Educational Sessions

Seasoned practitioners and experts will guide you through an intensive examination of the key issues affecting the business travel market today. Sessions are offered in varied formats and give attendees the opportunity to interact with their peers and the content leaders. Each session is designed with the travel professional in mind and will provide attendees with real-world solutions and resources they can begin to use immediately.

SUNDAY, 18 MAY 14:00 - 16:00

S101 Expect the Unexpected: Crisis Management for Corporate Travel Managers

This scenario-based workshop will present participants with a series of realistic events designed to help them consider how they manage employees traveling to high-risk destinations and how they respond to incidents that may occur while an employee is traveling. Through exercises aimed at sharpening disaster-preparedness and response skills, participants will take away valuable insights to improve their company's ability to avert and manage risk for their traveling employees. This workshop will help travel managers identify ways to strengthen protections for traveling employees and further demonstrate corporate commitment to 'duty of care' responsibilities.

Facilitators:
Daniel Andresen, Consulting Manager, Americas Region, International SOS Assistance, Inc.
Laura Winthrop, Vice President, International Support and Analysis, Control Risks

MONDAY, 19 MAY 13:15 - 14:30

M101 Green Taxes vs. Cap and Trade

Concerns about global warming are fostering creative strategies for reducing our emissions of heat-trapping gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2). A common feature among these climate strategies is a “cap-and-trade” system for reducing emissions. In practice, cap-and-trade systems create a financial incentive for emission reductions by assigning a cost to polluting. Currently the U.S. has a “voluntary cap and trade system” that California and 12 States on the East Coast, have implemented. While the US Congress is expected to introduce national Cap and Trade legislation within the USA by 2009, the EU has enacted mandatory laws affecting the airline industry which are expected to be completely phased in by 2010. Other countries such as the UK, have implemented Green Taxes. An expert panel, from industry, environment, and government, will discuss:

• Controversial issues these plans raise
• Timetables for implementation and airline industry’s preparations
• Cost implications for business travel

Moderators:
David Tibbles, Global Product Director - Online Booking & Environment, Carlson Wagonlit Travel

Presenters:
Mira Rubin Karp, Manager, Sales and Business Development, TerraPass
Heather Holsinger, Senior Fellow for Domestic Policy, the Pew Center for Climate Change
Doug Lavin, Regional VP North America, IATA

M102 The Upside of an Economic Downturn

Instead of focusing on suppliers and prices, leading corporations are launching enterprise-wide initiatives in demand management, which examine drivers for spend, alignment of consumption to business needs and the elimination of unnecessary spend. Recently improved low-cost technology solutions have emerged which offer companies the opportunity to generate significant savings through virtual meetings/telepresence technologies. This session will explore:

• Range & effectiveness of demand management options
• Relationship between demand management derived savings and organizational impact
• Available technology options
• Policy/guidelines for virtual alternatives
• Integrating virtual options at POS

Moderator:
Tony D’Astolfo, Vice President, Worldwide Sales, Rearden Commerce

Presenters:
Debra Goldmann, Senior Specialist, Travel Services, Verizon
M. John Guarneri, Vice President Global Travel Services, Philips International B.V.
Debra Reid, U.S. Travel Services Manager, Shell Oil Company

M103 Roadmap to Best-in-Class Strategic Meetings Management.

Do you have a strategic blueprint for transforming your company’s meetings management efforts into a world class program? Discover how your meetings program compares to industry peers. Learn Best Practices and important KPIs. Develop a Step-by-Step Plan for Building a Strategic Meetings Management Program.

Moderator:
Julie K. Lubell, Director of Global Meetings, Global Product Management and Marketing, American Express

Presenters:
Betsy Bondurant, CMP, CMM, President, Bondurant Hospitality Consulting, LLC
Kevin Young, Vice President, Marketing, StarCite, Inc.

