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 ACTE Asia-Pacific Education Conference.

Wednesday, 20 August; 14.30 – 15.45

W101 Indirect Spend Management: Getting Familiar with the Travel Category

Strategic Indirect Spend Management has been prescribed as the better approach to control cost and extract value in the travel category, while improving supplier relationships and enabling business travelers to be more productive. This session will offer opportunities to compare both the common and unique characteristics between travel and other areas of indirect spend in the corporation while answering:

• What do companies want procurement executives to bring to travel management?
• What novel challenges must they surmount in the travel category?
• How should performance be measured?

Presenters:
David Burrows, Procurement, United Group Limited
Shravan Charya, Associate General Manager – Commercal, HCL Technologies Inc.

W102 Indirect Procurement Outsourcing: A Viable Strategy for Travel?

Companies have tried a myriad of strategies in an attempt to lower costs associated with the procurement process of non-core services. Can Indirect Procurement Outsourcing (IPO) deliver corporations substantial cost reductions opportunities and the potential of extracting competitive advantages from these low performing assets? Discussion will include:

• Which travel spend categories are best suited for procurement outsourcing?
• What considerations need to be made in the decision process?
• What KPIs need to be included in this strategy?
• What challenges does a region like Asia-Pacific present to the concept?

Presenter:
Eckhart Reinhard, Senior Director Purchasing, Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific Pte Ltd

W103 Traveller Safety and Security: Examining Legal Duty and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Asian Context

Duty of care for employees is the fundamental basis of accepting corporate social responsibility (CSR) for companies operating in this region. In the Asian context, corporate social responsibility begins with employers operating in the region, making conscientious decisions to care for their employees' welfare. From travel health to security risks, employers are going beyond dollars and cents to demonstrate this commitment to its travel warriors. Learn the merits of a good "Employee Risk Management" programme and how it fits into an organisation's CSR vision. The session includes:

• Legal ramifications of negligence to the welfare of employees
• The CSR influence on employers' commitment to traveller safety and security
• Who is the “employee”?
• What influence will these issues have on current practices in traveller safety and security
• Case Study

Presenter:
Tony Ridley, Regional Security Risk Director of Asia Pacific, International SOS

W104 Integrating Green KPIs into RFPs

For many companies, travel is not only a significant budgetary component, but is a major portion of their “carbon footprint.” This session identifies common practices by companies that lead in changing the way they purchase services and incorporate sustainable processes into their business travel supply chain. These changes, in return, can generate significant cost savings and service improvements. This session provides insights, outlooks and solutions on:

• Setting practical goals for the sourcing event
• Developing a sustainable RFP
• Evaluating vendor responses
• Contracting to ensure realization of sustainability goals

Presenters:
Jenny Ng, Travel Manager- Asia Pacific, HSBC
Fred Allsopp, Regional Director of Account Management, HRG

Wednesday, 20 August; 16.15 – 17.30

W201 Change Management for Supply Partners: Critical Points for Accomplishing Price Reduction Targets

In spend categories characterized by high demand/limited supply, vendors have been slow in adapting to the procurement-led initiatives. Some suppliers may regard such initiatives with a measure of suspicion and disdain. Through a series of case studies, this session will show how corporate travel buyers have overcome the challenges of a reluctant supply chain resulting in successful buyer-vendor partnerships.

Presenters:
Vijay Sati, Assistant Vice President - Procurement & Commerical, HCL Technologies Ltd
Michael Molloy, Director, Credit Suisse

W202 Career Growth in Managed Travel: A Gap Analysis of Talent in the Asia-Pacific Region

As business travel in the Asia-Pacific region continues to expand in both volume and complexity so will the need for talent resources. It has been suggested that in less than a decade this region will account for more than a third of the world's corporate travel traffic and will demand the right human talent to support the industry's growth. This session examines the nature of the talent required, the supply of this resource and the attractiveness of its career path.

• What are corporations' top priorities in managing corporate travel costs and activities in Asia-Pacific?
• What critical competencies are needed in order that these objectives are accomplished?
• Where is the path for advancement in the light of procurement's growing influence in the travel category and other indirect spend categories?
• How can corporations recruit, develop, retain and maximise these talent resources?

