The benefits of a highly managed
business travel programme and reporting policy is the subject of the
first Executive Forum
conducted by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) in
Italy.This education event was designed by the request of ACTE’s
Italian members and will take place in Milan on June 20, 2006. The
half-day program begins with a session detailing the elements that make
a travel program sufficiently stringent enough to maximize benefits to
both travelers and corporations, while remaining flexible enough to
capitalize on pricing developments.

The session titled, “Examining Corporate Travel Policy” presented by
leading experts—Andrea Guizzardi - Università degli Studi di Bologna;
and Maura de Santis, Travel Manager, Fendi Spa (LVMH)—provides an
in-depth look at what makes a travel policy effective, supported by
considerable anecdotal experience.

The second education session explores the corporate reporting process,
with focus on traveler tracking, maximising travel spend, and missed
savings opportunities. The presenters—Nicoletta Parenti, Travel
Manager, Takeda Farmaceutici and Dario Bongiovanni, Travel Manager, Sky
Italia—will also address the quality of data sources and how this
technology can enable the conversion of information to intelligence. The
session, “Reporting,” will be followed by an audience question and
answer.

“This forum is significant for several reasons,” said Susan Gurley, ACTE
Executive Director. “The first relates to the need for travel policies
to be able to adapt to new shifts in corporate objectives, travel needs,
and industry developments. The second is as the emphasis on
cost-containment continues to grow, travel management specialists will
be expected to have departments and programmes with the greatest return
on the travel investment. Moreover, the Milan Executive Forum, the
recent London Executive Forum (5 June) and the upcoming Paris Executive
Forum (22 June) are setting the stage for ACTE’s Global Education
Conference in Barcelona (22-24 October 2006).”
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