EDITOR’S LETTER PAUL REVEL Bring me sunshine A
S 2017 BUMPS ALONG ITS DECIDEDLY ROCKY ROAD, perhaps it’s time to think about the sunlit uplands of 2018… OK, not exactly a sunlit upland, more a dark midwinter night – January 22 to be precise. But the Grosvenor House hotel will once again be a festival of light, colour and sound for travel’s biggest night of the year: the 2018 Business Travel Awards. The awards are now open for entries, so it’s time to get working on those all-important submissions – see p36.
AN INTRIGUING PHRASE struck a chord at our recent BBT Forums (p21): Speaker Susan Hopley said travel buyers need to become “cognitive technologists” to maximise benefits from advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI). ‘Cognitive’ implies awareness on behalf of both man and machine – from the computer, the ability to learn, predict and solve problems. For the human, learning how to harness that capability to do useful work, save time, drive efficiencies, and analyse trends and behaviours. Keeping pace with change has been a theme during this busy
conference season. Forget those old-hat millennials: at the Advantage conference (p18) we heard how ‘Gen Z’ (i.e. depressingly young) is coming into the workforce and influencing behaviours, while at the ITM conference (p14), its ‘Tech top 10’ included smart jewellery for wearable contactless payments, ‘sharing economy’ flights and the growth in travel transacting on Facebook Messenger. For more on technology game- changers see our feature on p50.
When it comes to travel management, as important as new tech is best practice: check out our report on how SMEs can build an effective programme (p58), our experts’ guide to airline RFPs (p46) and a fascinating insight into how a major corporate conducts a global review of its travel programme (p28). One area we all need to watch is new data protection regulations coming next year – see our feature on p55. I hope you find this issue useful. Please let us know how
we’re doing – keep in touch on the BBT website, LinkedIn group or drop me a line at
editor@buyingbusinesstravel.com
Entries NOW OPEN!
You have until September 12 to enter and be in with a chance of scooping an award at the industry’s biggest night of the year
the date January 22, 2018
BOOK a table
Early Bird discount
until July 28.
For entries and table bookings, visit
businesstravelawards.com Paul Revel, BBT Editor SAVE
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
BBT July/August 2017
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