The Business of Travel

In this podcast episode, GBTA Vice President of Government Relations, Shane Downey, talks with Gordon Reel, Vice President of Government and Public Affairs from Enterprise Holdings, to learn more about the post-pandemic recovery and forecast for the U.S. rental car market as well as legislative issues of interest in the new 118th Congress. Reel also shares his expertise and insights on the importance of citizen political activity along with the company’s thoughts  on legislative items such as excise taxes, electric vehicles, infrastructure, and bonus depreciation.

The GBTA Tech Committee brings you the podcast version of the Tech Safari Series which showcases new technologies launching cutting-edge solutions in business travel. In this episode, Katie Virtue, GBTA Tech Committee Member talks with Devon Tivona from Coupa to learn more about the company and its technology first approach to T&E Management. Devon is the Head of Coupa Travel and was formerly the CEO of Pana. He shares how Coupa offers a technology platform with expense, virtual payment and travel management solutions to help companies maximize the value of their spend. 

The GBTA Tech Committee brings you the podcast version of the Tech Safari Series which showcases new technologies launching cutting-edge solutions in business travel. In this episode, Katie Virtue, GBTA Tech Committee Member talks with Ron Glickman from Snowfall to learn more about the company and it’s new ecosystem offering to the business travel industry. Ron Glickman has over 20 years of experience growing businesses in the aviation and travel technology industries. After successfully scaling Etihad Airways’ global corporate sales channel to record results, he launched the North America operations of Air Italy. In 2021, Ron brought his area expertise to the technology sector, and he current serves as Vice President, North America of Snowfall, where he is involved in architecting solutions. Ron talks about Snowfall’s Junction products that serve travelers on the end-to-end journey including multimodal booking, different content such as on-trip experiences, automated timing alerts to relieve potential journey friction points and payment solutions. Names: Katie Virtue, Festive Road and Ron Glickman, Snowfall.

Diversity is a fact and being more inclusive is becoming a necessity in order to fully engage today's workforce and creating inclusive spaces for your meeting and event attendees is equally as important as when they are back in their regular workspaces.  Our podcast will discuss why it's important, how to get started and provide some easy tips and tricks to get started on your journey toward creating a more inclusive meeting experience.

The GBTA Foundation, the charitable arm and outgrowth of GBTA’s overall mission, was relaunched by the association in July 2022 to create a positive impact and a better future for people and the planet. As GBTA marks and celebrates the 100th episode of its “Business of Travel” podcast, GBTA CEO Suzanne Neufang sits down with Delphine Millot, Senior Vice President, Sustainability, who heads up the GBTA Foundation and brings a wealth of knowledge and passion to the Foundation’s work.   The discussion centers around how the Foundation came to be, why is it important, the Foundation’s priorities and significance of its four pillars – sustainability, WINiT, Ladders and DE&I, and how business travel professionals and companies can get involved in the Foundation’s work and give back to invest in the future of our industry and the professionals who make it what it is. For more information, visit www.gbtafoundation.org.

Based on a recent GBTA study, sponsored by Deem, travel managers are challenged with understanding and providing technology solutions for accessible travel. Almost a third of travel managers say their corporate booking tool does a poor job accommodating these travelers and two-thirds say their company does not have clearly defined processes or resources for accessible travel.   Business travelers also report difficulties when booking trips - facing challenges such as vision, cognitive or motor impairments that can make it impossible to use traditional devices and websites effectively.   Join GBTA and Deem's Head of Product Design, April Durrett, as they discuss the latest research and evolving technology design principles, and how that impacts travel for everyone — with or without disabilities.   In this podcast you'll learn how: * Travel managers are feeling about their current accessibility challenges * Travelers with impairments navigate online booking solutions * Accessible technology can encourage policy adoption and boost employee compliance * Creating accessible solutions helps more people travel more confidently * Meeting WCAG 2.0 accessibility guidelines makes a difference for all of your travelers

We have all heard about climbing the corporate ladder, but have you ever thought about what it means to keep the ladder down for others? Join Annette Cumming and Lisa Caswell as they explore the important topic of leveraging opportunities to support and promote women in leadership.

Jon Gray, Rockport Analytics sat down with Chris Ely, head of GBTA Research during the 2022 GBTA Convention to get a closer look into the 2022 Business Travel Index from GBTA made possible by Mastercard.

Sustainability is emerging as a major driver in the evolution of business travel and that definitely includes in the hotel space. Jean Garris Hand, Vice President, Global ESG, Hilton sat down with Debbie Iannaci, head of GBTA Communications and Research during the 2022 GBTA Convention to provide insights on how sustainability is shaping business travel, Hilton’s commitment and efforts in prioritizing ESG initiatives and innovations including their updated ESG framework, and how they are helping corporate customers focus their carbon footprint and getting to a net zero future.

With data and technology available increasingly in abundance in the business travel sector, how can you harness and make the most of it? Peter Psaltakis, Director Solutions Engineering, and Stephen Pitcher, Chief Data Science Officer, both from FCM joined Debbie Iannaci, head of GBTA Communications and Research during the 2022 GBTA Convention to provide their perspectives on why travel managers are challenged with converting data into insights, the role artificial intelligence (AI) can play, how predictive analytics can aid proactive decisions, and data’s role in the “triple bottom-line” of people, planet and profit.