Our Y Travel 2021 ‘Staycation Retreat’
We ended 2021 with an amazing team bonding retreat: a staycation in our beautiful home city of Melbourne, at the elegant Park Hyatt. The main organiser of our fabulous 2 day /2 night retreat was our very own Project Manager - Françoise Gelb. Because she was all over every aspect of it, we asked Françoise to take you through the highlights of our retreat, our learnings for the year ahead, and the amazing time we had discovering all 8 Y Factors within our own city!
Take it away Françoise…
It is no secret that 2020 and 2021 were very testing for the travel industry. In a nutshell, our advisors’ tasks looked mostly like this on any given day of the week: new enquiry - excitement and dedication to research best fit for our clients - new challenging pandemic rules - changes or cancellations of travel plans - disappointment for all - and repeat (over and over).
Our team has been truly amazing and we are forever grateful for their professionalism and teamwork. They too had plenty of personal travel plans cancelled. Let’s not forget we are humans and as such, we all face constant challenges both privately and at the workplace. And it can get draining, which is why we decided to nurture our team with lots of togetherness and fun for our end of year celebrations.
We decided to embrace and explore the beautiful city of Melbourne through our set of Y Factors, whilst supporting our local community. In fact, we ticked off all eight portals of passion that we use to shape your trips!
We discovered Nature & Sustainability by having fun with electric self-driven boats with Go Boat Australia. A most unexpected hidden away vertical laneway is where we discovered Artistry, Generosity, The Unexpected and Community. Thank you to Gary Singer from Smith & Singer and Christine Barro from Christine on Collins for being so generous with their time and efforts to host our team in such a special way. We learned heaps whilst having a beautiful experience in your company.
There was time for some Adventure with a unique game of street art bingo, designed by yours truly! Naturally the team had to be fed, and we enjoyed delicious food at Hochi Mama and Toma - the great restaurant at the top of the new Hyatt Centric - the perfect places to discover Taste. The Well-being Y Factor was ticked off with our walk throughout the city during our Street Art Bingo game and then on day two of our retreat we took part in a breathing meditation during our workshop.
Paying it forward is something close to our hearts, and we did this with a team breakfast via The Little Social Cafe in Hosier Lane – Thank you Celeste and team for looking after us and all you do for @youthprojects!
Lastly, huge gratitude goes to the wonderful staff at Park Hyatt Melbourne and the stylish brand new Hyatt Centric Melbourne – your sense of hospitality was beyond all expectation, and we were so very lucky to experience it first hand.
I mentioned we had a workshop. These past years have taught us more than ever that working in a virtual office is not just a nice little bonus, but an absolute essential with the constant rules & regulation changes. We have managed to move to a fully paperless office and regular training is so important to support our team with best practices for shared information. More will be needed, but as it stands, we are in pretty good shape and able to function perfectly well. The learnings to shape the year ahead are: a big YES to a digital office… BUT with the right mix of human interaction. We are better together and this retreat has highlighted how regular physical catch ups bring the best out of everyone. Therefore, as we found ourselves starting a new year with all of us working from home, we say YES to breakfast & lunch meetings with our team and suppliers in gorgeous local cafes! Now that’s a pretty nice benefit to us, not to mention the hospitality industry that has also done it so tough.
How will we top this experience next December? I don’t that I have the answer yet, but I’m sure we’ll think of something before the end of the year. In the meantime, you can see us in action here.
Françoise - Y Travel end of year celebrations organiser (now that’s a title I really like!)