ACTE Journal
ACTE'S PRESIDENT RE-ELECTED; NEW SLATE OF OFFICERS
NAMED
Earl Foster, Director of Global Travel Management at Joseph Seagram and
Sons Inc., has been re-elected President of ACTE. Foster, who ran unopposed,
will serve a second two-year term, commencing on June 3, 1998.
A new slate of officers for the organization also was named. All will
serve two-year terms as well.
Larry Cook, Vice President of Operations
and Planning. Cook is Senior Vice President of Commercial Sales, Marketing
and Client Services for Travel and Transport Inc., in Omaha, Nebraska.
Daniel Merrill, Vice President of Finance
and Treasurer. Merrill is Regional Director of Sales for AmeriSuites, in
Atlanta, Georgia.
Julie Hylton, Vice President of Administration
and Secretary. Hylton is Manager of Multinational Account Development for
American Express, in Irving, Texas.
Colleen Guhin, Vice President of Education.
She is Global Travel Manager for the Semiconductor Products Sector (SPS)
of Motorola in Phoenix, Arizona.
David Henderson, Vice President of International
Development. ACTE Europe's Treasurer, Henderson is also Co-Chair of ACTE
Global Paris. He is Account Director for American Express Europe in London.
Armand LeCompte will continue as chairman.
LeCompte is Corporate Travel Manager for Hoescht Corporation in Somerville,
NJ.
ACTE INTRODUCES NEW TECHNOLOGY SHOWCASE
Responding to intense demand from members, ACTE's Technology Committee,
working in conjunction with the Education Committee, has created a new
educational vehicle: The Technology Showcase.
The idea, said Danny Hood, President of WorldTravel Partners and Chair
of the ACTE Technology Committee, is to provide "a noncommercial approach
to technology demonstrations. It's often hard to 'get' a concept without
actually seeing it. And it's difficult to see it without a big trade show
or a salesman doing a sales pitch."
Unlike traditional trade shows, where product demonstrations are part
of a selling environment, the showcases are designed to be purely instructional.
"Features and benefits' demos would be made jointly by actual users
and the products' developers," Hood explained. "A travel manager
could, for instance, demonstrate his or her automated booking system, pull
up seat maps and screens showing flight availability, all the while showing
how everything connects through the corporate intranet."
To facilitate demonstrations and create a level playing field for developers,
the showcases will be set up in a meeting room with demo stations that
look alike. "The suppliers will only need to bring a laptop,"
Hood said.
Showcases will be held in four cities: Chicago on July 15th, San Francisco
on September 10th, Newark on September 17th, and Atlanta on December 10th.
Educational programming will be presented during the morning session, with
the demonstrations taking place in the afternoon.
Participating technology companies to date include Portable Software,
E-Travel, American Express AXI, BTI/BTS, Travel Technologies Group, Internet
Travel Network, Worldspan and Travel One.
For more information, call 1-800-375-ACTE.
GEODE DISSOLVES; ALL MEMBERS JOIN ACTE
In its last, remarkable General Assembly, the members of the French Corporate
Travel Association, GEODE (Groupement pour l'Etude et l'Organisation des
Deplacements Professionels dans les Entreprises) unanimously voted to close
their organization and transfer all memberships to ACTE.
"Given the global development of the corporate travel industry,
GEODE recognized the need to open its membership to suppliers of corporate
travel services and management," said GEODE President, Jean Haranger,
who is also the Director of Purchasing for Hewlett Packard. "ACTE
already addresses this need, operating as it does on a global basis, with
corporate members who represent the same senior level as GEODE members.
We therefore felt it would be more efficient if GEODE members were to become
members of ACTE."
"ACTE is honoured that the members of GEODE have chosen our association
to expand its corporate travel activities and networking," commented
Earl Foster, President of ACTE. "And with the ACTE Global conference
taking place in Paris from 8-10 November, ACTE has an excellent educational
product to offer its new GEODE members in their home land. This is a significant
development for ACTE in Europe and one that is viewed positively by all
existing members."
ACTE GLOBAL 1998 UPDATE A 23-person international confab of the ACTE
Global 1998 Planning Committee have begun finalizing details for the upcoming
conference, to be held 8-10 November, 1998 at Le Meridien Montparnasse
in Paris, France.
