Left to right: Bella Sky Comwell hotel; Amager Square, central Copenhagen
ACTE GLOBAL CORPORATE TRAVEL CONFERENCE COPENHAGEN
INDUSTRY EXPERTS DISCUSSED A RANGE OF TOPICS INCLUDING OPEN BOOKING, DATA AND SECURITY. TOM NEWCOMBE REPORTS
MORE THAN 500 DELEGATES FROM 34 COUNTRIES, including around 200 travel buyers, gathered in October for the autumn ACTE conference in Copenhagen. Taking place at the Bella Sky Comwell hotel, delegates heard from a wide- range of speakers on issues including talent development, data access and analytics, traveller security, mobile technology and career planning for buyers. Buying Business Travel was the official media partner for the conference. The conference was opened by TV wildlife presenter and producer Hayden Turner, who wanted to “remind even the most road-weary traveller” of the opportunities that travel and exploration can bring. This was followed by a session on ‘open booking’ discussed by a panel that included Yannis Karmis, VP of global solutions at Sabre, Net App senior travel manager Pauline van Rossum,
16 BBT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014
TMCs can help cut leakage from travel programmes if they “embrace open booking”
and Carlson Wagonlit Travel’s Nordics VP Johan Wilson. The session heard that TMCs can help cut leakage from travel programmes if they “embrace open booking” and “not fight it”. CWT’s Wilson said open booking, where a loose travel policy means travellers may book however they wish – within constraints such as a cap on spend – should not be seen as something TMCs should be trying to stop.
“It’s up to suppliers and TMCs to cut as much leakage as possible, and not to fight areas like open booking but embrace it,” said Wilson. “We must develop new technology to help manage against leakage.” Travel buyers questioned a TMC’s role in an open booking environment. Wilson said they are still an “essential” part of the industry: “A TMC functions like an insurance company: you don’t always know when you’ll need the service but it will be there when you do.”
Breakout sessions included one on ‘smart data’ and the ways it can be used to inform decisions and analyse and change traveller behaviour. One of the panellists, Camilla Lagesen, travel manager at technology firm Kongsberg Gruppen, said the corporate travel industry must “wake up” to the type and amount of data buyers require. She described
the industry as in “need of change” and said accurate, clean and instant data is “almost impossible” to get, and called on suppliers to start delivering data faster or risk losing business. “What I don’t like about the data I receive is that it’s old and comes from multiple sources,” said Lagesen. “If one of my travellers falls out of policy, I want to know the next day so I can phone them up and ask the question, not six weeks later. “How are corporate buyers meant to explain why so many travellers fall out of policy when we can’t get up-to-date data, especially when you can have thousands of employees travelling at any one time.” She was joined in her session on smart data by Edwige Adikpeto, regional travel manager at professional services firm Marsh and McLennan, who echoed Lagesen’s views.
“At the moment there is a lot of inconsistency when it comes to what data I need, and we don’t know if it’s accurate,” said Adikpeto. “We must start putting pressure on suppliers to help.”
There were also sessions on traveller safety and security from David Gordner, regional manager for US Homeland Security agency TSA, while Leapcraft CEO Vinay Venkatraman talked about how data can be used in travel to “tell memorable stories” and “identify predictive trends”.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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