1,200 HOSTED BUYERS TO ATTEND BT 2012

Forgive the gratuitous self-plugging, but today is a very exciting day for the Business Travel Show team. We announced that, for the 2012 show next February, we will be hosting the world’s largest fully hosted buyer programme for the corporate travel market.

1,200 of Europe’s highest quality corporate travel buyers will visit the show in 2012. All of them with annual budgets in excess of £3m and many of them first time visitors. With the prospect of these buyers committing to at least 6,000 pre-booked meetings, this news is even more exciting for our 180 exhibitors. 

Over the last two or three years, we have invested time and money into refining the Business Travel Show to make sure that only the highest quality audience attends and that our exhibitors enjoy an increasing ROI each year. Two years ago we launched the Executive Buyer Programme and it was a big success, attracting over 500 buyers. This year, the launch of the Hosted Buyer Programme will build significantly on this success.

In return for committing to – and attending – pre-booked meetings on each of the show’s two days, the Business Travel Show will provide the 1,200 strictly pre-qualified buyers with:

•             Free flights and accommodation
•             Fast track entry
•             Access to the First Class Lounge with complimentary refreshments and               lunch
•             Support from the Hosted Buyer Team before, during and after the show
•             Specialist, cutting edge technology, which allows buyers to book                           meetings with exhibitors that are best matched to their needs and                       create a personalised diary

Buyers who choose to extend their trip and land in town early will also be invited to the prestigious European Travel Buyer Awards, which take place on Monday 6 February.

Centaur Travel Group, which organises the Business Travel Show, has invested heavily in the corporate travel market for the last 17 years, and the introduction of the Hosted Buyer Programme just shows how committed we are to both the market and to the show in the long term. We plan to be around for at least another 17 years to come, and we plan to make sure the Business Travel Show remains the leading event in this market in Europe.

The Business Travel Show takes place on 7-8 February at Earls Court in London. Visitor registration is open now at www.businesstravelshow.com

Posted by event director David Chapple.

THE SMART MONEY IS ON SMART PHONES: BUYERS NEED TO GET A GRIP ON APPS

Last week’s eighth Ofcom Communications Market Report revealed that 27 per cent of all adults now own a smart phone. 59 per cent of these were bought in the last year. Oh, and we’re addicted to them. In fact, 37 per cent of adult smart phone owners have admitted as much.

In the business travel market, smart phones are beyond useful. TMCs use them to deliver information to travellers (itineraries, for example) as well as pulling data back (travellers can use phones to scan in expense receipts).

However, the smart phone epidemic has also seen an increasing number of business travellers use apps as though they were leisure travellers (which they’re not). And it’s this use of apps ‘out of policy’ that’s now a major cause for concern among corporate travel managers who are being warned that, unless they take back control, their policies are under threat of being compromised. 

My belief is that travel managers shouldn’t ‘ban’ travellers from using smart phones. Instead, they should find technology solutions with similar (or better) mobile applications attached that will keep travellers happy AND compliant. It’s essential that, when choosing these applications, managers opt for a platform-inclusive solution that’s also content rich, stable and fit for purpose.

Travel managers also need to embrace mobile communications as a tool to manage policy compliance in the same way they have harnessed self booking tools, pre-trip authorisation. Reports have indicated that use of mobile strategies can reduce the number of calls made to TMCs, in some cases by as much as 40 per cent, so making a considerable saving for organisations.

Technology has always been a key issue within the business travel industry and a focus for the travel shows at Centaur Travel Group. For 2012, we’re going one step further and launching a Technology Zone at our London and Dusseldorf shows. The zone is being introduced as a platform for technology providers who appeal to both travel and technology buyers, and will be a fantastic place for buyers to discover suppliers with smart phone applications, receive hands on demos, attend education sessions and network with new contacts. The smart money, in my opinion, is on the smart phone. 

Posted by David Chapple, event director, Centaur Travel Group. 

An eye to an eye: why face to face meetings will always have a place in business

I’m a social media convert. I confess. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn – you name it, I’m on it. Technology has done an amazing job in transforming the way we communicate; from the introduction of the 135-year-old telephone, to the fax machine, email, texting and, of course, social media. There’s no question technology makes our business lives easier, but is it helping us to do more business?

Well. The ‘simple’ answer is no. But let me try and explain why. There’s been loads of research into face to face versus e-communication over the years. Some companies claim that business meetings are a waste of time – ‘an inefficient use of resources with low ROI’ – and, as such, have switched to the likes of telepresencing and video conferencing, even to plain old email.

Indeed, during the recession, businesses were forced more than ever to consider these relatively low-cost business travel alternatives. And this is fine, for internal meetings, or for external meetings where an established business relationship and level of trust already exists.

