Education Sessions

Sessions are offered in varied formats and give you the opportunity to interact with your peers and subject matter experts. Each session is designed with the travel buyer in mind and will provide real-world solutions and resources you can begin to use immediately.

Buyer Empowerment - This icon denotes education sessions presented by corporate buyer-led panels.

- This icon reflects sessions that discuss topics new to the Global Education Conference.

SUNDAY, 5 OCTOBER (13:30 - 15:00)

S101 Applying Procurement Practices to Travel Management
Building on the previous year¹s baseline, new BTN research drills down even further into defining top key performance indicators and savings generated by the use of procurement techniques. BTN editor-in-chief David Meyer will present highlights of the findings and ask a panel of buyers to discuss their experiences in using sourcing techniques to maximize the value of corporate travel spending.

Presenter:
David Meyer, Editor-in-Chief, Business Travel News
Michele Bryant, Director, Procurement/Travel, Strategic Procurement Services, Deloitte Services LP
Mike Molloy, Director, Credit Suisse
Kim McGlinn, Senior Manager, Procurement, PricewaterhouseCoopers

MONDAY, 6 OCTOBER (10:30 - 11:45)

M101 Fundamentals of End to End Solutions Italian Track

*** Attenzione: questa session si terrà in lingua italiana ***

Questa sessione indagherà ed analizzerà le varie opzioni di “end-to-end”, prendendo in esame le modalità di configurazione più “culturalmente” vicine ed appropriate per il mercato delle aziende italiane:

• Elementi base delle soluzioni “end-to-end”
• Strategie di implementazione
• Efficienza nei processi e risultati di saving

Moderator:
Dario Bongiovanni, General Manager, T&E Consultancy

Presenters:
Mimmo Cristofaro, CEO, Travelmatic
Grazia Maria Giordano, Procurement Sevices, Vodafone Omnitel N.V.
Giuseppe Sica, CEO, Infostudi

M102 The Pillars of a Successful Strategic Meetings Management Program
Understanding which aspects of strategic meetings management (SMM) have the greatest impact on cost with the least amount of “push back” is key to getting a meetings program off the ground. This session will provide a quick start plan that covers the framework of a successful strategic meetings management (SMM) programme highlighting:

• Policy essentials
• Planning and sourcing processes
• Payment platforms
• Local, regional and global programme variations

Moderator:
Kate Harris, Meeting Solutions EMEA , American Express

Presenters:
Megan Carmody, Director, Global Travel, Zurich Financial Services
Marco di Blasi, Italy Travel & Events Lead, Accenture

M103 Making a Multi-national Travel Program Work: Managing Expectations
The fastest growing travel markets world-wide are all emerging markets such as China, India, Latin America, former Soviet republics and the Middle East. Given the diversity, size and regulatory differences within these regions can it be expected that global travel programs can take root and flourish? This session will examine through case study examples:

• The pitfalls of a top-down approach - why industry “standards” just don’t fit
  
• Successful alternatives to a “global program”, including hybrid models and approaches
• Integrating regional requirements and corporate culture within the travel programme

Moderator:
Volker Huber, Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Solutions, AirPlus International

Presenters:
Markus Bender, Supply Base Manager, Europe, Deere and Company
Albert U.M. Kilsdonk, Manager Business Development Travel SI-RET, Real Estate Travel, Shell International B.V.
Andreas Wellauer, Former Regional Director of Travel, APAC, UBS

M104 Ka-ching, Ka-ching! Finding Transparency in & Managing Unbundled Vendor Costs

Click here for Session Highlights, Additional Resources and Pre-Reading

Taxes, surcharges and other unexpected fees that are added at point of sale have befuddled the most experienced traveller who tries to find the best priced option for travel as well as the travel managers who attempts to control their companies’ travel budgets. A recent uptick in these charges that lay outside the base fare or rate are further confounding travel managers ability to control costs, and in some cases the corporation’s ability to account and audit these charges. This session will focus on:

• Examining the break down of total cost of service in air, hotel, car and rail
• Identifying which part of the total price is negotiable
• Guidelines for budgeting extra costs from taxes, service fees and miscellaneous extras
• Accounting for unbundled fees

Moderator:
Jean-Michel Kadaner, CEO, Key Corporate Solutions

Presenters:
Bernadette Basterfield, International Head of Travel, JPM Chase
Alan Ryan, Regional Travel Manager, BP Global Travel Services
Richard Tams, Head of UK and Global Corporate Accounts, British Airways

M105 Duty of Care Workshop - Part I

(Limited to 60 Attendees)

**Please Note: This is a two-part session**

Click here for Session Highlights, Additional Resources and Pre-Reading

This scenario-based workshop will present participants with a series of realistic events designed to help them consider how they manage employees travelling to high-risk destinations and how they respond to incidents that may occur while an employee is travelling.

