We've planned an incredible training schedule for you at this event!
Our classes and roundtables will focus on topics to help you grow your business (not supplier and destination updates that we handle with webinars instead). And, you'll learn from both leading experts in their fields and successful DWHSA members who've mastered this niche!
Our classes and roundtables will focus on topics to help you grow your business (not supplier and destination updates that we handle with webinars instead). And, you'll learn from both leading experts in their fields and successful DWHSA members who've mastered this niche!
OPENING GENERAL SESSION
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"Reclaiming Control as the CEO of Your Business" - Heidi Thompson
We're all travel business owners - but some of us have learned to run our businesses like CEOs. We've sat down and looked at how we spend our time, we've identified the key tasks that only we can do to grow our businesses, and we've learned to delegate, outsource, or trash the rest! Heidi Thompson will show us how to do that. She's the celebrated founder of Evolve Your Wedding Business, the world's leading collective for entrepreneurs who help couples with their Big Days. The author of "Clone Your Best Clients," she also shares tips in her popular podcast and her Wedding Business CEO Summits several times each year. |
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"Mastering AI Tools and Social Media - Level 1" - Kha Ly
Feeling overwhelmed with online marketing advice? We get so many tips and to-dos from every corner - and it's usually conflicting, it's time consuming, and it leaves us really unsure what honestly works these days. Kha Ly will cut through the clutter for us! With more than 25 years at the center of the digital world, he focuses on helping advisors harness the power of AI tools and social media. He served as Travel Planners International's (TPI's) first marketing technologist, and he's spoken for groups such as ASTA, Signature, and Uniglobe. |
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"2026: The Hard Lessons We've Learned (and What's Coming Next)"
We'll open Tuesday's general session with a welcome from DWHSA President and Co-Founder Lisa Sheldon! Then, she'll lead a panel of very successful high-volume DWHSA members who'll share the positive (and sometimes painful) experiences and strategies that have helped them build their businesses over the past year - plus their predictions for what's on the horizon for romance travel specialists in 2027 and beyond). |
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GUIDED ROUNDTABLES
At past RTUs, we've offered 50-minute breakout seminars - but that limited the number of subjects we could cover, and they were basically lectures that left you sitting and listening all afternoon. Then, we moved to roundtables with topics you suggested on the spot, but that felt chaotic to many members.
So, for the 2026 RTU, we've found the "Goldilocks" solution: guided roundtables led by experienced DWHSA members trained to lead discussions on a wide range of topics you'll choose from.
In late spring, we'll survey DWHSA members on the subjects you want us to cover at the conference. Then, we'll set up eight or nine areas in Iberostar's theater where you can pick the subjects you want to learn about and rotate among different tables for 30-minute sessions. These chats will be very participatory - you won't just sit and listen! And, we have a core group of DWHSA volunteers ready to keep the conversation flowing at each table (plus Heidi who'll join us and run her own roundtable!).
We're planning at least eight roundtable areas in the theater with eight rounds of topics - and, you'll pick the ones that will help you the most with your own business! (We'll post the final roundtable schedule in the summer, so we can include any issues that are very current right before the conference.)
So, for the 2026 RTU, we've found the "Goldilocks" solution: guided roundtables led by experienced DWHSA members trained to lead discussions on a wide range of topics you'll choose from.
In late spring, we'll survey DWHSA members on the subjects you want us to cover at the conference. Then, we'll set up eight or nine areas in Iberostar's theater where you can pick the subjects you want to learn about and rotate among different tables for 30-minute sessions. These chats will be very participatory - you won't just sit and listen! And, we have a core group of DWHSA volunteers ready to keep the conversation flowing at each table (plus Heidi who'll join us and run her own roundtable!).
We're planning at least eight roundtable areas in the theater with eight rounds of topics - and, you'll pick the ones that will help you the most with your own business! (We'll post the final roundtable schedule in the summer, so we can include any issues that are very current right before the conference.)
OPTIONAL PRE- AND POST-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS
Want to stay an extra day or two and scoop up even more knowledge about this niche?
We're working with trainers now to confirm several optional pre-conference (Monday) and post-conference (Friday) one-day workshops! You'll register separately for these trainings, and you can stay at Iberostar the extra night(s) using the conference rates (or your own reward points).
Right now, the pre-conference workshop will be a hands-on walkthrough of marketing tech. You'll bring your laptop and complete a day's worth of upgrades to your web site, your email marketing, your social media, and more. And, the post-conference workshop will be a deeper dive into using AI tools and social media strategies (deeper than Kha's "Level 1" class on Tuesday).
Stay tuned - we hope to confirm both options early next year!
We're working with trainers now to confirm several optional pre-conference (Monday) and post-conference (Friday) one-day workshops! You'll register separately for these trainings, and you can stay at Iberostar the extra night(s) using the conference rates (or your own reward points).
Right now, the pre-conference workshop will be a hands-on walkthrough of marketing tech. You'll bring your laptop and complete a day's worth of upgrades to your web site, your email marketing, your social media, and more. And, the post-conference workshop will be a deeper dive into using AI tools and social media strategies (deeper than Kha's "Level 1" class on Tuesday).
Stay tuned - we hope to confirm both options early next year!