M104 The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth

This session will examine leading practices among corporate buyers who have found new uses for data that deliver actionable intelligence to their companies resulting in:

• Improved program performance measurement
• Increased negotiating leverage
• Better vendor performance

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

Panelists:
Donna Kelliher, Director, Travel Services, Dominion Resources Inc.
Brian Tarble, Global Data & Technology Manager, TMS, Oracle
Tanya Turnbull, Global Travel Manager, Sanmina-SCI

M105 The Living Travel Vocabulary | Changing Terms and Conditions.

The pace of change in the business travel industry has been rapid and accelerating, bringing with it new concepts and terminology. This look at changes in the lingo can serve to bring new industry entrants into the loop and clarify terms of art and trade for senior executives looking to become better versed in travel management. Strategic sourcing terminology has become part of the travel management lexicon and even veteran travel buyers need to come to terms with legal definitions. Attendees will receive a glossary of terms developed by BTN editors as BTNonline Web-only content to be released in conjunction with the 2008 BTN Business Travel Buyer¹s Handbook. Join Merck’s Cyndi Teufel, BCD Travel president of the Americas Danny Hood, Wolf and Samson’s Laurence Smith, and Caldwell & Associates’ John Caldwell in discussing key terminology.

Presenters:
John Caldwell, President, Caldwell Associates
Danny Hood, President of the Americas, BCD Travel
Laurence M. Smith, Esq., Wolff & Samson PC
Cynthia Teufel, Site and Commercial Services, Sourcing Manager Travel and Card Products, Merck & Co. Inc.

MONDAY, 19 MAY 15:00 - 16:15

M201 Directions in Government Travel – World Class Travel Management in a Shared Services Model

The Federal Government has the greatest challenge with share services because if its size and complexity. Developing a shared services environment is not a technology challenge as much as it is a change management challenge. To consolidate hundreds of disconnected operations into a single unified service requires the "voice of the customer" at every stage of the transformation. This session will address how the Federal Government's Executive Branch, the largest "federated" entity in the world, went from over 250 different travel management business processes to a Shared Services Model for World Class Travel Management.

Whether you are a government or corporate travel professional, or a travel industry supplier to the government, you will benefit from this candid overview of how the government is transforming its travel management and programs business model. The session will cover

• The model that GSA is driving toward,
• How this model might be applied in the private sector,
• What developments you can expect in the future, and, most importantly,
• How this will impact your organization’s interaction with GSA.

Presenters:
Timothy Burke, GSA FAS Director of Travel and Transportation Services
And accompanying panelists

M202 Industry Consolidation – The Unidentified Opportunity?

Industry consolidation occurs in shades of both subtle and bold. Trade and general press

provide speculation on the shifts in the “tectonic plates” of the industry, while quieter mergers and acquisitions are happening globally that likewise impact the business travel supply chain. This session will explore the challenges and opportunities of consolidation with focus on:

• Service implications
• Cost/savings impact
• Averting risk in your supply chain

Moderator:
Mark Walton, Principal, Consulting Strategies, LLC

Presenters:
Jon Ash, President, InterVISTAS-ga2 Consulting, Inc.
John Coffman,VP Finance, Global Mergers & Acquisitions, Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Professor Jeffrey Macher, Associate Professor of Strategy and Economics, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University
Julie Simpson, Management Consultant, Caldwell Associates

M203 Taking Meetings Global: SMM in RoW

As strategic meetings management programs make advances across the globe many in the vanguard are learning that one cannot transplant a successful US meetings program into another region and expect it to yield successful outcomes. This session will look at:

• Localizing your program to achieve global objective
• Terminology
• Practices and processes that work

Moderator:
George Odom, Senior Director of Business Development, Advito

Presenters:
Roman Asboth, Senior Sourcing Specialist Travel Hotels, Events & Group Meetings, Philips GmbH, General Purchasing
Anthony Charlton, Strategic Sourcing Manager, Employee Services Procurement Intel Corporation (UK) Ltd
Pamela Ferranti, Manager, Meeting Management Solutions, Xerox Corporation

M204 Supplier Relationship Management.

