Advisory Council
Insurance Advisory Council
Since 1992, Lynette Owens has gathered a small council of insurance and financial services leaders each year to tell us where group travel is headed. In 2026 they met for the 34th time. The resorts and destinations that host them get to show their best to the people who decide where their organizations go.
Why the Council exists
Lynette Owens formed the Council in 1992 to keep LOA current on how companies plan their meetings and incentive programs. More than three decades later, the purpose hasn't changed. The executives who run these programs tell us what's working, what isn't and what their people want next, and every program we plan is better for it.
The Council shapes LOA itself, too. In 2026, members reviewed our program types and service tiers before we published them.
Who sits on the Council
Members are presidents, senior vice presidents, senior officers and owners, each with the authority to choose where their organization meets and each planning group programs of ten rooms or more. Every seat belongs to a final decision maker.
Membership is by invitation. A prospective member attends first as a guest, and then the Council votes.
Who you'll meet at the table
- Presidents and CEOs
- Senior vice presidents
- Senior officers
- Owners and founders
How a council week works
The Council meets each year over several days, usually a main program at one resort with a pre- or post-stay at a second, so members see more than one option on every trip. In 2024 that meant three resorts and two additional site inspections across Miami and Punta Cana.
Every council follows the same rhythm:
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Meet the property.
A welcome reception where the resort introduces its executives and sales team to every member and guest.
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See it the way a planner would.
A full site inspection of meeting space, guest rooms and outlets, usually the morning after arrival.
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Do the work.
The Advisory Council meeting, with presentations from the host resort, visitors bureaus and destination partners.
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Experience the destination.
Off-site dinners and excursions run by the local destination management company, from food tours in Little Havana and a snorkel sail off Punta Cana to a Hemingway day in Key West.
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Play the course.
The LOA Golf Tournament, a council tradition, on courses from Del Mar Country Club and Doral's Blue Monster to Baha Mar's Royal Blue and Innisbrook's Copperhead, with the awards handed out at the farewell dinner.
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Close it properly.
A farewell dinner, often themed, always dressed for.
2026: The Florida Keys and Clearwater Beach
The 2026 Council opened in the Florida Keys, with a pre-trip at Isla Bella Beach Resort in Marathon: a sunset cruise around Boot Key Harbor, a private dinner at Pelican Point, and a day in Key West that took in the Hemingway Home, a behind-the-scenes visit to a Cuban cigar maker and a rum tasting at Pilar Social Club.
From there, the Opal Collection hosted the 34th Council at Opal Sol on Clearwater Beach, September 14 to 17. Members toured the resort, heard from Visit St. Pete-Clearwater and the Naples, Marco Island & Everglades CVB on what's new in their destinations, and spent an afternoon on a food tour of Dunedin. Opal Sands hosted dinner at Sea Side, GlobalWorks Events arranged a shotgun start on Innisbrook's Copperhead course, and the week closed with golf awards and a farewell dinner at Sandpearl's Cove.
Why properties and destinations host the Council
A brochure can't show how a resort handles a group. A visit can.
For a resort, visitors bureau or destination management company, hosting the Council is a familiarization trip for the people who sign the contracts. Members walk the meeting space, taste the menus, sail, golf and dine the way their own attendees would, and they see how the staff responds when plans change. What they experience goes home with them, into their own organizations' next programs and into what we recommend to every client after them.
Hosts come away with something just as useful: candid feedback from people who plan programs for a living, and a week of relationships that tend to outlast it.
Partners who have hosted the Council
Resorts
- Opal Collection
- Ocean Properties
- Isla Bella Beach Resort
- Margaritaville Beach Resort Nassau
- Grand Hyatt Baha Mar
- Paradisus Palma Real
- The Sanctuary Cap Cana
- Trump National Doral Resort and Spa
- L'Auberge Del Mar
- The Resort at Pelican Hill
- Hotel del Coronado
- The Fairmont Orchid
- Grand Wailea
Destinations
- Visit St. Pete-Clearwater
- Naples, Marco Island & Everglades CVB
- The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism
Destination management
- Florida Keys VIP
- GlobalWorks Events
- Sunsplash Events
- Tropical Incentives
- Just Right Destination Management
- Panache Destination Management
- MC&A
Where the Council has met
- 2026
- Opal Sol, Clearwater Beach, Florida, with a pre-trip at Isla Bella Beach Resort in the Florida Keys
- 2025
- Margaritaville Beach Resort, Nassau, with a post-stay at Grand Hyatt Baha Mar
- 2024
- Trump National Doral Resort and Spa, Miami, then Paradisus Palma Real and The Sanctuary Cap Cana in Punta Cana
- 2023
- Orlando, Florida
- 2022
- Iberostar Grand Paraíso, Riviera Maya, with a post-stay at Dreams Natura
- 2021
- L'Auberge Del Mar, San Diego
- 2018
- The Fairmont Orchid on the Big Island, then Grand Wailea, a Waldorf Astoria Resort, on Maui
Lynette Owens & Associates has been a trusted partner of ours for years, providing top notch, personalized service in helping us arrange our incentive trips! We could not be happier with the high quality of their service and the amazing trips that our top producers work hard for and look forward to each year!