ITB: Valuable knowledge for travel managers

BERLİN - ITB Business Travel Forum: Valuable knowledge for travel managers. Under the heading of ‘Business travel 4.0: dynamic, digital, disruptive’ this year’s ITB Business Travel Forum will be taking place on 8 March 2018 in Hall 7.1a, Room New York 2. Visitors can get first-hand knowledge and practical information on the latest business travel trends here. This year’s exclusive partner is the German Business Travel Association (VDR). Admission to the forum is free for visitors to ITB Berlin.

Digitalisation and globalisation are triggering ever-shorter innovation cycles, which is a challenge that the business travel market must actively confront. Thus, the VDR Business Travel Forum at the ITB Berlin Convention will be giving visitors an insight into tomorrow’s work environment and the next generation’s travel behaviour.

Under the heading of Business Travel: Completely Digital! Florian Storp, vice president, Central Europe at American Express Global Business Travel, will demonstrate what the industry can learn from young people’s travel and consumer behaviour and how digitalisation must positively affect business travel. Taking concrete examples, he will illustrate how travel management companies and customers are confronting the challenges.

Afterwards, Ludger Bals of The Travel Consulting Group and Dr. Engelbert Wimmer, founder and CEO of e&Co. AG will be talking to Christopher Bergau, head of Strategic Partnerships DACH, airbnb about disruptive business models and digital ’attackers’ who are increasingly taking aim at the travel industry. In theory, the travel manager of the future must forfeit his role as a static departmental salesman and become a pro-active innovation scout and manager of digital eco-systems. 

‘His word shall be heard’: together with the audience Marcus Scholz, management executive at Europcar Deutschland, will enter a new world in the Internet of Things. He will show that Alexa Echo and Alexa Show can already be used to manage services with one’s own voice. Thus, travellers can already use voice control to hire a car, change their booking dates or cancel reservations.

The Networking Lounge Home of Business Travel by ITB & VDR – organised by Messe Berlin and the German Business Travel Association (VDR) lets visitors dwell on the day’s topics in talks. Available from 7 to 9 March and covering a total area of 270 square metres, this is the sixth time that the Networking Lounge will be a part of the show.

The combined stand in Hall 7.1a offers travel and transport managers as well as buyers and newcomers a valuable platform for discussing ways to improve business and make contact with leading representatives of the business travel sector. Co-exhibitors will be showcasing a variety of solutions for professional management as well as for during and after business trips. 

All visitors interested in business travel topics should make a note to attend the Networking Lunches. The informal lounge atmosphere lets visitors enjoy a relaxing lunch and provides an opportunity to network at their leisure. The lunch event will take place on all trade visitor days from 12 noon to 2 p.m. at the Home of Business Travel by ITB & VDR.

Visitors can take an exclusive trip to the ITB Travel Forum and enjoy sustainable travel at bargain prices with an attractive special offer from Deutsche Bahn. A return fare from any DB train station costs only 99 euros for standard-class and 109 euros for first-class and includes admission to the show. Tickets are subject to availability. The flexible terms of the offer even permit reservations to be changed, if necessary. For more details please visit 

www.itb-convention.com/travel

For more information on the Travel Forum please visit: www.itb-convention.com/businesstravel

About ITB Berlin and the ITB Berlin Convention

ITB Berlin 2018 will be taking place from Wednesday, 7 to Sunday, 11 March, and from Wednesday to Friday will be open to trade visitors only. ITB Berlin is the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show. In 2017 a total of 10,000 companies and organizations from 184 countries exhibited their products and services to around 169,000 visitors, who included 109,000 trade visitors. Parallel with the show the ITB Berlin Convention, the Leading Travel Industry Think Tank, will be held from Wednesday, 7 to Saturday, 10 March. Zambia is the Convention & Culture Partner of ITB Berlin 2018. The World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) is Co-Host of the ITB Berlin Convention. Ctrip.com International, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey are Platinum Sponsors. Admission to the ITB Berlin Convention is free for trade visitors, media representatives and exhibitors. For more information please visit www.itb-berlin.com, www.itb-convention.com and the ITB Social Media Newsroom.