But where e-communication isn’t so successful is where business introductions need to take place, deals signed, partnerships forged, parties persuaded, negotiations made and decisions agreed. And this is why e-communication will never replace the need for face to face meetings.  

Face to face meetings allow us to develop transparency and trust in ways that are not always possible with e-communications, and also much more quickly. They allow us to engage in and observe verbal and non-verbal behaviour and to spot and react to the nuances associated with hand gestures, the voice and facial expressions that simply cannot be captured in email. It allows you to understand intuitively the dynamics between group members. Face to face meetings also occur in ‘real time’ as opposed to non-synchronised time. They are not subject to delay or technological problems. And finally, they allow for human contact and they permit humour. We are social creatures, after all, and the importance of these last points cannot be underestimated.

All of this explains why the business travel market is on the up once more, despite an increase in use of travel alternatives during the recession. And also why trade shows like the Business Travel & Meetings Show are still an integral part of an organisation’s new business development and marketing strategies. The last two points in my previous paragraph reflect this particularly well, and perhaps also explain why visitors to the show consistently demand ‘good networking’!

At the end of the day, social media is fantastic at opening doors and at keeping long-term, healthy relationships trotting along. But if you want to do business, you need to be sociable as well as social, and that means face to face meetings where you can see the whites of each others’ eyes and share a firm handshake.

Posted by David Chapple, event director, Business Travel & Meetings Show 

True value comes from honesty and transparency

A recent report by Ideaworks and Amadeus of 47 airlines worldwide reported an increase in ancillary revenue of 96 per cent on 2008 to €15 billion. Let me write that again - €15 billion. That’s a lot of money. It’s a good thing for the airlines because ancillary charging is viewed as a financial necessity, especially following the economic downturn. But it worries me what airline passengers may think as their opinions of ancillary charging – or unbundling as it’s also known – have been well documented in recent years.

Why they feel so negatively towards unbundling is interesting because, on the face of it, unbundling is a good thing for passengers too. It allows them to customise their journeys and pay for only the things they want. Be clever, and unmanaged travellers can even save money thanks to unbundling. Sadly, unbundling doesn’t currently have the same appeal for managed business travel as GDS technology doesn’t give buyers access to unbundling options.

So if it’s not price, and it’s not the increase in choice, what is it that passengers find so distasteful? Well, in my opinion, it’s our very natural fear of being taken for fools, of being cheated and ripped off. When unbundling first launched through the budget airlines, it was almost instantly referred to in the media as ‘hidden costs’ or ‘hidden charges’ and the press took it upon themselves to take up the mantle of consumer champion fighting for a cause most of us were unaware even existed.

It’s this word ‘hidden’ that’s key. Hide things from people – or just as bad, make claims that don’t stand up - and you cause a consumer revolution. I’m not talking about just airlines here. This goes for every industry, from hotels and holidays, to entertainment and exhibition organisers. Customers aren’t stupid and it’s suicidal of any business to treat them as such. Be transparent and honest and customers will feel they are being treated fairly, even if the end price, product and service are the same. And happy customers will, of course, reward you with loyalty, fairness and word of mouth recommendations in return.

Posted by David Chapple, event director, Business Travel & Meetings Show 

BTMS Bucks the Trend

With some shows losing visitors, others being cancelled and organisers closing, the exhibitions industry is a tricky market for many of those currently operating within it. This is no truer than in the travel sector. Luckily, at Centaur Travel Group, we are bucking this trend and have two successful events under our belts in the last four months alone.

The most recent was the Business Travel & Meetings Show, which took place last month in Dusseldorf, Germany, attracting 76 exhibitors and 2019 visitors. A brand new hosted buyer programme delivered 150 key purse-holders to suppliers and we curated 30 top class conference sessions. The event was such a success that more than eight out of every 10 (84 per cent) exhibitors rebooked their stand in situ.

At the Business Travel & Meetings Show in London this February, there was an equally excitable buzz of business in the air. More than 5,000 business travel industry professionals from all over Europe poured into the halls to meet around 200 world-leading suppliers, enjoy unrivalled networking opportunities and access to the best free to attend educational programme for the business travel and meetings markets in Europe.

So what did we do right to allow us to buck the trend? Well, I mentioned luck in my opening paragraph, but actually in this industry luck has a very small part to play. The Business Travel & Meetings Shows have been a success in 2011 thanks to experience and significant investment over a number of years, which have allowed us to keep track of who our customers are, who our customers’ customers are, the state of the market they are operating in, and what they need from us to help them to do business better.

