Trio of Industry Titans Take Centre Stage For “A View From the Corner Office” at GBTA Conference 2015 in Partnership with VDR

Attendees at GBTA Conference 2015 Frankfurt were treated to a jam-packed afternoon Tuesday featuring top-notch, global information with sessions on Centre Stage highlighting advocacy, research, and industry insight from a CEO panel.

Building on the message delivered at GBTA Convention 2015 Orlando, ECPAT talked about its vision – a world in which no child is bought, sold or used for sex, and its mission – to protect every child’s basic human right to grow up free from the threat of sexual exploitation and trafficking. GBTA is encouraging the business travel industry to adopt and implement ECPAT’s Tourism Child-Protection Code of Conduct, the only voluntary, industry-driven set of guidelines that focuses on the elimination of child exploitation and trafficking. Attendees signed our EPCAT wall in support.

Next up, GBTA VP of Research, Joe Bates, and HRS VP of Global Solutions, Jason Long, took the stage to share the findings from a GBTA Foundation whitepaper on expense reporting around the globe. The session acknowledged that regardless of region, industry or company, expense reporting is never a favourite part of the job. The presenters laid out current practices in expense reporting, detailed pain points and highlighted opportunities for improvement.

Finally, Tuesday’s Centre Stage activities wrapped up with A View from the Corner Office – The CEO Industry Outlook. Alan Rich, CEO of Chrome River; Bill Glenn, CEO of American Express Global Business Travel; and Patrick Diemer, Managing Director and Chairman of AirPlus International came together on stage. Moderated by GBTA’s Mike McCormick, these distinguished industry leaders provided their personal insights into the current state of business travel industry transformational trends such as big data, the rise of mobility, the sharing economy and developments in technology.

“We’re focused on delivering value across the chain: corporation, travel manager and traveler,” Glenn said.

“All this data is useless if companies do not have someone to analyse it,” Rich added.

Sticking with our Conference theme of #SharingEurope, here are attendee thoughts shared over twitter on the CEO panel:

Stay tuned for more from day three at GBTA Conference 2015 Frankfurt!