Delta Airlines
Saving $500K in 5 Hours on a
Worldwide Conference

Client:

Delta Airlines, a major US and international carrier

Situation:

Delta was about to launch its major e-commerce initiative to Delta Sales Agents and travel agents worldwide via an international conference

Strategy:

• Invite the team to participate in a half-day off-site facilitated strategy session
• Help the executive decision-making team for the Delta Airlines Worldwide Sales and Distribution Conference set objectives to:
  • Enhance understandings of the audience destination (i.e.: key objectives and walk-aways) for the Conference
  • Understand key drivers for success for the Conference
  • Gain consensus on Conference priorities within the Conference Team
  • Provide a foundation of information for development of an agenda and content, as well as strategy and implementation for the 2000 Worldwide Sales and Distribution Conference
• Leverage the Full-Spectrum strategy process--a combination of an interactive idea-mapping exercise, followed by identifying logistical drivers for success and team priorities

Solution:

• In the interactive idea-mapping exercise, the team organized their answers into the following categories: Roles, Vision / Strategy, Professional Development, Meeting Tone, Products and Programs, Emotional Take-Aways
• Within the categories above, the team identified:
  • The Primary Drivers of all logistics to create success
  • The Priorities that define success for the team

Results

• The team compared the strategy session results to the current meeting agenda and realized that the meeting agenda did not accurately focus on or reflect the Drivers that would lead to success, or the Priorities of the team
• The team cleared their schedules for the next two hours to immediately reformulate:
  • The meeting agenda, including general sessions and discussion panels
  • The meeting themes
  • How the transformation would roll out
  • Break-outs for human resources and products / programs
  • A mini trade show
• The team estimated that the 5 hours spent saved Delta Airlines at least $500K in unnecessary costs associated with the Conference