Spring Conference

On 6th of March we held our Spring Conference at the Congress Centre in central London Over 190 delegates from the TMC, Supplier and Buyer communities enjoyed a full day of industry discussion presentation and debate

After a review of 2022 and an update of the BTA’s objectives for 2023 from Clive Wratten the audience received an economic update from Igor Popovic for Grant Thornton who presented on the outlook for the UK economy and what this could mean for businesses and travel in the months ahead Delegates then got a first sight of the findings from the recently BTA commissioned CBI report on the value of in person meetings from Mohammad Jamei of the CBI

The newly formed Generation BTA Board were represented at the conference with four representatives taking to the stage to discuss their objectives and what they believe the industry needs to do to attract new talent The also suggested how the BTA can widen its appeal and what excites them about the industry

We were then delighted to be joined by Sean Doyle, CEO, British Airways who sat down to talk about BA’s & the aviation sector’s recovery in 2023 He also discussed his plans for BA in 2023, sustainability, the importance of corporate travel to BA & aviation, their approach to TMCs in 2023 and plans for airline retailing Sean spoke very openly and honestly including responding to questions from the audience

After lunch we turned our attention to the rail industry with a panel discussion on the state of the UK rail sector and the impact to the business travel sector Our panel was made up of Jac Starr from RDG Steve Montgomery First Group and Pat McDonagh of Clarity

We then heard from Alan Linter of Capita Experience who spoke about latest customer service trends lessons learnt from COVID and how other sectors outside of travel are faring and what can we learn from them

Next up where the buyers who discussed their beefs and challenges with TMCs and suppliers They spoke about their challenges what they d like to change and why do these challenges exist?

In the final session of the day we were joined by representatives from our technology partners to discuss how the sector can help present sustainable options at the point of sale They discussed what the technology sector are doing to help this issue and how can technology help with managing and reporting a fully sustainable business travel journey? The panel was made up of Liz Emmott, Trainline, Clare de Bono, Amadeus and Robyn Binks from Travelport

Finally, Clive Wratten took to the stage to announce that the BTA Autumn conference was going to take place in the beautiful city of Antwerp