GBTA today announced Angus Lyon from Microsoft’s team of “Envisioners” will address the 350 business travel professionals from more than 14 countries.

He will talk about how to think differently about technology and to re-connect with the original concepts of technology creation and how it can truly support the business travel process at GBTA’s European conference being held 19-21 September in Noordwijk, near Amsterdam.

The announcement of the keynote supports the 3rd Dimension theme of the event which will focus on the other stakeholders involved in purchasing and managing business travel. Caroline Strachan, GBTA’s Advisory Board Chairman for Europe, said, “It’s great to have the start of our event focus on IT and the stakeholders connected to the use of technology in managing business travel. Immediately after this, the conference will hear from a panel of other internal stakeholders such as HR, Legal and Sustainability etc. We need to remind ourselves that travel programmes do not operate in isolation in businesses. We need to understand and work better with all types of stakeholder groups and our suppliers need to understand this better too.”

The organisation has also secured the following new speakers for the event:
  • Steve Bullock, Security Manager from Ikea
  • Caroline Thonnon, Director for Smart Mobility Management
  • Michael McCormick, COO & Executive Director for GBTA
  • Jamie Hindhaugh, Head of Production 2012 for the BBC
  • Siri Persson, Travel Manager for Logica
  • Ally Dombey, Director from Revenue by Design
  • Wilko Weber from SHS Swiss Hospitality Solutions

The conference ends on Wednesday 21st September but Ms Strachan and GBTA’s Managing Director, Paul Tilstone, will then contribute to a forum on Smart Mobility being held in partnership with GBTA Europe at the same venue.

The GBTA European network will also run two levels of education and training immediately after the event. The Global Leadership Programme (GLP) will see professors from Wharton Business School focus on stakeholder engagement and the Fundamentals of Travel Management will offer training by Advito in the building blocks of an effective programme.