The future of Advantage...

There isn't much about strategy yet - there's more about the strengths of Advantage, and the main solid statistic to emerge is that it does £2.5bn turnover (£1.5bn leisure, £1bn business).

But John does refer to the opportunities for retail agents in the wake of XL (see also Terry Fisher in the partnerships session).

An 'Integrity' slide pops up which is pertinent to this - 'transparency' 'agent friendly' and 'reputation' are the keywords, and John mentions Advantage's hard stance on non-principal bed banks.

There's some talk about tour operating too - Advantage isn't going to move into it, because 'we have supplier partners who do it better', but it will continue to provide tools for agents who wish to pursue dynamic packaging.

So far it feels as much a sales pitch as a statement of strategy, though; and perhaps that's the right approach for a period of instability...

Update 29/09/08 - Here are the key announcements our chief reporter Juliet Dennis pulled out of John's session (or just read her full story):

• Plans for an ATOL for selected members
• Outsourcing of back-office functions
• A new trust fund facility
• Campaigns to raise brand awareness and consumer confidence in agents