Featured Speakers

Conference Moderator

SUNDAY, MAY 7 - 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m General Session & Keynote Presentation

Keynote Presentation : Leadership in the New Century

Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Carlson Companies

Marilyn Carlson Nelson discussed the challenges, opportunities and complexities of leading a 140-country enterprise in today's environment; the responsibilities incumbent upon corporate leaders who choose to operate globally; and the new style of business leadership she believes will be needed to succeed in the future Marilyn Carlson Nelson is chairman and chief executive officer of Carlson Companies, a global group of integrated companies providing leisure travel, hotel, restaurant, cruise, and marketing services. Headquatered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A., Carlson-owned and franchised operations employ about 190,000 people around the world. In 2004, sales under Carlson brands worldwide (including franchised operations) totaled US$26.1 billion.

The Carlson family of brands and services include: Regent International Hotels®, Radisson Hotels & Resorts®, Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts, Country Inns & Suites By Carlson, Park Inn® hotels, Carlson Marketing Group®, Carlson Wagonlit Travel®, Cruise Holidays, All Aboard Travel, Radisson Seven Seas Cruises®, and T.G.I. Friday's® restaurants.
For more information on Marilyn Carlson Nelson, click here.

Featured Speaker:

Lee Macenczak
Executive Vice President & Chief of Customer Service,
Delta Air Lines

Lee Macenczak, Executive Vice President & Chief of Customer Service at Delta Air Lines welcomed conference attendees to Delta's home town and touched on its proud history of supporting the transportation needs of business in Atlanta and the rest of the world.

MONDAY, MAY 8 - 8:30 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. General Session & Keynote Presentation

Keynote Presentation: Nanotechnology 2006 - The Transformations Accomplished, the Misleading Hype and the Realities of Commercialization,

Jim Hurd, Director NanoScience Exchange
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Jim Hurd looked at developments in nanomaterials, including synthetic single crystal diamond that can lead the way for semiconductors to move from silicon to diamond, natural nanotubes found in clays in the ground, carbon nanotubes that could one day enable elevators from the ground to the first level of the space station, semiconductors and batteries being made out of viruses and the National Cancer Institute's major nanobio push against cancer, using individual molecules to attach and then cook cancer cells.

Jim Hurd also looked at who's leading the way in nanoelectronics and discussed which major corporations are making the strategic alliances that are really effective.

It's a historic time - full of progress, full of hype and full of disappointment. 2006 and the year or two after are ushering in a brave new world - stay tuned or be left in the wake!

Featured Speaker:

Ruth Ann Marshall
President, The Americas
MasterCard International

The future is now.
Ruth Ann Marshall of MasterCard International, explained the latest advances in payment technologies that are impacting business travel.

MONDAY, MAY 8 - 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. General Session & Keynote Presentation

Keynote Presentation: Traveling in Search of Instability
Robert D. Kaplan, Best-selling Author & Correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly

Robert Kaplan offered glimpses into the insights he learned as an embedded journalist in Iraq that became the grist of his latest writing “The Coming Normalcy?" in the April 2006 issue of The Atlantic Monthly and the bleak predictions contained in his most recent book "The Coming Anarchy". Both pieces emphasize that restoring order to Iraq will not be easy and that U.S. troops will not likely be able to return home for a long time to come. Robert D. Kaplan, a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, is the best-selling author of ten books on international affairs and travel, translated into 20 languages. His latest and most important work, Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground, the first of a series of books about the U.S. Military, was published by Random House in September 2005. In the 1980s, Kaplan was the first American writer to warn in print about a future war in the Balkans. Former President Clinton and President George W. Bush are both readers of Kaplan's books, and Kaplan has briefed President Bush in the White House

Sara energetically explained how a $5,000 investment turned into a $45 million dollar apparel company and how Richard Branson, Chairman, The Virgin Group, unexpectedly handed Sara Blakely $750,000 to start a foundation to benefit women’s rights around the world.

TUESDAY, MAY 9 - 9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. General Session & Keynote Presentation

Keynote Presentation: Politics & Pandemics

Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, MD, MPH, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
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CDC’s Global Disease Detection initiatives focus on key interventions that allow CDC and its global partners to quickly recognize, prevent, and control infectious disease outbreaks. Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding spoke about ensuring secure and time data exchange, emphasizing the greater good of putting health of the human population first, and how highly connected small-world networks are our best strategy to better detect and better respond to emerging health threats.

Before becoming CDC Director and ATSDR Administrator, Dr. Gerberding was Acting Deputy Director of National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID), where she played a major role in leading CDC's response to the anthrax bioterrorism events of 2001. She joined CDC in 1998 as Director of the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, NCID, where she developed CDC's patient safety initiatives and other programs to prevent infections, antimicrobial resistance, and medical errors in healthcare settings. Prior to coming to CDC, Dr. Gerberding was a University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) faculty member and directed the Prevention Epicenter, a multidisciplinary research, training, and clinical service program that focused on preventing infections in patients and their healthcare providers. Dr. Gerberding is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) at Emory University and an Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) at UCSF.

For more information on Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, click here.

This session compliments of:

As the CEO of a large international company, Hogg Robinson Group, David brought up issues that face major corporations in a world that is constantly changing, as well as the impact of these issues on the corporate travel industry.

TUESDAY, MAY 9 - 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. General Session & Keynote Presentation

Keynote Presentation: The Intersection of Privacy and Security

Steven Brill, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Verified Identity Pass, Inc.

Steven Brill spoke about the movement towards volunteer credentialing as an approach to mitigate the inconveniences and delays that securing our transportation systems has imposed and how society has come to endorse the private sector approaches to deal with the interaction between security and privacy issues.

Steven Brill is the Founder and CEO of Verified Identity Pass, Inc., and the creator of Clear Registered Traveler program. He has been a Newsweek columnist on all issues related to the aftermath of the September 11th attacks and a consultant to NBC on the same subject. He is the author of "AFTER: How America Confronted The September 12th Era" (Simon & Schuster 2003).

Previously, he was Chairman and CEO, American Lawyer Media, L.P. and Founder, President, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of COURT TV (Courtroom Television Network), the 24-hour basic cable television channel that began operations across the country in July 1991.

Protecting our Life Blood
Corporations around the world understand the importance of demonstrating their community commitment. Since the demand for blood continues to outpace the supply, employers who encourage employees to volunteer, especially by sponsoring blood donation programs, not only contribute to the health and well-being of community members, but earn the respected recognition of being “good corporate citizens.” This session provided information on how to easily begin contributing to a safe and adequate blood supply.

Homeland Security and the Business Traveler: Screening for Terrorists, Aliens, Criminals and Viruses
Homeland Security is introducing an array of screening measures designed to protect aviation and the country. Weiss gave an overview of the measures in place and what we can expect in the future.

Conference Moderator

Michael Jackson, Managing Director, Zebra Crossing

For the second year in a row, Conference Moderator, Michael Jackson continued to bring a level of professionalism to ACTE’s educational program. The role allowed, Jackson to facilitate and summarize each of the general sessions. Jackson kept focus on the Conference themes and objectives, which provided seamless transitions, and ensured a lively exchange of views. Jackson is a highly regarded strategic consultant and a sought-after global public speaker based between London and Johannesburg. Jackson is also a travel journalist, writing for British Airways and Travel magazine and is a regular television presenter.