GBTA Announces Award Winning Actor Kevin Bacon as Features Speaker at GBTA Convention 2015

Alexandria, VA (May 6, 2015) – The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) – the voice of the global business travel industry – today announced award winning film, television and stage actor; musician and philanthropist Kevin Bacon will be a featured speaker at GBTA Convention 2015, July 25-29 in Orlando, Florida. Bacon will be speaking at Convention Arena on Monday, July 27. His appearance is made possible by Sabre®.

“This year’s Convention is all about #Sharing as there is no other industry where face to face meetings and the concept of #Sharing is more prevalent than the business travel industry, so who better to welcome to our Convention Arena stage than Kevin Bacon – an actor who has shown more than anyone how people can be connected,” said Michael W. McCormick, GBTA executive director and COO. “Attendees will hear insights from Kevin about his organization SixDegrees.org and learn how it socially connects everyday people and celebrities with charities to help raise funds and bring awareness to charities and causes across the world.”

Kevin Bacon is one of the foremost actors of his generation. His talent for balancing starring roles with powerful supporting characters on both film and stage has allowed him to build a varied and critically acclaimed body of work. He has proven his talents in a wide range of film genres from action thrillers to romantic comedies to heavy dramas, and even the occasional musical. A few of Bacon’s many, many film credits include A Few Good Men, The River Wild, Murder in the First, Apollo 13, Sleepers, Mystic River and Wild Things.

Bacon currently stars in his first primetime television series for Fox called The Following where he plays a former FBI agent pressed into service again when a serial killer escapes from prison. With his musician brother, he is also the other half of The Bacon Brothers, a successful band with a sound that combines folk, rock, soul and country.

At the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, Bacon launched SixDegrees.org, a web site that builds on the popularity of the “small world phenomenon” and encourages people to use social networking for social good. Started with the help of celebrities using tools on the site to raise funds for their favorite charities, it has since helped thousands of organizations to raise more than $5 million online by turning everyday people into celebrities for their own causes. SixDegrees.org recently launched a new initiative finding unique ways to use social media shout outs and surprise drop-ins to make it easy and fun for celebrities to connect with local causes that couldn’t otherwise fathom that kind of attention.

Following Bacon’s remarks, Michelle “Mick” Lee, founder of WINiT–WomenInTravel will have a one-on-one conversation with Bacon onstage.

WINiT is a network of women and men serving as a catalyst to drive change in support of career development, visibility & promotion of women in the travel, meetings, event management and exhibitions industries (www.WomenInTravel.org).

Attendee registration is open now. Register by June 1, 2015 to receive $100 in savings. Learn more about registering your organization for the Corporate Travel Team Program. Space is limited, so act fast. More info on programs and speakers will be unveiled in the coming months. For the latest developments and more information, please visit gbta.org/convention.

Media registration is complimentary and available online. GBTA will also host its first-ever Media Day on Sunday, July 26.

CONTACT: Colleen Lerro Gallagher, +1 703-236-1133, cgallagher@gbta.org
Gayle Kansagor, +1 202-295-8775, gayle.kansagor@harbourgrp.com

About GBTA Convention
The GBTA Convention, with nearly 7,000 attendees, is the largest, most comprehensive annual gathering of business travel and meetings managers, meeting planners, procurement professionals and suppliers anywhere in the world. The Business Travel Event of the Year ® features: more than 80 industry-leading education sessions organized into 20+ specialized tracks geared to specific levels of experience and a variety of disciplines; a 400+ company Exposition showcasing market choices not available at other.

About the Global Business Travel Association
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the world’s premier business travel and meetings trade organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area with operations on six continents. GBTA’s 9,000-plus members manage more than $345 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually. GBTA and the GBTA Foundation deliver world-class education, events, research, advocacy and media to a growing global network of more than 28,000 travel professionals and 125,000 active contacts. To learn how business travel drives lasting business growth, gbta.org