Bob Dickinson to host AVC's first interactive 'webinar' Published on: February 23, 2007 By Johanna Jainchill On March 20, America's Vacation Center will present Carnival Cruise Lines head honcho, Bob Dickinson, to the masses as host of the mega-agency's first Travel Executive Forum, a series of "webinars" that will be streamed live online and open to the public. The Travel Executive Forum program is part of the agency's AVC University and co-sponsored by American Express, its consortium partner. The free series is designed to connect agents nationwide with top executives in the travel business. "It's a presentation about the industry by its top executives," said AVC co-president Brad Anderson. "Many agents never get to hear from top executives. Not everybody has the opportunity to go to meetings and trade shows." Up to 1,000 people can register for the webinar, on a first come, first serve basis. There will be no preferential access for AVC-affiliated agents. The second Travel Executive Forum will be held on April 27 and will be hosted by Adam Goldstein and Lisa Bauer, Royal Caribbean International president and senior vice president of sales, respectively. After the executives' presentations, the forums will be open to a question-and-answer session where agents watching can email questions which will be chosen and addressed to the participants. Anderson said the program will be expanded to include executives from the tour operations business and international destinations bureaus, and he is hoping to hold consumer webinars as well. AVC said it will make the program public next week at www.joinavc.com.