsors of the event.
Delegates were treated to all meals during their stay as is customary at the BankTravel Conference. Tour operator sponsors and their partners hosted two breakfasts — TRIPS and Nomad Adventures LLC — and two lunches — Collette Vacations and Globus family of brands.
The second dinner was hosted by next year’s host city, Virginia Beach, Va. That conference takes place Feb. 5-7.
For information about the 2013 BankTravel Conference, visit www.banktravel.com.
