The Business Travel Conference 2021: 10 reasons why you must attend this year

Your conference needs YOU!

The Business Travel Conference is back again for 2021, with the theme Reconnect, Reset, Restart. Here are just 10 of the many reasons why you should attend this year

1Your industry is going through the biggest upheaval it has ever experienced and there are still more obstacles to overcome and key decisions to be made. Never before has it been so important to come together with your industry colleagues and partners to share your experiences, hear about theirs and, in turn, learn from each other. The business travel community has always been a closeknit one but the pandemic challenges have bought us even closer together. This is an opportunity to support your sector and play your part as we move on to the next chapter.

2Exclusivity is what we’re all about at The Business Travel Conference. Numbers are deliberately limited and delegates are required to meet certain criteria to qualify for the 200 free places. This means the event attracts leading business travel suppliers and, crucially, because they know you’re worth meeting, these suppliers send their senior teams to our conference, giving you direct and easy access to the right people – the decision makers – so you can get down to business.

3The intimacy of our conference makes it easy to meet the people you want to talk with. To help facilitate that further we’ve allocated certain periods throughout the event when delegates can meet with exhibitors. There’s also an optional appointment service for delegates who want to line up meetings with particular exhibitors. Of course, we want to encourage informal networking too, so you’re invited to catch up with industry friends, and make new ones, at a relaxed drinks and canapé reception at the end of the first day.

4Let’s be honest, at the start of the pandemic we were keen to register for every webinar, attend every virtual conference, and listen to every podcast. We were glued to our screens in the hope of gleaning some snippet of advice from experts or our peers to help us make sense of it all. But now that the novelty of virtual communication has worn off, we’re all Zoomed out and desperate to get back to a real, in-person event. Thank goodness we can finally meet face-to-face again – and this is the perfect occasion to do just that.

5In a period of such transformation, even the most experienced of you will still find something to take home from the business travel experts who will share their insights and advice during the tailormade conference sessions. And when we say tailor-made, we mean by you. Each year we survey travel buyers to find out what they want and need to know to ensure our programme provides the discussions, workshops and presentations that will be relevant, useful and inspiring and will help you navigate the post-Covid world.

6We know that travel managers and arrangers come in all shapes and sizes so we make sure our conference programme has something for everyone. Whether you’re a PA or office manager arranging and booking travel for a small or medium-sized business or a contract negotiation analyst, finance chief or procurement head for a large multinational corporation, you will go back to your desk better equipped to do your job.

7Our conference takes place at the London Hilton Bankside, a conveniently-located hotel in central London, just a five-minute walk from Southwark Tube station (Jubilee line) or London Blackfriars mainline/tube (District/ Circle line), a 12-minute walk from London Bridge or a 10-minute walk from London Waterloo/Waterloo East. As you would expect from Hilton, stringent health and safety measures are in place with regards to Covid, including regular disinfecting of common touch points in the event space, sanitisers in key public areas and dedicated event teams on hand to reassure you that you’re in good hands.

8Wellbeing is now firmly on the agenda, particularly post-Covid, so we’re bringing back our hugely popular wellbeing area this year. Drop by to chat with experts on nutrition, mental health, First Aid training, mindfulness techniques, travel risk and more. This year recruitment experts will also be on hand to share their advice. We’ve got some exciting things planned.

9We know that time is precious (and budgets are restricted) so we’ve made some changes to the format this year. For the first time, we will be holding our prestigious annual Business Travel People Awards on the second evening of the conference, which means you can attend two of the most important events in the business travel calendar at the same time. The conference programme will finish earlier on the second day to give you time to catch up with industry friends and colleagues (or go home or to your hotel to freshen up) before the awards ceremony. It’s time to party!

10 We’ve missed you, and we’re sure you’ve all missed each other too. The Business Travel Conference has been held every year since 2007 and over that time has become one of the industry’s most important and popular events. Sadly, due to the pandemic we weren’t able to hold the conference last year so it’s been a long time since we’ve seen you all. We can’t wait to do that in September. There’s so much to catch up on.

Executive sponsors

The Business Travel Conference 2021

September 14-15 at the London Hilton Bankside. Apply for free registration at:

thebusinesstravelconference.com

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