{"id":1003,"date":"2024-10-30T08:18:07","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T08:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/?p=1003"},"modified":"2025-05-05T19:19:59","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T19:19:59","slug":"preparing-for-a-successful-2025-direct-travel-hosts-direct-access-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/preparing-for-a-successful-2025-direct-travel-hosts-direct-access-in-chicago\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing for a Successful 2025 Direct Travel Hosts Direct Access in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Major travel retailer Direct Travel <\/a>recently held its annual conference, \u201cDirect Access,\u201d in Chicago from October 7 to October 9.<\/p>\n

Taking place at the iconic Hilton Chicago, the conference welcomed over 300 attendees including agency managers, advisors and I\/Cs, and supplier partners from across North America.<\/p>\n

Events included Strategic Partner panels discussing trending topics followed by engaging, small group ideation sessions. Over 3,000 matched appointments between advisors and partners focused on building business into 2025. Professional Development sessions highlighted a showcase of Direct Travel\u2019s latest technology release: Direct Tracker, a custom-built commission management platform.<\/p>\n

During the annual Give Back event, held this year in cooperation with the Collette Foundation, attendees made 278 blankets to support a local chapter of Project Linus<\/a>. \u201cThis team-building aspect of the conference is a highlight for many,\u201d said Joelle Goldman, VP Host Services & Luxury Hotel Program. \u201cThe opportunity to work together and get to know each other while giving back is truly amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event kicked off with great fanfare as the “Blues Brothers” (aka Stephen Smith and Gerard Bellino) made their entrance at the welcome reception.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday Night, the GEM Awards gala dinner recognized over 150 top performing advisors across North America who achieved Sapphire, Diamond or Ruby sales status with Direct Travel. \u201cIt was a wonderful event for learning, networking and motivation,\u201d said Denver-based Gerard Bellino, Direct Travel’s President, Leisure Travel. \u201cAnd it is always a highlight to have the opportunity to recognize the incredible achievements of so many of our advisors.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Major travel retailer Direct Travel recently held its annual conference, \u201cDirect Access,\u201d in Chicago from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5,2,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advisors","category-culture","category-hosting","category-latest"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DA24-appointments.jpg",1184,445,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DA24-appointments-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DA24-appointments-300x113.jpg",300,113,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DA24-appointments-768x289.jpg",640,241,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DA24-appointments-1024x385.jpg",640,241,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DA24-appointments.jpg",1184,445,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DA24-appointments.jpg",1184,445,false],"elegant-magazine-featured":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DA24-appointments-1024x385.jpg",1024,385,true],"elegant-magazine-medium":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DA24-appointments-720x380.jpg",720,380,true],"elegant-magazine-medium-small":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DA24-appointments-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"elegant-magazine-thumbnail-small":["https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/DA24-appointments-50x50.jpg",50,50,true]},"author_info":{"info":["Stephen Smith"]},"category_info":"Advisors<\/a> Culture<\/a> Hosting<\/a> Latest<\/a>","tag_info":"Latest","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1004,"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003\/revisions\/1004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dt.com\/discover\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}