Covering the span of two sessions participants will take away valuable insights to improve their company's ability to avert and manage risk for their travelling employees. This workshop will help travel managers identify ways to strengthen protections for travelling employees and further demonstrate corporate commitment to 'duty of care' responsibilities.

Facilitators:

Ruth King, Senior Consultant, Travel Security, Control Risks
Mike Penrose, Director, Travel Security Services, International SOS

M106 Evolving Models for Managed Travel
In a marketplace characterized by increasingly fragmented content and changing financial models and driven by market forces beyond anyone’s control, it maybe useful to re-imagine managed business travel. This visionary session will look at possible “what if” scenarios for a corporation’s travel programme and provide an alternative way of thinking about how to deliver value and operate a travel management programme - for both buyers and suppliers. This session will:

• Identify the factors contributing to the evolving role of a travel manager and solutions required from suppliers in 2010 and beyond.
  
• Describe alternative methodologies to manage travel to
• Examine technology requirements that enable new thinking concepts to be implemented
• Explore the future role of TMC's and the value in a transaction based relationship in the future

Moderator:
Claire Stephens, Partner, W5ive Limited

Presenters:
Megan Stowe, Global Strategic Sourcing Manager, Mobility, Intel
Benjo van Laarhoven, Vice President, Client Development, American Express Business Travel

M107 Impact of Zero Percent Commission in India
India, one of the fastest growth markets globally for travel is preparing for a huge change as airline commissions are expected to be reduced to zero on 01 November 2008. The business model for most travel management companies agencies will change from a supplier based model to a customer based model. How will this change impact customers?

Presenters:
Rahul Nath, Managing Director, FCm Travel Solutions India

MONDAY, 6 OCTOBER (12:00 - 13:15)

M201 Change Management for Travel Program Success Italian Track

*** Attenzione: questa sessione si terrà in lingua italiana ***

La resistenza al cambiamento, sia culturale che istituzionale, può essere causa del fallimento dell’implementazione di qualsiasi tipo di programma, senza riguardo per ogni potenziale miglioria. Questa sessione si occuperà di prendere in esame come superare resistenze al cambiamento che si dovessero verificare nell’implementazione di processi, procedure, fornitori ecc.. Prendendo spunto da casi di successo, la sessione si focalizzerà in particolar modo su:

• Il ruolo della comunicazione
• L’importanza dell’esempio del senior management
• Eventuali conseguenze per I reiterarsi della resistenza al cambiamento

Moderator:
Dario Bongiovanni, General Manager, T&E Consultancy

Presenters:
Mario Codazzi, Head of Facility Management, Sky Italia
Matteo Piselli, HR Manager, Combipel
Letizia Rolando, Head of Facility Management, ENI

M202 Capturing Procurement Synergies Between Transient Travel and SMM

Click here for Session Highlights, Additional Resources and Pre-Reading

Meetings related spend can account for one third to two thirds of a corporate T & E budget. With such spend volumes incorporating a centralized management program is key to controlling overall travel and entertainment costs. Some companies clearly demarcate the control between meetings spend and transient travel spend, while others employ a reporting structure with single oversight. There are two camps of thought when it comes to leveraging transient travel spend for the optimization of meetings spend. Listen to case studies that represent these models and gain an understanding of:

• Benefits and advantages of both models
• How to Integrate transient and meetings programs
• Profile of meetings program more adaptable to integration

Moderator:
Christer Nordlund, Director Europe North, Events & Meetings Management, HRG

Presenters:
Michele Bryant, Director, Procurement/Travel, Strategic Procurement Services, Deloitte Services LP
Paul Cleveland, European Category Lead Travel, Accenture BPO Procurement
Virginia Harris, Sourcing Group Manager, Transient & Group Travel, Europe, GlaxoSmithKline

M203 Strategies for Asian Travel Programmes
From India to China, from Japan to Australia--given the geographic size and cultural diversity in Asia it is not surprising that business travel practices are rarely consistent and the variances in business practices is great. Whether due to cultural or institutional causes goals of travel programmes are often sabotaged by “off the radar”, unexpected issues. This session will bring focus to these issues and their solutions including:

• Labour issues’ impact in certain Asian countries
• Perspectives on traveller safety and security
• Vendor supply/corporate demand imbalance
• Contract negotiations

