Tern, an all-in-one travel CRM company, has made history this month with its inaugural Users Conference, which brought more than 180 travel advisors, agency owners and industry leaders onboard Virgin Voyages’ new Brilliant Lady for a five-day program that featured professional development, networking and product innovation. What made the event stand out: a live hackathon that turned advisor feedback into new platform features in real time.
Throughout the week, attendees participated in daily feedback sessions which allowed them to share their most urgent technology requests, including bulk task updates, option block templates, invoices that included taxes, improved trip cancellation and a bulk email sending functionality. Behind the scenes, Tern’s engineering team back home developed and pushed the most requested features while the conference was still happening.
“We collected feature requests all week, sent them directly to our engineering team and by the end of the conference, we had deployed the most requested features live,” said Molly Johnson, head of product at Tern. “Features our users requested on Thursday were actually built and deployed by Sunday. We then surprised attendees by debuting these brand-new features during our closing keynote. Our users weren’t just attending a conference, they were actively shaping the future of their business tools.”
The hackathon complemented the company’s Big Fall Release, unveiled at the start of the event. The release previewed the platform’s first mobile app for advisors, a redesigned Home Dashboard, new payment authorizations, advanced reporting capabilities and mobile app improvements for travelers.
According to Grace Van Hollebeke, head of marketing at Tern, the event was designed to fill an industry gap. While other industries have thriving user conference ecosystems, travel tech has been missing this crucial community-building element, she says. Unlike supplier-focused trade shows, the Tern event centered on helping advisors become experts in using technology to grow their businesses.
Advisors responded well, with multiple advisors saying it brought them to tears seeing their five-year vision align with Tern’s roadmap. Others noted the lasting professional relationships they made and sense of community, with one participant calling it “unlike anything I have ever experienced.”
“You will never find another company full of people who are genuinely excited about improving the user experience,” said Lori Newbury, co-owner and travel advisor at Wishes Granted Travel Co. “They listen. They workshop. They produce results. And never once did they make anyone feel like they weren’t valued or heard.”
The conference also offered more than 20 hours of education led by industry experts — including Jenn Lee of Travel Planners International and Tom Carpenter Law Group — plus immersive experiences in Bermuda and consultations with Tern team members.
“This sets a new precedent for the entire travel tech industry,” said Brian Reath, CTO and co-founder of Tern. “We’re proving that technology companies can and should be deeply invested in their users’ success beyond just providing software. Real-time development based on user feedback takes that partnership to the next level.”
All hackathon-built features were officially released yesterday.
