FACTS Corporate Travel Summit Session Summaries

Welcome to the FACTS 2025 Corporate Travel Summit session summaries.

Throughout the 2-day event we'll be sharing the key insights and takeaways from the Corporate Travel Summit on this page - so check back regularly to ensure you don't miss a thing!

JUMP TO DAY 2

Day 1: Tuesday 25 2025

08:30 Sourcing Business Travel Services Workshop

Introduction

In this lively and practical session, travel procurement expert Merril Skyring and Virginia Fitzpatrick, Regional General Manager at PTC Australia, unpacked how the procurement function is transforming - and what it means for sourcing business travel services today.

Drawing on real-world client behaviours, shifting supplier capabilities and the stubborn pace of travel-tech evolution, they explored why procurement must focus on fundamentals while developing sharper foresight, stronger curiosity and a more strategic voice at the executive table.

Key Insights

·      Procurement must start with a clear understanding of priorities and current problems before approaching the market.

·      Contracting in 2026 for 2+1 year agreements will heading into 2030 – no certainty what the landscape will look like by then.

·      Airline, hotel and TMC agreements can no longer be siloed - offers must be compatible and connected across all providers.

·      Many corporates stay with their TMC simply because travellers are content and change feels unnecessary. Travellers care about outcomes - not which OBT or system is used.

·      Clients are questioning traditional service fee models when AI performs booking tasks. The role of TMC account managers is under scrutiny as reporting and servicing become increasingly automated.

·      TMCs must offer predictive insights, digital tools and future-facing solutions. Corporates are not interested in a roadmap, they need it now.  

·      Procurement today has executive influence and must demand transparency, capability and adaptability from partners.

Takeaways

Skyring and Fitzpatrick emphasised the importance of strong data, honest capability assessments, integrated sourcing strategies and a mindset of curiosity and partnership. With sustainability, regulation and global disruptions reshaping decision-making, procurement’s role is no longer transactional - it’s strategic, influential and central to crafting travel programs that work today while preparing for what’s coming next.

09:35 Open Plenary

09:45 Big Picture Outlook

Simon Baptist, Principal Economist for Asia Pacific at Visa

Introduction

In this high-level economic outlook, Simon Baptist, Principal Economist for Asia Pacific at Visa, unpacked the forces shaping regional growth, currency movements, consumer spending and the realities businesses must prepare for as they plan travel and events into 2026.

Key Insights

·      APAC is set for another ‘OK’ year in 2026, broadly mirroring 2025.

·      Australia, North Asia and South Korea are projected to deliver real GDP growth, while emerging markets - including Mainland China, India, Singapore and Thailand - are expected to soften.

·      Consumer spending trends show Australia and Hong Kong strengthening into late 2025, with New Zealand and Japan steady; other markets are weakening or contracting.

·      Currencies: Most Asian currencies remain historically weak, influencing travel affordability and cross-border demand.

·      The US dollar’s dominance is declining slightly, though no meaningful replacement has emerged.

·      Travel is becoming more purpose-driven, with shorter trips centred on specific events, products or unique experiences.

Takeaways

Baptist’s outlook highlights a region navigating modest growth, geopolitical tension and evolving consumer behaviour. For corporate travel and events, this means planning for uneven demand across markets, currency-driven cost variations and a shift toward shorter, purpose-led trips that prioritise meaningful experiences. As businesses navigate volatility - from slowing Chinese activity to rising payment friction - understanding economic signals will be essential for shaping resilient travel programs and event strategies.

10:10 State of Business Travel

Suzanne Neufang, CEO of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA)

Introduction

In an insightful update on the global and Australian business travel landscape, Suzanne Neufang, CEO of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), outlined how the industry has rebounded —-and where it’s still catching up. Neufang highlighted ongoing resilience, shifting economic pressures and the evolving expectations shaping how organisations plan and justify travel in 2025 and beyond.

Key Insights

·      Business travel continues to deliver strong value for companies, governments, economies and individuals.

·      The sector remains highly resilient despite geopolitical and economic turbulence.

·      Global business travel spending has largely recovered in nominal terms - but remains below pre-COVID levels once adjusted for inflation.

·      As travel becomes more expensive, buyers are prioritising fewer but more strategic trips to achieve the same outcomes on existing budgets.

