iFive

At any early planning session, Vickie and I met with two founding board members to examine the purpose of our new organization.   We talked, we debated, we were vocal and passionate in our opinions.

We knew that the travel industry had innovated, had become an internet-intense industry.  We also knew that traveling, business or leisure, is still done in-person.  Traveling is  experience-intense.  No new news in any of this.

We recognized that our consumers are morphing, reconfiguring and just when we think we have a handle on them, they morph again.  They refuse to fit into neat categories anymore.  

We understood that technology is changing faster than you can say AOL.  

And we all agreed that the travel industry should be the greatest industry in the world for careers, for talent to thrive, for leaders to lead.

At our session it was clear to us that the future is happening fast.  It is hurling opportunities at us.  How do we recognize them and catch them?  The 21st century is not going to slow down so we can stay caught up.   

We were sure that new thinking, new ideas, new skills, new leadership were crucial.  We also agreed that there is a lot of talent in the industry today that we need to be certain we are engaging, hearing from.  We found ourselves using the same words and phrases again and again to describe our purpose.  Phrases like “include new voices and voices of experience”, “be an industry of inspiration”, “influence the industry”, “innovate”.  From that session came the i’s:  include, inspire, innovate, influence, impact.

The future is coming at us fast.   And, it is picking up speed.   It takes new skills to run with it, to capture it.  It takes collaboration, sharing.  The 5 i’s are how, together, we can create the best future for ourselves, our industry, our consumers.