EDUCATION SESSIONS

The Technology Experience

ACTE XII introduces a new approach to the travel technology encounter that goes beyond the usual – The Technology Experience. Integrated into the breakout session schedule, The Technology Experience provides demonstration opportunities of both hardware and software solutions for each of the three stages of business travel – Pre-Trip, On the Road, Post Trip-Reconciliation. In an interactive, hands-on environment, you will have the chance to sample the latest automated tools and to try out and evaluate emerging products, such as wireless devices, e-ticket machines, fingerprint recognition, and Superman-like security scanning devices. The Technology Experience will provide a valuable learning experience for anyone who's ever found themselves standing in a long line, ticket counter, customs area, or security screening in their attempt to get from point A to point B. Don't miss this opportunity to learn how the processes and rigors of travel and travel management can be reduced through technology solutions!

Building Links: Maximizing Opportunities Through Golf

It's a fact of life that a lot of business gets conducted on the golf course; but that doesn't mean it's all fun and games on the fairway. To help participants better understand how to handle themselves and their time with business associates while they play, Bill Storer, president of Business Golf Strategies, will brief participants on the basic rules of golf, outline the basics of golf etiquette, and help participants create a business plan for a productive day on the links.

Creative Airfare Programs

It's a fact of U.S. corporate travel life that organizations headquartered in hub cities pay the highest average domestic business fares. Low-cost carriers offer the potential for some competitive relief, but are often squeezed from the marketplace. As fares continue to ratchet up, how can companies achieve any kind of purchasing leverage? This session will offer an insiders' view of the current state of the airline industry and its implications for travel managers as well as explore cost-savings opportunities, including how best to use low-cost carriers in your program. A case study will detail how one company developed, implemented and measured a targeted air strategy using multiple carriers in a monopoly market.

Deconstructing Agency Fees

With commission cuts in their fifth year, and the momentum toward disintermediation building, this is the perfect time to learn exactly what value your agency brings to your firm. This session will begin with a briefing on travel agency internal operations (revenue streams, cost bases, etc.), which will help you determine whether current fees are reasonable and competitive, which agency services are still a good value, and which can (and should) be dropped.

The Culture Quotient Workshop This session is limited to 35 participants

"Nothing replaces knowledge." – W.E. Deming – The words of W.E. Deming are all the more poignant today as we negotiate a world of interconnectivity populated with "knowledge workers." In a business environment of shrinking national and cultural borders, cultural knowledge is an imperative. Anchored in extensive culture profiling research, this session opens with a focus on self-knowledge moving to explore tools to map cultures for competitive business performance. Using authentic situations in an interactive environment, it explores how cultural competencies create value in various workplace roles – from remote team player, influencer, and communicator, to business relationship builder. Cultural knowledge is business power.

Hotel RFP's & The Bidding Process

A comprehensive hotel program is a basic element of any sound travel management program, but putting one together – especially for global organizations – is a painstaking process involving dozens (or more) of hotel companies and individual properties... and negotiations with virtually every single one. Panelists will share experiences on ways to calculate the costs involved in each RFP, when it is realistic to outsource the process, which technology tools work best, and define essential negotiating points such as "last room availability."

How Do Your Suppliers Measure Up? Show Me The Numbers!

How do you objectively determine whether your suppliers are up to snuff, your travelers are getting treated the way they should, and your travel arrangers are not only productive, but also making the right decisions? Performance measurement can help you determine whether the service you get is the service you've been paying for – and what that means for your bottom line. This panel will explore the latest methodologies for measuring performance and making the most of data for process improvement.

The Implementation Challenges of a Global Automated Expense Reporting System

Automated expense reporting systems can vastly streamline the T&E; process while enabling companies to achieve control over spending. And as intuitive, efficient time-saving tools, they also provide significant benefits to travelers. Still, implementing an automated system on a global basis has its challenges: diverse tax and business practice issues, multiple languages, regional policy variations, and the change management and training complexities inherent in such an undertaking. This session will include case histories from veterans of the process who will address issues from securing necessary resources to managing technological glitches.

Managing Corporate Travel: The Latin American Experience

Latin America is one of the world's fastest growing markets, which offers opportunities as well as obstacles for T&E; management. Although there are only two languages in the region, there are multiple currencies and many different cultures, differing degrees of economic development and, in some economies, runaway inflation – all of which make it tough to budget and to analyze spending data. This session will focus on unique Latin American challenges: regional airline agreements; special MIS requirements; and cultural, geographical and political factors affecting travel management.

Meetings Consolidation Part I: The Next Frontier in Travel Management

Most companies spend the equivalent of their entire corporate travel budget on meetings and don't even know it. Why? Because the purchase of meetings is decentralized, data is hard to capture, and meeting-related costs are often buried in departmental budgets. Still, planning meetings with the same purchasing disciplines as corporate travel procurement can help companies save 10 to 30 percent, including incremental savings on group travel, and may introduce interesting synergies for the purchase of transient business. In this session, you'll learn best practices from corporate and industry pros and discover options for integrating meetings and travel to improve business performance.