Presenters:
Peter Brady, Vice President, Global Program Management - Asia Pacific, Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Georgie Farmer, APAC Travel Manager , Microsoft
Mike Molloy, Director, Credit Suisse
Andreas Wellauer, Former Regional Director of Travel, ASPAC, UBS

M204 Managing the Pain/Cost of Green

Click here for Session Highlights, Additional Resources and Pre-Reading

Going forward with the integration of green objectives in your travel program requires understanding your corporation’s sustainable objectives, interpreting those objectives into achievable travel programme performance and a heavy dose of change management. This session will use case study examples to demonstrate how to overcome the pain as well as overcome cost in going green, emphasizing:

• Green options available to a travel program
• Painless sourcing for green vendors
  
• Role of change management
  
• Measurements
• Communicating results
  

Moderator:
Torsten Kriedt, Vice President, Innovation + Intelligence, Advito

Panelists:
Mark Avery, Head of Business Services, Infrastructure & Procurement, PricewaterhouseCoopers
Margaret Hansen, Global Procurement, Director Corporate Travel, A.T. Kearney

M205 Duty of Care Workshop – Part II

(Limited to 60 attendees)

** Please note - this is the second half of the earlier segment (M105) **

Click here for Session Highlights, Additional Resources and Pre-Reading

This scenario-based workshop will present participants with a series of realistic events designed to help them consider how they manage employees travelling to high-risk destinations and how they respond to incidents that may occur while an employee is travelling.

Covering the span of two sessions participants will take away valuable insights to improve their company's ability to avert and manage risk for their travelling employees. This workshop will help travel managers identify ways to strengthen protections for travelling employees and further demonstrate corporate commitment to 'duty of care' responsibilities.

Facilitators:
Ruth King, Senior Consultant, Travel Security, Control Risks
Mike Penrose, Director, Travel Security Services, International SOS

M206 Value Management: Focusing on Financial Outcomes

Click here for Session Highlights, Additional Resources and Pre-Reading

Value management practiced in the business travel space evaluates the financial gain to the company from the business trip in relation to the total cost of that trip. This approach requires a strategy that considers revenue to be derived, critical nature of the trip and maximizing traveller productivity. This session will provide the framework for a value management approach to travel and discuss:

• Green options available to a travel program
• Travel value assessment
• Decision-making matrix and communication concept
• Work-flow in adopting Value Management

Moderator:
Herman Mensink, Vice President, PRISM Group Inc.

Panelists:
Jerome Drevon-Barreaux, Global Travel Manager, Capgemini
Marc Hochman, Partner, Vice President, Procurement Solutions, A.T. Kearney

TUESDAY, 7 OCTOBER (10:00 - 12:00)

CSR Seminar: Possibilities and Problems – Labour Migration Issues Facing the Corporate Travel and Hospitality Industries

(Limited to 70 attendees)

With an estimated 80 million migrant workers around the world, labour migration has moved to the top of the economic and social agendas of many countries. ACTE and its partner the International International Organization for Migration is convening a high profile seminar on its impact on the hospitality industry, and how it can tap into this potential labour pool.

The issues under discussion will be:

• How does the business travel industry socially impact the overall and local community in terms of labour related issues and long term sustainability?
• What labour-related challenges do the corporate travel and hospitality industry face?
• How is the industry responding to those combined challenges of labour migration, human trafficking and unprecedented talent gap?
• How to develop partnerships and programs which can bring economic benefits for all?

Moderator:
Scott Schirmer, Private Sector Liaison, International Organization for Migration

Panelists:
Jonathan Martens, Counter-Trafficking Specialist, International Organization for Migration
Ugo Melchionda, Labour Migration Expert/Project Manager, International Organization for Migration

TUESDAY, 7 OCTOBER 12:00 - 13:15

T101 Ten Steps to Optimize Your Hotel Program Italian Track

*** Attenzione: questa session si terrà in lingua italiana ***

Molti programmi aziendali legati al segmento dell’hospitality falliscono il raggiungimento dei risultati relativi ai risparmi programmati, all’utilizzo dei fornitori, ed alla copertura. Questa sessione si focalizzerà sull’implementazione di “passaggi critici” che devono essere attuato per raggiungere i risultati identificati, tra cui:

• L’identificazione del canale di prenotazione;
• I cambiamenti alla procedura;
• Aumentare la conformità alla policy;
• Misurazione della performance e reporting;

Presenters:
Stefano Giaquinta, Regional Account Director, Italy & Central Mediterranean, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.
Grazia Maria Giordano, Procurement Sevices, Vodafone Omnitel N.V.

