The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) – the voice of the global business travel industry – hosted GBTA Brasil’s second annual conference from the 8th through the 10th of June in Sao Paulo, the largest city of America Latina, with more than 225 attendees. The event held at the newly branded Pullman Hotel, Vila Olympia, located within one of the city’s newest financial centers gathered business travel professionals from Brasil and suppliers of travel services from around the world.
“Latin America continues to be one of the fastest growing world markets for business travel,” said Wellington Costa, Regional Director, GBTA Brazil. “To help this market continue to grow and provide networking, education and other resources to the region, one of the initiatives GBTA is implementing is a series of Latin American Conferences within the region like this one. The makeup of Brasil’s conference attendees was dominated by buyers from the Brasilian marketplace with many opportunities given for buyers to interact with suppliers throughout the program.”
This year’s conference, on the eve of the 2014 World Cup Brasil, featured welcoming remarks from GBTA Past President and Chair, Kevin Maguire, who also moderated a popular panel discussing travel management of football (soccer) teams. The session included representatives from Argentina, Brasil and México.
Other conference highlights included:
- Well attended General Sessions featuring panels on The Future of Corporate Travel from the Perspective of Travel Management Companies, moderated by Alexander Savic Jr. of United Airlines, Chicago, with panelists from Brasilian TMCs; Tour House; Carlson Wagonlit and Canada’s Uniglobe.
- A panel, moderated by Chris Cintrao, called Productivity, the Domino Effect presented by Ana Menezes, REVMAXX, Raquel Ferrari, McKinsey and Marcelo Calado, and SENAC.
- Regional Business Travel Perspectives moderated by ABRACORP’s Executive Director, Gervasio Tanabe with GBTA’s Regional Directors, Wellington Costa, Brasil; Rodolfo Macedo, México and Fernando Montes, volunteer President GBTA Argentina
- GBTA Foundation Vice President, Joseph Bates presented the latest in a continuing series of Business Travel Indices focused on Brasil and its growing business travel sector.
- Carlos Aldan, CEO of Group Kronberg, gave a feature presentation on Inspiring Leadership.
- Educational sessions included: A Revolution in the Technological Management of Business Travel; How to Modify Corporate Behavior Towards the Reduction of Travel Costs; Innovative Strategies in Compliance Management; What Travel Managers Need to Know about Global Travel Policies; and Out of Policy Travel Exceptions and their Limits among other offerings at the conference.
