The Event - Swiss Travel Management Forum 7 September 2017

This last week was very busy. Once again, I was invited to help mold the content for the summit that was held in The Sheraton, Zurich. And two days prior to the STMF, we with expenseBrain and my colleague Michael Zwickl had already appeared at the Finass Business Travel Workshop in Zurich’s World Trade Center. But of course there is always the same excitement to meet so many collegues from Travel Management and Suppliers. For the second time, the occasion was moderated by Traveltip and the patronage of the VDR, by Stefan Jäggi and Willy Schnyder – and they did a splendid job!

Networking and Opening Lunch at the Swiss Travel Management Forum

It seems to be slowly becoming natural that Business Travel events begin with a “for corporates only” lunch, at which the participants can get together away from the public. The guest speaker engaged for the first part was Werner E. Wiedmer, Chairman Visit USA Committee Switzerland. He spoke about the Entry Process for business travelers and maintained that usually an ESTA application suffices. Interestingly, the number of applicants do not change after the election of a new president, but align to changes in the currency exchange rate. Well, perhaps the most recent numbers may speak another language.

The official part of the event was then opened by Stefan Jäggi, editor in chief of Business Traveltip by greeting the participants and a short introduction of the conference program. Hans-Ingo Biehl, representative of the VDR (Association of German Travel Management) also greeted the participants personally, reflected on the history of Swiss Travel Management Forums and pointes out the most important topics that currently move the Industry.

Where will hotel procurement move in the future

Strategic hotel procurement and companies’ corporate hotel programs seemed to have moved up considerably in corporate clients’ and TMC’s list of priorities. And who better to have a speak about this topic than Tobias Ragge, CEO of HRS. In his keynote presentation, he explained the obstacles that need to be overcome and that often cause companies unnecessary process overhead time and time again but also maintained that “content” is no longer the most important criteria for HRS. Today, in this field, it’s more about data, processes and the automation of the negotiation phase with chain and individual properties. The participants were recommended to outsource hotel procurement to professionals.

NDC, DCC, Direct Connect – how will we buy air tickets in the future?

This session impressed with a premiere. For the very first time at the STMF a presentation and the following panel discussion was held in English. The honour of doing so was held by Xavier Lagardère, Head of Distribution Lufthansa Group Hub Airlines. He demonstrated where the airlines of the Lufthansa group are heading regarding NDC, with which partners solutions have been created and, of course, which goals (better presentation of offers, client specific offers, standard connections etc.) shall be achieved. All this market driven and for the benefit of the client!

This statement, however, was openly disputed by Anita Lauper, Travel Manager of the Julius Bär Bank, in the follow up discussion. The Lufthansa Group and more recently British Airways and their partner companies allegedly clearly discriminate against their corporate clients and travellers by means of their business practices and the cost increase of existing sales channels. The audience around me was unsure whether to applaud, given the clear and frank words. Mr. Lagardère naturally did not want to let that pass up and asked whether it may be better to cross-examine today’s processes and perhaps change them.

Alexander Albert (Director Business Management Deutschland & Switzerland HRG) maintained that the increased complexity and the necessity to cover an increasing number of channels are a plus for working together with travel management companies and that dealing with this is one of their strengths that can be counted now and for the future. The GDS representative, Philip Saunders, Vice President Air Commerce EMEA Travelport added that the GDS offering, especially Travelport’s, are not antiquated and that they already offer the means to deal with airline demands and vowed the continuation of making this available to travel agencies and TMCs in the greatest scope possible. Even though the discussion was rather heated, everybody shook hands peacefully at the end.

Breakout Session: End-to-End: All is completely integrated

What does a crossroad in Ethiopia have to do with business travel and why does everybody have a different understanding of the End-to-End process in corporate travel is? These and other points were handled by Christian Rosenbaum in his high-speed presentation. Others would require half a day to work through them all. As Manager of Strategic Relations with the i:FAO Group and as a member of the technical professional committee at the VDR, Rosenbaum knows what he is talking about. Skilfully executed, eloquently presented, coherently interconnected, and in so doing answered many questions. He also came up with new ones: where in the overall process is my starting point, which challenges am I wanting to overcome in my company, which systems can service my requirements and who can support me in the effort. Ideal indirect marketing for the services that we at travelBrain and expenseBrain can offer to assist in this area, and, of course, in others.

Breakout Session: The Sharing Economy in Corporate Travel: Risks and Legalities

I was unable to attend the second breakout session by Prof. Dr. Tobias Ehlen of the Tourism and Transport faculty of Worms University that treated the risks and legalities surrounding the booking of sharing economy services because, alas, I couldn’t be in two rooms at the same time. But one of the most important statements that travel managers should still be cautious to include vendors like Air BnB and Uber in their portfolio. Many countries still present legal insecurities and companies are bound by the responsibility of their duty of care toward their travellers, should issues arise. Other information to this session can be found with my collegues at gloobi.de (in german only).

Artificial Intelligence on Business Trips

Usually it’s difficult to round up all participants and get back into the swing of things after a coffee break, but not so for Oliver Puhe, tourism trend researcher and innovation coach with his multimedia trip to the future. Some of which we still put down as fantasies has already been put to practice in some areas or is being heavily tested in others. Big data and Chatbots already seem to be yesterday’s dream, while todays are Smart Data and Predictive Analysis, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Speech Recognition and Natural Speech Translation.

There is no shortage of examples – take a look at the following companies and their ideas and products:

Waverly Labs – a World without Language Barriers
Boxever – every Moment counts. Make every Interaction smarter
Fraugster – a Fraud free World

These are just a few examples that Mr. Puhe mentioned during his presentation but super interesting all the same to see what we will be confronted with. With Lola and Pana there are already examples of vendors in the business travel sector that are already handling the one or the other AI topic.

«Don’t worry – will will not be replaced by machines yet – at least not our generation» Oliver Puhe

The post-presentation discussion was joined by Gabriel Peter, Head of Travel Management Actelion, Verena Funke, MD Egencia Germany and Stefan Stille, Manager Security & Technology Consulting Concur. The suppliers all showed their enthusiasm for AI, Gabriel Peter took a more critical stance by asking whether it makes sense to have everything that is technically possible just because it’s possible. She did not agree the time is right for these new features in this rather conservative industry.

TMCs are also intensively working toward these innovations. At the ACTE event in Zurich last May we talked about their slant on things and the status of where they are with that. We at TravelBrain always keep an eye on this topic and when it is relevant, we take this up and consult with our clients accordingly.

Networking Cocktail and the Swiss Business Travel Awards Ceremony

Even though Oliver Puhe’s presentation had had been more than enough food for thought, Stefan Jäggi and Willy Schnyder invited participants to attend the networking cocktail event and the Swiss Business Travel Awards Ceremony. We gladly seized the opportunity to have some more chats and in-depth discussions on some of the topics. We are also happily available to further discuss after this event – do not hesitate to contact us.

The Business Travel Awards by Business Traveltip had an additional category this year: Apps, and for the first time, the awards were presented by sponsor members Finass Reisen and Swisscard. The ceremony was hosted by Claudia Lässer and Stefan Jäggi.

This year’s winners were no big surprises. Awards were presented to Swiss, Singapore Airlines, Zurich Airport, the Radisson Blu hotel chain and Sixt Rent-a-car. The award for best app was presented to Tripadvisor.

Of course, we hope to be involved in next year’s STMF, which will take place on September 6th, 2018. We already have ideas for topics and would love to hear some of yours. Don’t be shy, let’s have them – we look forward to it.