The Advantage Travel Partnership has announced the return of its Business Travel Symposium after a five-year hiatus.
The event will be hosted at London’s BMA House on February 6.
It will be the first time Advantage’s flagship business travel event for the UK market has been held since 2019.
About 150 business travel professionals will attend, including those from travel management companies (TMCs) in the SME market and supplier partners across a wide range of sectors.
Presentations, discussions, and debates will cover key issues, including a session about trends with statistics from the latest Advantage Global Business Travel Review, combined with Festive Road’s Macroscope predictions for the next decade.
Other topics will cover the need to book content from a wide range of unconnected sources and tips for managing client relationships.
A ‘buyer bootcamp’ will see experienced buyers share knowledge and experience to help “create a formula for successful partnerships”.
The results of the bootcamp will be the basis for a white paper which will be presented at the Advantage Conference in Mexico in May.
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Matthew Peake, public policy and government relations director at Trainline, will host an interactive session looking at what 2024 has in store for the business travel community through a political lens, with an upcoming US election and potentially a UK election as well.
The symposium’s closing keynote speaker will be entrepreneur and global AI thought leader, Priya Lakhani.
The founding chief executive of AI education technology company Century, she has sat on the UK government’s AI Council and appears regularly across global media.
Guy Snelgar (pictured), global business travel director at Advantage, said: “The symposium will be an emphatic way to kick off the year and set our business travel agenda for 2024.
“Hosting large-scale events such as this highlights and reinforces Advantage’s position as the leading consortium for business travel in the UK…this event will be an opportunity to share our progress and plans moving forward.”
Sonia Michaels, head of business travel services and events at Advantage, added: “We currently have a lot of exciting, young talent coming through in the business travel industry and we would like the symposium to be an opportunity for these future leaders to grow and learn.
“We will be actively encouraging our member businesses to invite their stars of the future to attend the symposium and gain exposure to an important industry event.
“We are pleased to be staging the Business Travel Symposium at BMA House again. Its impressive commitment to sustainability is a key factor for us in our approach to all events as we look to reduce our carbon footprint.”