TAMS' Phyllis Tess discusses:
- Finding a place in the industry for the association
- Plans for the Ignite conference
- The future of the TAMS Incubator for travel startups
The five-year-old Travel and Meeting Society, the industry group that began as a pandemic-era group dedicated to developing travel safety standards amid Covid-19 and since grew into an association offering professional development and support for travel startups, last month held its second annual Ignite educational conference in Phoenix. The day-long conference, heavy on AI-related topics, represents TAMS' attempt at establishing an annual in-person educational offering. TAMS executive director Phyllis Tess, who formerly was a senior account manager at Best Western parent BWH Hotels, recently talked with BTN managing editor Chris Davis about TAMS' niche in the business travel industry, new initiatives and the future of the association's program for startups. Edited excerpts follow.
BTN: How do you see TAMS fitting into the industry at large? What sort of niche are you trying to carve out for the association?
Phyllis Tess: We've pretty much always been a grassroots organization, and we will continue to be that type of association in the business travel and meetings segment. We try to take a really hard look at the industry and view what is truly lacking. We look for those holes and then we try to provide real solutions by having those tough conversations—we really had some controversial conversations in the exchange in the morning at Ignite. That's what I think people want at this point. There's enough dancing around on a lot of topics and a lot of challenges, but what are the real solutions that we can come up with?
We can't change the world in a day, but that's how we're moving forward. We look to be what I call the positive disruptor. We aim to create programs and events that will fully engage all of our members and our stakeholders and drive forward some new initiatives in the education side. We're doing a mentorship program that will be launching in another month or two, and we're continuing with TAMS Talks and webinars, and we're going to launch our first white paper education series in May.
BTN: In an industry where there’s a very large professional organization in the Global Business Travel Association, how does TAMS differentiate itself?
Tess: I've been very entrenched with GBTA, on a chapter board for many years and a WinIt member and mentor. There is definitely a place for GBTA. We don't see ourselves as competing with that organization because we're a grassroots organization. We don't differentiate between buyers and suppliers when it comes to events and TAMS Talks and education and engagement. We really feel that we have something different to offer.
There's something to be said for being very large because then you have the masses. On the flip side, being smaller, the level of attendees were the higher-level key industry leaders, and that's [who] people really want to be able to connect or have a conversation with or just listen to—the real decision-makers in the industry.
We don't look at any other industry organization as a competitor. We all offer something different. And our niche is to really engage in the high-level conversations with the high-level leaders.
BTN: You've mentioned TAMS Talks. Are there other initiatives you're looking to launch or deliverables you're planning to release?
Tess: We have the DIY Playbook, which is virtual, and that's thanks to [TAMS founder] Susan Lichtenstein. And we will now take everything from Ignite—all of the notes, all of the comments—and add those to the DIY Playbook.
We have the mentorship program, and we're going to be doing that. That was a great success of engagement, when I sent out an e-mail this past fall asking the TAMS membership if they would be interested in something like this.
Kerin [McKinnon, TAMS board chair and Atlas Travel SVP of global and strategic partnerships] has a great vision of reconstructing the TAMS board so that each board member will be connected to a task force leader. We don't want to say that we have committees, because people tend to shy away: 'Oh, a committee, that's long-term.' Everything in our industry changes so quickly. So we would like to put in timelines, like this would be 60 days, 90 days, 120 days, and then if you want to continue you could stay on that task force. We're looking for task force leaders. We had many people sign up for what Keren is calling 'pillars'—education, events, social media. We want to make sure that we are in the space of anti-human trafficking, and continue to be a supporter of ECPAT.
BTN: These are task forces about TAMS? Have they been determined at this point?
Tess: Kerin has different titles for different task forces, but she has rainmakers who will be the ones that are going after stakeholders and sponsorships and growing membership. We have another task force that's called 'gatherings' that's going to focus heavily on meetings.
BTN: You have a few Ignite conferences in the books now. Do you still foresee it as an annual event, and are there any other lessons you've learned?
Tess: We're already planning Ignite 2026. We'd like to announce a location and date sometime in May. We'll move it back to the East Coast. We do like the idea of getting together once a year, because to put on something like Ignite, it is taxing, especially with the immersive sessions and the Exchange in the morning. AI was the theme that we chose, and I think we did a great job.
BTN: What's the status of the TAMS Incubator? Will there be another round going forward?
Tess: That's one thing that I want to relaunch. It was so successful. [Solutions Travel CEO] Mark Walton drove that last time, and he said he would be happy to work on that again. I'm looking to bring [ARC managing director and TAMS incubator committee founder] Hansini [Sharma] back into that. The success of Incubator is something else that we've been able to do that other organizations have not been able to do: help startups—really help them in every aspect of what they need, connect them to the right people. To have some of them be so successful is just a huge compliment to TAMS and what we can do. We're ready to roll that out again.