Meetings Consolidation Part II: Case Studies Small Group Discussion

Presenters from "Meetings Consolidation: The Next Frontier in Travel Management" will meet with smaller groups interested in a more detailed discussion of the topic. This is your opportunity to learn from colleagues with first-hand experience in consolidating meetings and travel. Find out what worked, what they'd do differently in the future, how they convinced their organizations to take on the project, and whether results are meeting their expectations.

Negotiate Like the Pros Workshop

Negotiating is something we do every day, with colleagues, bosses, staff, clients, suppliers... even our families. It's also something most of us could stand to improve, whether we're putting together million-dollar deals, trying to finesse a massive discount, or asking a team to work overtime. John Patrick Dolan, a high-profile trial attorney and an electrifying speaker, will divulge the techniques of master negotiators including, pressure tactics and how to counteract them; using silence as a powerful negotiating tool; how to break an impasse, and how to get the other party to tell you exactly what you need to know.

Open Data Standards: The Promise of XML

The data that ultimately ends up in travel managers' reports is generated by old systems. It is not only generally of poor quality, but is also notoriously difficult to use. To make it easier for agents, travel managers, GDSs, charge card vendors, and other suppliers to exchange data over the Internet, The Open Travel Alliance is working on making a new "metalanguage," XML, the industry standard. This session will explore the issues surrounding the adoption of XML, and what it ultimately means for travel management.

The Passenger Bill of Rights: Did it Fall Short or Go Too Far?

Now that the airlines have implemented their customer commitment plans, passengers will benefit from several initiatives such as proper communication in delayed situations, cancellations, flight changes, timely refunds, enhanced compensation for lost baggage and several other areas of interest to the consumer. Ate these commitments enough and are they working? This session will include speakers from regulatory agencies, airlines and the traveling public to discuss these initiatives and their long term effect on our industry.

Risk Management and Travel Management: The Connection is Real!

When a laptop gets stolen, it's not just the hardware that's lost; it's the value of the data inside as well. Is your company covered for the loss of intellectual property? Are you covered if a corporate traveler extends a business trip to capture a Saturday night fare, breaks a leg and needs a costly airlift home? What about a car crash, when your traveler is negligent? This session will help you identify risk management techniques which may help to reduce your company's exposure and make post-loss recovery more successful.

Strategic Agency Partnering

Still measuring your agency's performance by average call-per-answer, transactions-per-consultant or air volume metrics? Your focus is much too narrow. For many companies, the strategic solution isn't to purchase anything ready-made from an agency, but to cherry-pick the products and services that best suit their travel patterns, budgets, IT systems, and corporate cultures. In this session, you'll learn how by partnering with an agency, sharing concerns, goals, and even proprietary information with one another, both parties can end with a satisfactory arrangement: appropriate profit margins for the agency, improved service delivery for the client.

Travel Management Strategies for the New E-conomy

Intimidated – even a little – by the sheer variety and complexity of travel technology products? Wondering whether something like intranet bookings, "pay as you fly" programs or complete GDS bypass will work at your organization? You're not alone. This session will address cultural factors that influence technology purchasing, integration, and implementation. You'll also leave with a plan for creating a technology strategy for your company, 6 months, 12 months, and 15 months down the road.

Strategic Sourcing: Theory and Practice

If they aren't already, strategic sourcing initiatives will soon be part of most major companies' purchasing practices. This session will begin by describing the strategic sourcing rationale and process before addressing where T&E; purchasing (and other aspects of travel management) fit into the grand sourcing scheme. Presenters will include consulting professionals who specialize in strategic sourcing, and a travel manager who will outline how she approached the sourcing challenge and how it supported her role in a global enterprise.

Travel Management Best Practices: Selling The Ultimate Vision

In company boardrooms, corporate travel isn't viewed just as an expense to manage, but also as a strategic asset which contributes to the organization's mission. Consider how presenting the "Ultimate Vision" of travel management will get the attention of your CEO and CFO. This session will brief participants on how some travel managers have successfully made the case for the importance of travel management by outlining a clear, sophisticated, and above all integrated message concerning service delivery, IT, data management and value measurement.

Alternatives to Travel: Gateway to Savings

What's the easiest way to save money on corporate travel? Stay home. With C4 Convergence – the combination of Communications, Content on the web, Computing, and hand-held Communication devices – some business purposes may be served just as well virtually as they are face-to-face. This session will introduce the latest research findings from a major, cross-industry, cross-university research project aimed at understanding when and why people should hit the road, and how to best exploit alternatives to travel whenever possible.

Purchasing and Evaluating Technology

This session will help you develop a well-considered, methodical plan for evaluating technology products and services that best suit your company – and your budget. A panel of experts, made up of buyers and suppliers, will guide participants through the evaluation and procurement process. Each participant will receive a purchasing manual containing sample RFPs, descriptions of various financing options, implementation plans, and measurements to help calculate post-technology-purchase return on investment for companies of all sizes.