First SeaDream Yacht Club networking walk hailed a success

A cruise line sales director has completed her first networking walk with agents, aimed at increasing the number of trade partners she works with.

Natalie Read, sales director at SeaDream Yacht Club, hosted four agents – Fred Olsen Travel managing director Steve Williams; Mundy Cruising managing director Edwina Lonsdale; and Tony Ripper and Josie Clark of Luxury Advisory Service – on a ramble along the south coast on September 8.

Read plans to run between six and 10 meet-and-greet ‘Natwalking’ events a year to drive sales and boost agents’ knowledge of SeaDream, but is hoping for better weather at the next walk, after fearing the first might have been cancelled.

“I was a bit worried that it was not going to happen at all because of the weather,” said Read. “But I moved it around and had lunch first and then we had this gorgeous walk.

“It was particularly windy but we avoided the rain and everybody said it was such an informal way to connect.”

The group discussed the challenges they faced during the pandemic and the issues they were currently experiencing during the two-hour walk, which started at Hengistbury Head in Dorset.

Read added: “It was tough hearing about the struggles they are going through, particularly the flight cancellations and the hotel capacity.”

During the walk, Read agreed to launch a marketing campaign with one of the agents who had never sold SeaDream before.

Read, who has previously trekked in Patagonia and the Himalayas, plans to host a second Natwalking event in Berkshire later in the year.

Pictured (from left): Clark, Read, Lonsdale, Williams and Ripper