"ACTE Global 1998...Rendez-vous with the Future" was chosen
as the conference theme. "It's a perfect metaphor for the challenges
travel managers faceplanning for the future while grappling with the
fast pace of change today," said ACTE Global Paris Co-Chair Angela
Meijer, Director of Corporate Travel Management for Polygram Records. Committee
members are developing educational sessions, including a six-session Technology
Track similar to the Technology Track offered at the Annual Members Conference.
Educational session topics will include: Year 2000 Compliance Change Management/M
and A Issues Airline Alliances Building Global Travel Management Teams
International Road Warriors The New Europe Financial Structures of Travel
Agency Partnerships The Asian Financial Crisis Global Policy and Policy
Compliance Global Contracts - Fact or Fiction One Card Solutions Selling
Travel Management to Senior Management Yield Management Quality Service/ISO
Certification Standardization of Contracts Back to Back Ticketing Reengineering
Travel Processing Distribution Options
ACTE Global Paris is expected to draw more than 800 participants. For
information, contact ACTE in North America at 1-800-375-ACTE. In Europe,
call 32-2-723-1589, fax 32-2-743-1550, or e-mail [email protected].
Or click on the ACTE web site at http://www.acte.org. Registrationmaterials
will be available in early August.
REPORT FROM THE ACTE REGIONAL FORUMS
In addition to the three Regional Forums held in Europe, six have been
held so far this year in North America, in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas,
Boston, Minneapolis and Ottawa.
At the first-ever Regional Forum in Ottawa, which drew an impressive
115 attendees, the focus was on communicating travel policy to corporate
travelers and on benchmarking.
"The benchmarking session reinforced what we were doing on our
own, blindly," said Jane Burnett, Transportation Contract Management
and Systems for National Defence Headquarters. "It was very helpful
seeing what we do wrong and how to improve our processes." The data
from the benchmarking session is posted on ACTE's web site at http://www.acte.org.
Future North American Regional Forums are scheduled as follows:
June 25, Washington, DC -Chair: Cheryl Hutchinson
July 15, Chicago, IL -Chair: Pamela Nussbaum
August 25, Tampa, FL -Chair: Sara Isaacs
September 10, San Francisco, CA -Chairs: Ben Parodi, George Johnson
September 17, Morristown, NJ -Chair: Paul Hoffman
October 7, Philadelphia, PA -Chair: Walter Sanders
October 15, Toronto, ON -Chair: Patricia Bates
December 1, Vancouver, BC -Chair: Alan Nadeau
December 10, Atlanta, GA -Chair: Danny Hood
NEWS FROM ACTE EUROPE
ACTE in Europe continues to move forward positively and full of action.
When the ACTE Europe office was opened in November 1997, there were
350 European members. At the close of the first quarter of 1998, we had
more than 420 members, a jump of 20 percent.
The first quarter of 1998 has kept ACTE European members busy. The first
three Regional Forums have successfully taken place, each drawing record
attendance. It has been interesting to note that a minimum of seven nationalities
have been represented at each of the three Forums provided a truly European
flavour and perspective.
"Trends and Techniques" in Zurich, held 4 March, provided
attendees with a clear insight into airline policies relating to commission
capping. Airlines represented were Swissair, Lufthansa, and American. All
airline speakers made it clear that the airlines' biggest concern was to
improve efficiency and reduce the cost of distribution. The afternoon session
featured a hands-on presentation of various technologies and reservation
systems.
There was a fully interactive day at the Amsterdam Forum on 2 April
as well. There, delegates were able to explore the processes involved in
the selection of travel service providers. The panel, composed of senior
representatives from corporations and travel management companies, was
unanimous in its feeling that the traditional travel agency would disappear
and that only those companies offering consultancy services would survive.
Future dates for ACTE European Regional Forums include
23 June, Manchester;
17 September, Stockholm
1 October, Brussels and
8 December, London.
The Manchester Forum will be held in conjunction with the IBTA British
member, the Institute of Travel Managers, while the Stockholm Forum will
bring together the four Nordic countries in a stimulating programme entitled
"Total Transformation of the Travel IndustryThe Nordic Countries
in the Forefront." Nikki Walker, ACTE Europe Office
