Phil Hoffman Travel Expo, Adelaide Convention Centre

The day started as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as possible on a Sunday when the usual ritual is to sleep in as long as I can, to make the trip down to Adelaide for the Phil Hoffman Travel Expo at the Adelaide Convention Centre. The event started at 10:00am and so I parked up at Bonython Park and trammed it down to North Tce. With the offer of Free Coffee at the Expo, I quickly trotted off to the nearest coffee station, past all the exhibitor stalls and grabbed my latte of life.

In the pre-planning stages of the Expo, I did the research on how many talks I could squeeze into the 6-hour window and crammed in as many as possible. My homework said I could attend 10, and I made it to 8 ½, so a pretty good effort. I mistakenly thought one of the talks started at 12:15 instead of 12:00, so I missed the first 15 minutes of the 20 minute talk; and by the end of the day, I couldn’t absorb any more information and special offers to attend the final planned talk, which was on USA and Hawaii… but there’s next year.

For anyone that has attended an event at the Adelaide Convention Centre, you’ll know that there are several rooms that can create multiple configurations, which is why I was disappointed that all of the exhibitor stalls, 3 coffee stations, food bar, main stage, and 4 makeshift cinemas (where different talks were held) were all crammed into one Hall, making it very difficult to hear talks, as well as for the presenters to hear themselves and think. It was a distracting atmosphere at the worst of times. The main stage was set between Cinema 3 and Cinema 4, where Hayley and Lauren from Adelady were hosting the Expo, speaking to representatives from other exhibitors that didn’t have talk sessions, or at one point during a talk, hosted a music performance by some South Pacific dancers. I’m sure the dancing was spectacular, but I don’t know what my presenter was talking about at the time, because their music overshadowed the presentation from Grand Pacific Tours, the #1 coach tour operator in New Zealand.

The talks that I listened to were:

·         Great Australian Rail Journeys (by Journey Beyond)

·         Cruising Close to Home (by Phil Hoffman Travel)

·         P&O Cruises – Adventures for Aussies (by P&O Cruises) – this is the one that I caught the last 5 minutes, so I’m not sure if it really counts

·         Europe River Cruising (by Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours)

·         Explora Journeys (by Explora)

·         New Zealand (by Grand Pacific Tours)

·         Arctic & Antarctica in Ultra-Luxury (by Seabourn)

·         Italy & France (by Collette)

·         Cruising with Princess (by Princess Cruises)

In addition to the talks, I did what every teen does at the annual Careers Expo, and grabbed pamphlets and booklets from every exhibitor possible. Unfortunately, there were no pens, notepads or other stationery to collect.

This morning, I went into the Phil Hoffman Travel Expo not sure what to expect or what I was looking for. I was certainly looking forward to each of the talks, and majority of the ones I attended were capturing. Upon leaving, short of the final planned talk, I was still wondering what I wanted to take away from today. Maybe if I win one of the five holidays being given away, it’ll be worth the overcrowding and lack of noise control.

I just  hope that the 50+ brochures I took home will help me figure that out…