Lisa Baron, Director, Sales and Marketing for OASIS | Travel Research Online

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Lisa Baron, Director, Sales and Marketing for OASIS

Screen Shot 2013-10-01 at 11.51.00 AMMy passion for the travel industry all started after I graduated from High School back in 1983 and shortly after, attend Travel Education Institute in Southfield, Michigan. It was then that I realized I was living in a “geographically undesirable” area if I wanted to pursue a career in the travel industry, specifically the Cruise Industry. In 1986 my girlfriend and I packed our bags and headed to Florida to begin our careers in the travel industry.

Before Joining OASIS, I was fortunate enough to have worked in various areas of the travel industry. Previous positions with Sampson Tours, Sun International, Ocean Cruise Lines Pearl Cruises, Laker Airways, Orient Lines, Norwegian Cruise line and International Conferences/Cruise Planners helped shape me into a well rounded individual, who has a passion for the travel industry, as well as a great understanding for the needs of our valuable travel agents who make vacation dreams come true.

I joined the OASIS team on Sept. 7th, 2010, about a year after the company was launched. This position was to help build the newly created OASIS brand and increase membership, build supplier relationships, spear head the Signature Travel Network Marketing Program, while providing strong support to our members.

With the majority of my experience residing on the supplier side of the business, working at OASIS has been an easy transition. We have a strong team of dedicated and passionate individuals who help support our members with their daily challenges and development, specifically with marketing. Our Independent Contractors all work from home and run their own businesses like entrepreneurs. Staying connected with our members and assisting them with their daily challenges and development, while providing them with life lines is the key to both their success and ours. While many embrace the multitude of marketing initiatives, many struggle with jumping onboard and utilizing the technology and marketing programs that are available to keep them connected to their clients and prospects. There is a wealth of information available on Signet, including the new Signature University. This is a huge benefit that every single one of our members gets access to. We continuously push these tools and hope to eventually have every single member using them.

In addition, I head up the Signature Marketing Program within our network and facilitate the set-up of all new members with their eMarketing, Print Marketing and Direct Mail initiatives. IC’s can send out emails branded with their own identity, logo and contact information along with Print Marketing publications and supplier sponsored direct mail pieces. I also facilitate the coordination of Touch Base, which is an eGreeting Card Marketing program through Client Base. Plus, I also coordinate their website set-up with our website developers at Advaia. I’m also one of the faces that you see at all of our trade shows who won’t let you pass by our booth without taking our information.

What I enjoy most about my job is being able to arm our agents with the most powerful tools in the industry and our affiliation with Signature Travel Network does just that. In addition, I love being able to provide guidance and support to our members when they reach out to us. We have our annual OASIS meeting in Las Vegas every year in conjunction with the Signature Travel Network Annual Meeting. This year, our fourth annual meeting runs from Nov. 13th –Nov. 16th, 2013 and registrations are still pouring in, while expecting to break previous attendance records. I was fortunate enough to attend this meeting upon first joining OASIS, and I have to tell you, it was the most powerful and insightful conference I had ever attended. The OASIS meeting is one day filled with supplier presentations, great food and fun prize giveaways, followed by a three day Signature conference with fabulous keynote speakers, breakout sessions, supplier networking, including a huge trade show with the best trip giveaways I have ever seen.

Professionally speaking, I am able to provide the support and nurturing that goes hand in hand into the recruitment and the development of our members. Coming from the supplier side of the business most of my career, I can understand the challenges that our members face in today’s ever changing environment. Between all of the new technology and the need for a social media presence, we have the tools to help agents jump onboard without having to reinvent the wheel. We provide our members with 100% commission when booking our preferred suppliers, less a small processing fee. This is one of the many reasons we’re celebrating a record breaking 2013 for bookings. What I love about OASIS is that we continue to strive to provide our members with value added amenities and new tools to make them more powerful and confident in today’s environment. Most of all, I love being an integral part of the OASIS team and absolutely love what I do. I can honestly say, I love going to work each day. But then again, it’s not really work if you really enjoy what you doing, is it?

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