This means we’ve been able to evolve the show over the years – and that means every year - to ensure we continue delivering the buyers who mean business to our suppliers. It also means we can continue to provide market-leading content to help buyers improve their programmes and policies in a way that actually translates into increased efficiency and reduced costs.

What you’ll never find us doing, though, is sitting on our laurels. We’re already working hard to ensure we continue to deliver strong products in 2011 and beyond. Over the summer we’ll be conducting in-depth buyer research, strengthening our partnerships, building our databases, hosting the BT Club in June and launching the 2012 European Travel Buyer Awards in July. And – time to take a deep breath here – I’m excited to say that’s just for starters.

If you think we’re missing something, though, then please tell us – all feedback is gratefully received, whether as a comment on this blog, by email (david.chapple@centaur.co.uk) or over a glass of wine at the BT Club on June 14th. I shall look forward to hearing from you.

by David Chapple, BTMS event director

The time is ripe for traditional travel buyers to learn from the meetings pros

The meetings market is not known as the final frontier in the travel industry for nothing and I’ve long held the belief that the time is ripe for travel and procurement buyers who now look after meetings to step up their game. 

Despite being viewed as the rebellious teenager for many years, meetings management is becoming more mainstream and a survey recently carried out by the show has confirmed that traditional travel and procurement buyers are beginning to understand the benefits of introducing meetings policy, strategy, evaluation and technology into their everyday processes.

The survey of 204 procurement, meetings and business travel managers revealed:

·         69% of meetings budgets have either remained static or declined in the last year

·         23% have increased, and only slightly

·         38% of companies are still without a meetings policy

·         80% of companies do not use technology to manage their meeting spend

·         65% are not involved in measuring meetings ROI

·         42% are using more travel alternatives, such as video conferencing, than they did a year ago

·         25% are managing more UK and short haul destination meetings

·         71% of those organising pre-meeting events, such as golf and spa days, are arranging fewer of them

On the flip side, this is also a great opportunity for suppliers who also need to step up the plate and realise there’s a whole new audience they should be doing business with.

Posted by David Chapple, event director, Business Travel & Meetings Show 

EMPLOYERS HAVE A DUTY OF CARE TO ENSURE BUSINESS TRAVEL IS STRESS FREE FOR EMPLOYEES

Business travel is not just the bastion of the procurement department; personnel and HR also need to take note as frequent travel is a little known and under-investigated stress trigger.

Of course any HR manager worth his/her salt, will be only too aware that stress – and distress – among employees causes impaired economic performance. Across the EU, nearly 25 per cent of workers are affected and stress is responsible for 50-60 per cent of all lost days. It’s also rated the second most common work-related health problem and estimated to cost the EU €20 billion annually. It’s also on the increase.

More progressive HR departments and procurement professionals involved in travel understand this and no longer base buying decisions solely on price. They create policies that suit the traveller and not just their budget. They are mindful of their corporate social responsibility and duty of care towards employees. They may miss out on short term savings, but they will also avoid making much bigger long-term financial losses.

It’s time that a more responsible and strategic view of the issues involved in business travel was taken by all, and all HR departments appreciated and understood their CSR and duty of care obligations.

If you’re interested in reading more on this topic, you can visit http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/news/features/1040063/Employers-duty-care-business-travel-stress-free-employees/ to read the entire feature.

Posted by David Chapple, event director, Business Travel & Meetings SHow

Sources: ‘The Institute of Travel and Meetings, ICARUS report’, Frequent Traveller Wellbeing; Inicio 2010. For more information, www.icarus.itm.org.uk

The French air strike may as well be another ash cloud to today’s business traveller

I’ve just read on Travel Mole (http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1144591.php) that Ryanair has been forced to cancel 250 flights today and British Airways passengers are being warned to expect delays and disruptions due to the air traffic control strike in France. Flybe has also cancelled a handful of services to Paris and half the flights to and from Paris Orly airport and one in three at Charles de Gaulle will no longer take to the air.

This strike is the fourth in just a month by French workers and has lead to Ryanair calling on the EU Commission to remove the 'right to strike' from air traffic controllers. But whether you support the strikers or not, and whether you think everyone deserves the right to strike or not, my thought for that day is please spare a thought for the people who are – now, anyway – left on the ground: the business travellers.

Whether it’s an ash cloud, a strike or a terrorist threat, it’s always the travellers who get caught in the middle and end up being the most inconvenienced. But the real question is how – or even can – this inconvenience be avoided or at the very least minimised? And the answer is, yes. One of the big lessons we learned following the ash cloud was companies with travel policies or with travel management companies were best able to track, manage and help their travellers to reach their final destination. 
David Chapple, event director