Last week saw Australasia’s largest and most established business travel conference take place between 15-16th August at the Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney.
PASA’s 23rd Annual btTB Business Travel Conference & Awards was a huge success, attracting over 200 registrations for a two-day deep dive into the travel category.
There was a great vibe in the room with the B2B travel industry enjoying lots of networking, sharing and learning, while audience participation was at an all time high during the panel sessions and plenaries.
Travel is back.
We welcomed a host of leading providers in the business travel supply chain, which gave eager buyer delegates the chance to explore the latest products and service offerings, and allowed suppliers to identify and engage with potential new customers across travel procurement and corporate travel.
We heard from many travel buyers that this was the first time they had got together face-to-face this year.
Meanwhile, the jam-packed programme featured 20+ thought leaders in business travel who covered a wide range of issues and topics, including AI, sustainability, the travel industry outlook and the new travel territory.
Tony O’Connor, Managing Director at Butler Caroye, provided an excellent introduction on day one, which opened the gates for a number of high-profile speakers across both days, including Dr. Michael G. Kollo – CEO at Evolved Reasoning, Dr. Phil Ireland – CEO at Carbon Neutral, Adele Labine-Romain – Partner at Deloitte Access Economics, John O’Shea – Senior Analyst at Ord Minnett and Anna Paula Brito – Head of Strategy and Planning at Uber.
Our delegates discovered how AI will change business travel, how to ensure offsets are good, what recovery looks like in terms of business travel pricing, what are the lasting structural effects of Covid, and how to navigate the changed supply chain.
The winner of the Travel Buyer-Supplier Relationship Award was also announced by PASA’s Lesley Wardropper with Elite Woodhams Relocation (buyer) and Quest Apartment Hotels (supplier) taking the victory.
This special award recognises and promotes two-way excellence in travel management, acknowledging an outstanding arrangement and relationship between a travel buyer and its supplier.
Cherie Men – Corporate Travel and Accommodations Manager at Elite Woodhams Relocation and Shae Anderson – Director of Sales at Quest Apartment Hotels (both pictured above) accepted the award, following an impressive submission which detailed how they transcended the typical buyer and supplier relationship to provide last-minute accommodation solutions to essential healthcare workers entering Australia.
Elite Woodhams Relocation wins a trip to New York, including business class travel, accommodation and the opportunity to attend the Skift Travel Conference.
The second runners up were Sanitarium The Health Food Company and Corporate Travel Management (Leanne Fouracre, Reliability & Site Services Buyer, Sanitarium The Health Food Company and Karyn Williams, Client Value Manager, Corporate Travel Management).
While the third runners up were Treasury NSW and FCM Travel (Ignacio Cordova, Associate Director Travel & Accommodation, NSW Treasury and Brendan Seiler, Head of Operations ANZ, FCM Travel).
Did you miss out? We’ll be back at the Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney next year from 7-8th August. Watch this space for further details!