T102 Making Travel Management Work in Russia

Click here for Session Highlights, Additional Resources and Pre-Reading

The recent launching of a Russian BSP is a welcome milestone for travel in Russia. However, considerable obstacles continue to challenge managed business travel in Russia. Attendees will learn the unique conditions under which corporate travel programmes must operate including:

• Geographic (distance) factors, cultural variances and market maturity
• TMC services
• Complex settlement and distribution schemes
• Excessive regulation for inbound/outbound travel
• Safety and security considerations

Moderator:
Galina Filatova, Deputy General Director, FCm Travel Solutions

Presenters:
Elena Bolokhova, Travel Manager, Schlumberger
Stas Kostyashkin, CEO, Continent Express
Priska Schmidli, Vice President, Global Travel & Events Switzerland, Corporate Real Estate and Services (CRES), Credit Suisse

T103 Best Practice in Hotel Data Management
Hotel folio data has been viewed as the "holy grail" of travel procurement information. Merchants, card companies, technology providers have made substantial investments in making this information available to travel buyers. This session will focus on leveraging this data for better procurement outcomes and improved hotel spend reporting. Industry experts will explore:

• Market research findings
• Best practices for optimizing data
• Challenges to globalizing the program

Moderator:
Susan Hopley, Executive Vice President, Emerging Markets, TRX

Presenters:
Seth Friedman, Vice President, Global Corporate Commerce Development, MasterCard Worldwide
Randy Jones, Program Director, Lodging Finance, Marriott International
Lisa Jacobsen, Director, Global Travel & Meetings Management, Bristol Myers Squibb
Tom Tulloch, Vice President, Sales & Client Services, TRX

T104 New Technologies for Business Travel

Click here for Session Highlights, Additional Resources and Pre-Reading

This session will focus in on the two hottest technologies that are seeing rapid deployment across the globe in the business travel sector: video-conferencing and mobile devices enabled with business travel applications. Driven by both demand management and value management, videoconferencing capabilities are increasingly being offered in many companies as a less costly alternative to travel. Likewise mobile travel applications have the potential to reduce transaction costs and enable traveler productivity. In this session attendees will learn:

• Range of video-conferencing offerings
• Case study results from a travel program that has integrated videoconferencing into its travel/meetings programme
• Business travel applications available for mobile use
• Why doesn’t everyone have these?
• What’s the role of the travel manager in deploying these tools?

Moderator:
April Bridgeman, Senior Vice President, BCD Travel

Presenters:
Tim Bone, Director, Union Conventions, Events, Meeting and Travel, SEIU
Ed Kroes, Program Consultant Business Development, New Ways of Teamworking Group IT, Common Systems Solutions, Heineken International
Jean Noel Lau Keng Lun, Head of Product Marketing, Corporate & Distribution Channels, Amadeus IT Group

T105 Procurement Strategies to Maximize Airline Contracts

Click here for Session Highlights, Additional Resources and Pre-Reading

Changing currency valuations, changing airline partners and questions about the long term viability of carriers beleaguered by rising fuel costs are creating a more complex environment in negotiating for and contracting international air deals. Attendees in this session will learn how to:

• Better manage complex international airline contracts
• Contract with airline alliances in a fluid environment
• Strategies for contracting in a multi-currency environment
• Compare apples to apples in the airline contracting world

Moderator:
Herman Mensink, Vice President, EMEA, Prism Group Inc.

Presenters:
Mike Molloy, Director, Credit Suisse
Arnold van Griethuysen, Sourcing Specialist Airlines, Akzo Nobel

T106 Future Scenarios for European Airlines

Click here for Session Highlights, Additional Resources and Pre-Reading

Presented by a university researcher in the area of transportation studies, this session will provide models that may emerge in envisioning future Europe aviation as a result of changing dynamics caused by:

• Fuel costs
• Open Skies
• Cap & Trade regulation
• New demand from emerging markets
• Elasticity

Presenter:
Dr. David Jarach, Chairman, Diciottofebbraio srl

TUESDAY, 7 OCTOBER 14:30 - 15:45

T201 The Crosswinds of Politics & Economics Shaping the Future Nature of Travel Italian Track

*** Attenzione: questa session si terrà in lingua italiana ***

Con precisi richiami all’attuale scenario politico-economico, legato a petrolio e carburante, la sessione si occuperà degli impatti sulla gestione del business travel per quanto attiene ad un futuro prossimo. Attraverso l’utilizzo di dati previsionali, un’autorità nel campo del trasporto, si occuperà di esaminare i fattori che andranno a determinare i futuri modelli di utilizzo nel trasporto.