Travel managers are increasing under pressure to extend procurement-driven supplier relationship management (SRM) activities to the travel services area. Procurement executives value SRM as the opportunity to improve vendor performance in the post-sourcing phase of the relationship and ensure that the savings promised during the procurement process are achieved and even surpassed. This session will examine:

• Components and methodologies commonly practiced in SRM
• Responsibilities of suppliers in an SRM relationship
• Value delivered through case study examples

Moderator:
Daniel Maschoff, Procurement Solutions, Accenture

Presenters:
Anne-Marie Christian, Manager, Lilly Travel and Meeting Services, Eli Lilly and Company
Steve Kiernan, Assistant Director, Corporate Purchasing, Cushman and Wakefield, Inc.
Deborah Steele, Senior Vice President, Corporate Travel & Meetings, Bank of America

M205 Strategic Sourcery: 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 Deloitte chief procurement officer Mike McMahon, KPMG director of operations for firmwide procurement, Pfizer vice president of worldwide procurement Tom Donatelli and United Technologies travel commodity manager Marcia Telez to discuss their experiences in using sourcing techniques to maximize the value of corporate travel spending. Attendees will receive a copy of the report based on the latest original BTN research, hot off the press.

Presenters:
Pat Barrett, Director of Operations, Firmwide Procurement, KPMG
Tom Donatelli, Vice President, Worldwide Procurement, Pfizer,Inc
Michael McMahon, Chief Procurement Officer & Director of National Services, Deloitte Services LP
Marcia Tellez, Travel Commodity Manager, UTC

TUESDAY, 20 MAY 10:45 - 12:00

T101 What the CEO Really Wants From Supply Chain Strategies

This session focuses on translating the overriding strategy and interest of top management, to operational focus on supply chain strategies and financial performance, and overall business competitiveness. Attendees will learn how to map popular initiatives in demand management, sourcing and logistics around key deliverables for the corporate strategy

Presenter:
Professor Ricardo Ernst, Ph.D., McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University

T102 Emerging Markets

The emerging markets of Russia, Brazil, South Africa and Middle East are at various stages of maturity related to business travel management. This session is designed to provide attendees with a status update on the stages of each region related to key elements of a managed travel program including:

• Agency and vendor sourcing
• Policy development and compliance
• Use of self-booking tools
• Payment
• Reporting

Presenter:
Jean-Pierre Chayriguet, former Travel Manager, DHL
Iftikhar Haque, Director, Corporate Supply Chain & Procurement Siemens LLC - Dubai Internet City
Omar Rosas Ramirez, Supply Office Executive Manager, Unibanco
Yedwa Simelane, Managing Secretary, AngloGoldAshanti
Pascal Struyve, Global Travel & Meeting Services Director, Trane BVBA

T103 Going Global: India

This session will look at this fast-growing market and consider how India measures up in its practice of managing business travel against other international markets. Experts will offer their analysis of:

• Areas where travel management deviates from international standards
• Supply chain management in a critically constrained market
• Unique cultural and business features

Presenters:
Mike Bezer, Vice President, Global Sales – Asia Pacific, Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Andreas Wellauer, Regional Director of Travel, APAC, UBS

T104 Content Fragmentation

As travel programs increase their global scope so does the incidence of finding content in multiple places increase. The industry is at a time of experimentation in which suppliers are exploring alternate methods of distribution for content as well as adding new types of “content—a la carte fees for baggage or seat assignment. This session will explore answers to the questions surrounding global content fragmentation:

• How can a travel manager keep a program together in this diverse environment?
• How can distribution costs be controlled?
• Does technology hold the answer?
• What is the role of the TMC in finding solutions?

Moderator:
Suzanne Neufang, Vice President, Product Marketing & Customer Experience, GetThere

Presenters:
Duane Futch, Director of Global Travel Services, Wal-Mart
Mike Koetting, Executive Vice President, Global Suppliers Management, Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Kathy Mason, Director of Corporate Sales, Air Canada
Noreen Courtney-Wilds, Jet Blue

T105 BTN Corporate Travel 100 Benchmarking Summit (10:45 - 13:15) By invitation only.