Presenters:
Steven Yang, Director, AC Nielsen
Andrew Chan, Managing Director – Asia, TMS Asia Pacific Pte Ltd

W203 Travel Spend Data Management: Data and End-to-End Solutions

Corporations are increasingly seeking ways to streamline business processes, increase control and reduce costs by securing real-time data and automating the entire travel process. From booking through to reconciliation, defining and integrating procedures into your programme to produce better data will yield better business intelligence. Join experts from the travel management field as they probe the processes and benefits for corporations, and start to answer how you can capitalize for improved insights into your travel spend.

Presenters:
Tony O’Connor, Managing Director, Butler Caroye
Johnny Thorsen, CEO, conTgo
Jeremy Findley, Head of Business Development – Asia Pacific, Concur Technologies, Inc

Thursday, 21 August; 10.45 – 12.00

T101 Demand Management: Managing the Consumption of Business Travel?

Corporate leaders are challenged with accomplishing bigger goals with smaller budgets and expense management remains an essential part of the task, but the traditional tactic of removing cost from the supply side may not always be available. In these situations, companies turn their sights inwards to manage demand for travel and find opportunities for savings. This session will expand on the following area of managing travel demand:

• Tightening policy
• Identifying non-essential travel
• Alternatives to travel

Presenter:
Bruce Finch, Senior Manager – Global Travel Services, Autodesk Inc

T102 Supply Chain Management Strategy for Hotel Programmes

Hotels are important elements in the travel supply chain, but with the prevailing lopsided demand/supply for rooms ratio persisting, are corporate travel managers being forced to work with a new set of expectations? What are hotel chains doing now to secure good short-, medium- and long-term relationships with corporations?

Presenter:
Stephanie Leung, Corporate Travel Manager – Asia Pacific, Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd

T103 Travel Spend Data: Structuring a Comprehensive RFP for Travel Spend; Analyzing spend Data (End-to-End Travel Spend MIS Solution)

A travel services RFP should be scientifically developed to suit both the internal requirements as well as the external economic realities. What measurement metrics and objectives should travel spend managers incorporate into RFP to provide clarity of expectations? This session will examine several components in structuring a scientific travel services RFP including, among other things:

• The relationship between a Travel Manager's KPIs and a Supplier's SLA
• Service requirement categories and service quality metrics
• More on pricing metrics
• Penalties / Incentives metrics

Presenters:
Nitin Mittal, Associate Leader –Travel Operations, Mphasis
Shashank, Country Head, Thomas Cook India

Panelist:
Eugene Chan, Global Sales Director – Asia Pacific, Carlson Wagonlit Travel

T104 Does Managed Travel Support Productivity or Just Get in the Way?

Do the savings goals of managed travel focus on short-term gains while ignoring the long-term impact? This session will examine when reducing costs for travel are offset by loss of productivity and increases to the top line.

Presenters:
Koby Brice, Global Travel Operations, Oracle Corporation

Zinan Liu, Executive Vice President – Asia Pacific, HRG China

Thursday, 21 August; 14.30 – 15.45

T201 Change Management for Internal Customers: Critical Points for Accomplishing Consumption Reduction Goals

Just like a Supply Chain Management strategy requires the support of supply partners, Demand Management success must be endorsed by a corporation’s travelers. What can and must be done to win changes in attitudes and behaviors? This session will provide:

• Action plans for systematically managing the entire change process
• Critical success factors
• A detailed case study example from the travel management area

Presenters:
Meredith Owen, Travel Manager – APJ, Merck Global Travel Services

Caroline Strachan, International Travel Manager - Global Procurement and Sourcing, Yahoo!

T202 Supply Chain Management Strategy for Airline Programmes

Airlines are operating in a rapidly evolving business, and markets are showing promising signs of deregulation while corporations look on as better deals seem more possible than ever before. What is the best supply chain strategy going forward?

Presenter:
Alicia King, Manager Global Air, Chevron Business and Rela Estate Services

T203 Strategic Meetings Management – Making it Work in the Real World

Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) trumps transient travel management in complexity, spend, vendors and contracts, while requiring the most agile coordination and fine-tuned processes to deliver value. This session will focus on Strategic Meetings Management beyond the consolidation stage and consider SMM as a method for optimizing the meetings portfolio through a constant meeting improvement process. This session will review:

• The definition of Strategic Meetings Management
• How to drive a meeting portfolio improvement programme
• A case study of an SMM programme aimed at optimizing meetings effectiveness

Presenter:
Wen Shan, Procurement Manager – Services of National Procurement Department, DHL – Sinotrans International Air Courier Limited
Marcella Pert Arul, Executive – Regional Events, McDonald’s Asia Pacific