Presenter:
Dr. David Jarach, Chairman, Diciottofebbraio srl

T202 How Much Will that Reservation Cost Me?
While the industry waits for the dust to settle from the long struggle to update the European code of conduct for CRS, stakeholders have already taken positions and are moving forward with plans. This session will look at the effect on stakeholders with particular focus on:

• How will the GDS-Airline revenue discussions change the dynamic among GDS, TMC, airline and corporate customer?
• Financial impact on corporate travel budgets
• What the TMCs are doing to prepare

Moderator:
Jean-Michel Kadaner, CEO, Key Corporate Solutions

Presenters:
Mario Cardone, Vice President for Corporate Segment and Southern Europe, Sabre Travel Network
Christophe Pingard, Vice President Europe, Egencia, Expedia Inc. Company
Albert Pozo, Vice President, Multinational Customer Group, Amadeus IT Group
Floyd Widener, Vice President, Sales - EMEA, Carlson Wagonlit Travel

T203 Managing Hotel Programmes to Achieve Projected Savings
This session will examine why the hotel program is usually the weak link in the chain of managed travel spend and what can be done to improve on the performance in this spend category. Attendees will be provided with practices they can take away to optimize their hotel programmes while gaining an understanding of:

• Hallmarks of a successful hotel program
• Multiple distribution channels
• Working with online consolidators
• Working with online consolidators

Moderator:
Jennifer Charlton, Vice President Global Hotels and EMEA, CAR

Presenters:
Cindy Van Der Elst, Travel Manager, Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA), Honeywell Corporate
Thorsten Eicke, Global Travel & Fleet Manager, Linde AG
Matthew Roberts, Head of Business Sales, Hilton UK & I

T204 Expense Management: Are You Gaining or Losing Control?
Travel is to expense claims what airplanes are to airports and stations to trains. One doesn't go without the other. Tickets are linked to taxi or parking receipts. Yet in organizations the two have traditionally been managed by distinct departments. Procurement dealt with travel while finance handled expense claims.

This session will look at the changes affecting organization as they put in place advanced expense claim solutions integrating travel procurement and travel and expense policies and:

• Reasons for low deployment of end-to-end solutions
• Savings that can be realized through expense management solutions
• Best practices through case studies
• Enhanced reporting

Moderator:
Marion Klar, Principle, Continental Europe, HRG Consulting

Presenters:
Georgie Farmer, APAC Travel Manager , Microsoft
Kenneth Horner, GCC Programme Manager, Royal Dutch Shell
Jean-Francois Magne, Travel Manager, SFR

T205 Digging For Gold In Asia: Getting Your Hands on the Data

Click here for Session Highlights, Additional Resources and Pre-Reading

Data is a difficult commodity to collect in many of parts of Asia. Enablers of data such as credit card solutions, GDSs and use of self-booking tools may be missing. There are many reasons ranging from cultural acceptance of self-service models to stand alone state-operated GDSs. This session will provide attendees with awareness of these data limitations in this vast region as well as current and future solutions to:

• Asian vendor participation in GDS
• Limitation off payment solutions
• Managing in an environment of data scarcity

Moderator:
Andreas Wellauer, Former Regional Director of Travel, ASPAC, UBS

Presenters:
Peter Brady, Vice President, Global Program Management - Asia Pacific, Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Steve Smith, Vice President, Passenger Sales - The Americas, Japan Airlines

T206 Playing by the Rules: Optimizing Travel Policy and Compliance

Many travel managers are already squeezing maximum value from their suppliers through sophisticated sourcing strategies. Where to look for further savings, especially in a tough economic context? The latest research from the CWT Travel Management Institute reveals companies can save a staggering 20 percent of total travel spend on average by adopting best practices in travel policy design and compliance. This session will present an overview of the research findings with concrete examples and live testimonials from clients, focusing on:

• Five main areas where improvements can bring savings
• Eight keys to success

Presenter:
Bernadette Basterfield, Head of International Travel, JPMorgan Chase
Christophe Renard, Vice President, Business Intelligence, Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Achim Schmitz, Head of Group Travel Management, Adidas

TUESDAY, 7 OCTOBER 16.15 - 17.30

Conference-wide Industry Roundtable

This industry-advancing event will be a first step in establishing the industry standard for KPIs and identifying the best practices that support them. Using data collected from a recent comprehensive survey conducted by ACTE on KPI usage, facilitated discussion and corporate buyer attendee input through Audience Response Systems (ARS), expect to leave this session with benchmarks and best practices you can immediately implement in your travel programme.

Presenters:
Lutz Stammnitz, President Corporate Mobility Services, Siemens AG
Megan Stowe, Global Strategic Sourcing Manager, Mobility, Intel Corporation
Martin Umbleja, Managing Director of MU Independent Business Travel Consultants