Talk amongst your peers about the issues you face in negotiations for and management of air, lodging, meetings and travel management technology. BTN editor-in-chief David Meyer will facilitate this off-the-record session, which is open only to buyers who spend more than $40 million in annual U.S. booked air volume and who participate in the benchmarking effort. Attendees will be the only ones to receive a report drawn from preliminary findings.

Facilitator:
David Meyer, Editor-in-Chief, Business Travel News

TUESDAY, 20 MAY 13:30 - 14:45

T201 Supply Chain Drivers of Financial Performance and Competitiveness

The objective of this session is to map the connection between supply chain strategies and financial performance, and overall business competitiveness. Attendees will understand how to map popular initiatives in demand management and sourcing around key deliverables for the corporate strategy.

Presenter:
Professor Ricardo Ernst, Ph.D., McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University

T202 Risk Management & Corporate Liability

Corporations are focusing attention on managing risk associated with their employees while traveling on company business. Globalization, corporate travel policies lacking mandates and complications with traveler tracking hamper the ability of travel management to completely control this area. This session will evaluate:

• Policy as a risk aversion tool
• Trip risk assessment, notification and decision authority
• Duty of care implications
  

Moderator:
Bruce McIndoe, President, iJET Intelligent Risk Systems

Presenters:
Judy Bauer, Global Corporate Travel Manager, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc.
Marcia Saurman, Director, Global Travel, Cadence Design Systems, Inc.

T203 Detecting Fraud

Fraud costs U.S. corporations an estimated 5 percent of revenues equaling hundreds of billions of dollars annually in the US alone. Studies show that almost 20% of corporate fraud is related to expense reimbursement. Eliminating fraud may be impossible but it is certain to gain more attention as corporations trim budgets and examine how they spend their money. Steps the travel manager can take to aid the corporation’s efforts to reduce fraud in T & E spend will be discussed including:

• Spend patterns that indicate a problem
• Expense reporting tools effect
• Analysis from card providers
• Tightening business rules to prevent fraud

Moderator:
Fred Fredericks, Director of Travel Technology, Concur

Presenters:
Betsy Bondurant, former Director, Meeting Planning, Amgen
Martin LeMay, Director, Administration Services, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein
Peter Pearson, TravelSmart Manager, Shared Services, The Coca-Cola Company

T204 Light Green, Dark Green: What Color is Your Company?

“Carbon footprints” are one of the environmental impacts that global businesses are endeavoring to reduce. In the jungle of information available for businesses and in the absence of international standards and norms, where does one go for directions? A range of speakers from different shades of greens will showcase and share their expertise in:

• Developing and executing a green business travel strategy based on the shade of green your company has decided upon
• Increasing significance of green business travel to their companies
• Options for reducing “carbon footprints” besides reducing business

Moderator:
Mary Ellen George, General Manager, BCD Travel - Advito

Panelists:
Megan Epler Wood, Partner, Native Energy
Margaret M. Hansen, Global Procurement, Director Corporate Travel, A.T. Kearney, Inc.
Cynthia Shumate, Director,Travel Services, Estee Lauder Companies Inc.

T205 Benchmarking & Best Practices Summit

Talk amongst your peers, with input from three travel management experts, about the issues you face in negotiations for and management of air, lodging, meetings and travel management technology. HRG NA president Tom Gleason, Omega World Travel president and CEO Gloria Bohan and TRW Travel Consulting’s Tom Wilkinson will offer their expertise and BTN executive managing editor Chris Davis will facilitate this session and present data on buyers who spend: less than $2 million in annual U.S.-booked air volume, $2 million to $12 million and $12 million to $40 million. Attendees will be the only ones to receive a report drawn from preliminary findings of this annual research.

