By Casey Neill
Yarra Valley businesses that tap into tourism will gather to share knowledge and boost growth.
The Tourism Network Yarra Valley (TNYV) annual conference will run from 8.30am on Wednesday 10 October at Worawa Aboriginal College in Healesville.
TNYV committee member Ed McGettigan joined the association after reading in the Mail about a conference it was holding four years ago.
“We try and get all our members and try to get new members to come along,” he said.
Mr McGettigan said the group was populated by people who ran accommodation, restauranteurs, publicans, garden centres…
“Any people who feel they benefit from tourism,” he said.
The conference will include three presentations, plus workshops and networking, and aims to support TNYV members to manage and grow their businesses.
Alva Hemming from Go Beyond Melbourne will speak about the initiative and what’s in it for tourism businesses in the Yarra valley.
The second speaker will be Jules Brooke from Handle Your Own PR, who’ll cover how small businesses with limited staff and budgets can get their story and products out there.
Lynette Coulston from iT and Coffee will follow up her presentation at last year’s conference with developments in the world of information technology in the past year.
The conference MC will be Helen Wood from TMS Consulting.
The association started in the early 1920s as the Healesville Tourism and Progress Association.
In recognising the need to look beyond the Healesville area, it became the Yarra Valley Regional Tourism Association in 1986.
More recently it adopted the TNYV trading name, and its primary functions are to act on behalf of its members, to ensure sustainable growth in the Yarra Valley’s tourism industry, and to develop and maintain co-operative working relationships with major organisations promoting the region.
Conference tickets are $85 for TNYV members and $120 for non-members.
Visit www.tourismnetworkyarravalley.com.au for more information.
