DIARY OF EVENTS 2016


January 18 Business Travel Awards, Grosvenor House Hotel, London businesstravelawards.com


February 9 BBT Ireland Forum,


Gresham hotel, Dublin buyingbusinesstravel.com


February 24-25 Business Travel Show,


Olympia Grand, London businesstravelshow.com


March 9-13


ITB Berlin global travel trade show, Berlin Messe itb-berlin.de/en


April 16-20 The Advantage Conference 2016,


on board MSC Fantasia, departing from Genoa advantageconference.co.uk


April 17-19 ACTE Global Corporate Travel


Conference, Dallas acte.org


April 25-28 Arabian Travel Market, Dubai arabiantravelmarket.com


May 3-5


ITM Conference 2016, Celtic Manor, Newport, Wales itmconference.org.uk


May 19 BBT Forum, Grange City Hotel, London buyingbusinesstravel.com/bbtforum


July 12-13 Serviced Apartment Summit,


Park Plaza, London servicedapartmentsummit.com


July 16-20 GBTA Convention 2016,


Denver, Colorado gbta.org


138 BBT JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM


ITM UPDATE SIMONE BUCKLEY


Simone Buckley Chief executive, Institute of Travel & Meetings (ITM)


KEEPING BUSINESS ON THE MOVE


Facing up to the current challenges T


his time last year ITM interviewed more than 50 senior industry executives at the Business Travel Show in London. We asked each to predict one topic or issue that would have the biggest impact on the sector by


2020. The answers were wide-ranging: from new distribution channels to technological advancements, from gamification to personalisation. Their focus seemed to be on the sexier end of the spectrum; musings about key performance indicators, for example, were relatively limited. The only consensus found was that change is happening at break-neck speed, and that keeping up is a challenge facing every business across the supply chain. However, one topic was conspicuous by its absence (though


it’s possible that its omission is starker now with the benefit of hindsight). I am, of course, talking about terrorism, and the real and present threat facing the ordinarily peaceful urban centres of western Europe. During our conversations, traveller security received a few mentions, but only in the context of risk mitigation in the world’s most unstable regions. “Don’t let the prospect of kidnapping for ransom put you off travelling to the Niger Delta,” seems to be the security experts’ mantra. At the ITM Ireland conference in Dublin on November 4, Commandant Dorothy Donnelly, the global travel manager of the Irish Defence Forces, challenged the findings of our interviews. As an employee of the military she is, arguably, closer to these issues than those of us in other industry verticals. But she delivered a clear warning to her industry peers: the threat of terror attacks – many of which will be spontaneous and indiscriminate – will challenge the managed travel community more than anything else over the next few years. She was speaking only days after a Russian passenger jet was shot down over the Egyptian desert. A little more than a week later, 130 people were murdered in Paris. We are in a new era of traveller security. Companies can no longer take shortcuts with duty-of-care. But more importantly, the corporate travel community has a responsibility and an obligation to keep business moving. Fear must not deter us from boarding planes and trains and to driving the economy forward.


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