{"id":24018,"date":"2025-06-20T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gbta.org\/?p=24018"},"modified":"2025-06-19T13:05:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-19T17:05:24","slug":"empowering-the-future-of-business-travel-reflecting-on-the-gbta-ladders-nextgen-pilot-with-ut-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gbta.org\/pt\/empowering-the-future-of-business-travel-reflecting-on-the-gbta-ladders-nextgen-pilot-with-ut-austin\/","title":{"rendered":"Empowering the Future of Business Travel: Reflecting on the GBTA Ladders NextGen Pilot with UT Austin\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nesta s\u00e9rie de recursos, <\/em>Conselho de Administra\u00e7\u00e3o da GBTA<\/em><\/a> share their views on topics that matter most to members, the industry\u202fand the way forward for business travel. Today\u2019s guest author is <\/em>Allied Seat, At Large, Katie Virtue, Head of Sales and Marketing at Festive Road<\/em>.<\/em>\u202f\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been fortunate to be part of the Programa de escadas GBTA<\/a> for many seasons\u2014first as a mentee then as a mentor\u2014and each year has been a different growth journey. I\u2019ve experienced firsthand the development that comes from mentorship, and I\u2019ve seen how transformative it can be when fresh perspectives enter our industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, I was especially proud to help support a new chapter in the Ladders story: the launch of a pilot program with students from The University of Texas at Austin\u2019s (UT Austin) McCombs School of Business Master of Science in Marketing program<\/a>. Ten students joined the Ladders community, bringing energy, insight and an eagerness to learn about the business travel industry\u2014which too often flies under the radar in university classrooms\u2014prompted, in part, by the Ladders season Closing Summit taking place in Austin, TX, in May. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through this pilot, these students weren\u2019t just observing, they were participating. They joined teams, contributed to real challenges and got a hands-on look at what a career in business travel could look like. And in turn, we learned from them. Their curiosity, ideas and willingness to challenge the status quo reminded all of us why it\u2019s so critical to create space for emerging voices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This pilot wasn\u2019t just about education; it was about exposure and inspiration. Business travel can be a destination career, but to make that a reality, we need to show up in the places where students are building their futures. We need to share what this industry has to offer and invite them on the journey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The success of this pilot is only the beginning. Looking ahead, I\u2019m energized by the opportunity to expand these efforts globally and with chapters, build stronger bridges between academia and industry, and continue creating pathways for tomorrow\u2019s leaders to thrive. In this vein, the GBTA Foundation launches its new Ladders NextGen Workforce Initiative next week, and later this summer, will announce the first two recipients of the Foundation\u2019s new Destination Scholarship<\/a> for emerging industry leaders. I look forward to seeing the impacts of both initiatives.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you to the GBTA Ladders leadership, advisory board, participants, GBTA Foundation and lecturer and former travel industry executive Chris Kroeger at UT Austin for his support and believing in the value of this connection. The future of business travel is bright if we invest in those who shape it.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this feature series, GBTA\u2019s Board of Directors share their views on topics that matter most to members, the industry\u202fand the way forward for business travel. Today\u2019s guest author is Allied Seat, At Large, Katie Virtue, Head of Sales and Marketing at Festive Road.\u202f\u202f  I\u2019ve been fortunate to be part of the GBTA Ladders program…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"2685,2138,2312,1930,2424,13906","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1516,1554,1518],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foundation","category-gbta-board","category-ladders"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Tara Erwin","author_link":"https:\/\/gbta.org\/pt\/author\/terwingbta-org\/"},"comment_info":"","category_info":[{"term_id":1516,"name":"Foundation","slug":"foundation","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1516,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":52,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1516,"category_count":52,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Foundation","category_nicename":"foundation","category_parent":0},{"term_id":1554,"name":"GBTA Board","slug":"gbta-board","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1554,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":25,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1554,"category_count":25,"category_description":"","cat_name":"GBTA Board","category_nicename":"gbta-board","category_parent":0},{"term_id":1518,"name":"Ladders","slug":"ladders","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1518,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":1516,"count":6,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1518,"category_count":6,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Ladders","category_nicename":"ladders","category_parent":1516}],"tag_info":false,"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1516,"label":"Foundation"},{"value":1554,"label":"GBTA Board"},{"value":1518,"label":"Ladders"}]},"mfb_rest_fields":["featured_image_src_large","author_info","comment_info","category_info","tag_info","taxonomy_info"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gbta.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gbta.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gbta.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gbta.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gbta.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gbta.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24021,"href":"https:\/\/gbta.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24018\/revisions\/24021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gbta.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gbta.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gbta.org\/pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}