News and Views Here's how networking locally improved my business Click on the following link to read Katy's presentation to Business Link Katy's article Customer Care Training in Central Europe Recently Viv was one of a small team of tourism professionals invited to spend a week in Sinaia, a mountain resort and conference centre in Romania, training staff in four and five star hotels in customer care and welcome skills. The project was co-ordinated by Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust and part-funded by the Hilton in the Community Foundation. The team helped create a Tourism Forum for the hotels, attractions and local council in Sinaia and concluded the week by training trainers in the Bucharest Hilton Hotel. Viv found it enlightening to learn about operational and strategic customer care issues in a different cultural setting. Links: Hilton in the Community Foundation / Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust / Sinaia Viv poses with successful group members Together on the stairs Escorting European Day Trips For the past 4 winters Katy has gone 'back to the floor' by escorting a variety of European day breaks from various North West airports. Destinations such as Vienna, Salzburg, Norway, Iceland and Christmas in Lapland. The Day Breaks ensure that Katy updates, develops and has a greater understanding of the changing expectations and needs of today's customers and issues facing tourism staff.   an informal training session   Katy (centre front) with Lloyd Grossman behind  In March 2004 for the third year running Katy was a guest presenter at 'Interchange 2004'. This annual event is organised by England's Northwest Tourism Skills Network and this year saw Lloyd Grossman as the keynote speaker (move cursor over picture). The day focuses on sharing best practice within recruitment, retention skills and training through a series of workshops. Katy presented the workshop 'Five Minute Fixes to Avoid Customer Complaints' which was very well attended over the four sessions held throughout the day. Links: Northwest Tourism Skills Network