Moderator:
Chris Davis, Executive Managing Editor, BTN

Presenters:
Gloria Bohan, President, Omega Travel
Tom Gleason, President, HRG NA
Tom Wilkinson, President, TRW Travel Consulting LLC

TUESDAY, 20 MAY 15:15 - 16:30

T301 Alignment of Supply Chain Metrics and Business Impact Metrics: (for Corporate Buyers Only, enrollment limited to 60)

Operational supply chain metrics are typically structured around four types of indicators: financial, productivity, quality and velocity metrics. During this facilitated session, attendees will discuss this framework within the sphere of service spend and how to link operational metrics to financial indicators via benchmarking and revenue-savings calculators.

Facilitator:
Professor Ricardo Ernst, Ph.D., McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University

T302 Open Skies

After more than four years of turbulent negotiations, Washington and Brussels have managed to achieve a historic pact on “open skies”. The agreement holds the promise of lower prices for transatlantic flights due to the increase in competition according to some EU estimates. Whether this promise is fulfilled remains to be seen. But this first phase of transatlantic deregulation poses additional questions waiting to be answered. A panel of experts will provide their opinions on costs/pricing that Open Skies will bring as well as questions related to:

• Will EU national flag carriers go away?
• What happens to the alliances as competition among alliance members increases?
• Will there be an opportunity of a transatlantic merger in the near future?
• Will new international routings be at the expense of the domestic route structure?
• How can a corporate travel manager develop an airline strategy in the era of Open Skies.

Moderator:
Tony Berry, Distribution Services Director, HRG

Presenters:
Woody Harford, Senior Vice President – Commercial North America, British Airways
Patrick Murphy, Partner, Gerchick-Murphy Associates
Rose Stratford, Senior Vice President, Supplier Relations and Global GDS, BCD Travel

T303 Going Global: China

The complex and regulated airline distribution system—a vestige from the era of government control of all public transportation—adds an additional layer of difficulty to an already convoluted environment for managing business travel in China. This session will examine the following issues and discuss available resolutions for:

• Reservation integrity
• Ticket fulfillment
• Payment scenarios
• Data accuracy

Moderator:
Loren G. Edelstein, Editor, T&E, Executive Director, M&C

Presenters:
Michael Bezer, Vice President, Global Sales – Asia Pacific, Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Wen Shan, Procurement Manager - Service of National Procurement Department, DHL-Sinotrans International Air Courier Limited
Andreas Wellauer, Regional Director of Travel, APAC, UBS

T304 Travel Processes Go Mobile

Emerging mobile applications offer the promise of flexibility, connectivity and productivity for business travelers. This session will provide an overview of new mobile applications and how the travel program can take advantage of new features for improved communication, and trip seamlessness including:

• Payment opportunities
• GPS for improved traveler tracking
• On the go booking and expense reporting
• Travel department’s role in management of mobile tools for its travelers

Moderator:
Johnny Thorsen, CEO, conTgo

Panelists:
Xavier Gardien, Product Marketing Manager, Amadeus
Debbie Gittinger, Global Travel Service Manager, Proctor & Gamble
Ron Tiu, Senior Corporate Travel Manager, Hughes Network Systems

T305 What Business Travel Buyers Want…And Can Get From U.S. Hotel Chains

PKF director of research information services Robert Mandelbaum will give an overview of the hotel market and then join in a discussion with J&J hotel program manager Maria Chevalier, Lockheed Martin director of corporate travel Richard Wooten and InterContinental Hotels Group vice president of the Americas Mike Fegley about the latest business travel offerings from multi-brand and other major hotel chains and their receptivity to transient and meeting pricing and other negotiations. Attendees will receive a handout from the 2008 BTN U.S. Hotel Chain Survey.

Moderator:
Michael Baker, Expense Payment Editor, Business Travel News

Presenters:
Maria Chevalier, Manager, Travel Services, Johnson & Johnson
Mike Fegley, Vice President - Global Sales, The Americas, InterContinental Hotels Group
Robert Mandelbaum, Director of Research Information Services, PKF Hospitality Research
Richard Wooten, Corporate Travel Buyer, Lockheed Martin