As the second day of the inaugural Thomson OMG! Conference & Awards draws to a close, feedback from crew, training coaches, management and suppliers is unanimous that it has been a runaway success, sending morale among all groups through the roof.

 

The training and familiarization event – organized by Alpha LSG in association with Appleyard Communications and held in the grand surrounds of Tortworth Court, Gloucestershire – culminates tonight with a glittering awards ceremony, recognizing the achievements of Thomson Airways’ top selling cabin crew and customer service advocates.

 

Day two began with a high energy team-building ‘Beat the Clock’ activity where small groups competed to score as many points as possible through the completion of a series of mental and physical tasks.

 

The session, designed to encourage identification of individual strengths and weaknesses to successfully combine single responsibilities with group performance, saw delegates hula hooping, salsa dancing, plate spinning and solving mathematical problems, among other things, as part of their morning agenda.

 

The winning group (which coincidentally included TR Business magazine – the event’s media partner) was rewarded with Champagne and an alarm clock from sponsors Cecil Macdonald and Ratcliffe & Brown Wines and Spirits.

 

There then followed break-out presentations by Heinemann, in their capacity as distributor of perfumes and cosmetics, spirits and accessories to Alpha LSG, in the form of a sensory fragrance workshop, while Diageo led a creative cocktail masterclass featuring core brands Gordon’s gin, Smirnoff Blue and Baileys Chocolat Luxe.

 

The concept behind both sessions was to assist crew with the challenges of selling onboard aircraft where the full taste or sensory experience prior to purchase cannot always be guaranteed.

 

Jenny Piper from Heinemann’s Hamburg office entertained the group with her suggested interpretations for a range of bestselling fragrances, and how to evoke the characteristics of scents such as Armani Code, Jimmy Choo, Hugh Boss and Thierry Mugler through the use of emotions and language.

 

Delegates in the cocktail class were encouraged to incorporate a sense of place into their own recipes, which they had a short amount of time to write, test and perfect using an array of ingredients before delivering the ‘perfect serve’ to a panel of judges from Diageo, Cecil Macdonald and STM Brands. The St Clements style ‘Citrilicious from Mauritius’ emerged victorious in the creative session observed by TR Business.

 

In conducting a cross-section of short opinion polls among crew and suppliers following the busy Market Place product exhibition – featuring brands such as Bottega, Joe & Seph’s popcorn, Rodial and STM Brands – the consensus was that OMG! had exceeded all expectations and was of great benefit to the inflight industry as a whole.

 

Julie Cunningham, cabin crew for Thomson at Manchester Airport, described the value of such motivational events as, “a real morale booster.”

 

“There’s a lot of changes happening at the moment with long haul in terms of safety and other rules and regulations and cabin crew don’t like change – it’s unsettling – so something like this is a real boost.”

 

Peter Lawday, crew member at Gatwick, said, “I didn’t know what to expect as the agenda was kept a closely guarded secret but it made us all the more excited about being here. It’s complementary to be asked along and I appreciate the recognition aspect.

 

It’s also great to get people from across the country together and motivated like this – our own Facebook hub has been alive with speculation and a real buzz about the event, which proves it’s doing its job already in raising interest among the crew members, many of whom will want to come next year. It also encourages healthy competition among the bases – Gatwick always likes to think it is the best!”

 

Representing the supplier contingent, Ian Blyth, Director at Inflight Expertise Ltd, said OMG! helps increase product knowledge among cabin crew thereby improving their ability to sell.

 

“It affords the crew the opportunity to sample products such as The Wicked Cake Company brownies that our company distributes to airlines, that are already on sale and doing well on Thomson flights, but that they may not have tasted before. New products like the tulip cased muffins in some unusual flavours, demonstrate trolley appeal and attract positive crew comment as we work to get them listed onboard.

 

“Added to this, it’s a great social and training event that everyone enjoys. It’s a relatively small industry and so it’s always nice to catch up with old faces and meet the people tasked with selling our products.”