·      APAC represents around half of global business travel spend (2024).

·      Australia is the 12th largest business travel market in the world (accounting for 2% of global spend) and the 5th largest in APAC, with expectations of increased spending next year.

·      Industry sentiment is improving: global optimism reached 43% in October 2025, though still lower than a year earlier due to trade tensions. APAC is the most optimistic region at 55%, while Europe remains the least optimistic.

·      One-third of professionals say their organisation is considering new travel routes or partnerships in response to 2025 US government policies, with APAC showing strong appetite for new trade relationships.

Takeaways

Neufang’s outlook paints a picture of an industry recovering in volume but recalibrating in value. With inflation still biting, organisations are expected to travel smarter - choosing trips that deliver meaningful returns and aligning programs with new economic realities. APAC, and Australia in particular, remain influential markets with rising optimism and growing strategic importance. As global dynamics shift, business travel will continue evolving, but its role as a catalyst for commerce, connection and growth remains firmly intact.

09:45 The Points Whisperer

Introduction

In this energetic session, Steve Hui, Founder of iFlyFlat, and Adele Licio, Founder of The Champagne Mile, took attendees deep inside the world of points, status and smart redemption strategy. Together, they unpacked real techniques, pitfalls and opportunities for individuals and businesses to extract maximum value from loyalty programs.

Key Insights

Steve Hui – iFlyFlat

• Points deliver predictable, flat pricing, unlike fluctuating airfares - making premium travel affordable when seats are found.

• Treat points like a financial asset: earn deliberately via business expenses, then redeem for outsized value (especially business/first).

• Long-haul redemptions deliver the strongest value; short-haul markets like NZ often do not.

• A “points-first” approach can save thousands - secure refundable cash fares, keep searching for reward seats, then switch when found.

Adele Licio – The Champagne Mile

• Status is a parallel currency that expands reward-seat access, enhances upgrade chances and boosts points earning.

• Qantas and Velocity models differ: Qantas is sector-based; Velocity is now revenue-based - influencing qualification strategy.

• Status demand is strong: Australians consistently choose status credits over bonus points in promotions.

• Status can be fast-tracked through targeted promotions, status matches and non-flying pathways such as Qantas Points Club.

Takeaways

Businesses that deliberately earn points, plan ahead for reward availability and use status to widen access can secure premium travel at a fraction of the cash price. As competition for reward seats intensifies, strategy, timing and clear-eyed maths will matter more than ever.

10:10 Aviation Matters

Introduction

Peter Harbison, co-founder of Greener Airlines, examined the aviation market, declaring that the era of 'blind flying' - treating a flight as merely a fare and a schedule - is emphatically over. The aviation sector has transformed from a predictable logistical utility into a domain of strategic complexity. A convergence of structural pressures is now fundamentally reshaping airline operations, creating direct and significant challenges for corporate travel managers, procurement officers, and those responsible for their organisation's ESG targets. This shift demands a holistic and strategic approach from corporate professionals to successfully manage air travel in the future. It's a wake-up call for the corporate travel sector to step up its game and start flying smart, not just flying often.

Key Insights

· The Sustainability Imperative is hampered by a lack of government mandates and investment certainty for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production in Australia.

· Global supply chain bottlenecks for new, fuel-efficient aircraft are forcing airlines to keep older fleets in service, leading to an 'emissions lock-in' and higher fares.

· Despite appearing profitable, the airline sector remains profoundly fragile due to volatile fuel prices and operating with brutally thin margins.

· Australia’s highly concentrated domestic market (duopoly) weakens the incentive for innovation and contributes to elevated airfares. Sydney Airport's outdated slot allocation rules must be reviewed to unlock capacity and foster genuine competition, especially with the development of Western Sydney International Airport.

· A global workforce crisis across pilots, engineers, and ground crews is driving up labour costs, increasing operational risk, and contributing to flight delays and cancellations.

· Long-haul Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs) are increasingly vital, targeting corporate and SME segments with competitive premium products and greater fuel efficiency.

· Advanced Aerial Mobility (AAM), or zero-emission electric aircraft, offers a viable, short-to-medium-term solution for cheap, high-frequency regional connectivity.

Takeaways

Ultimately, managing corporate air travel in this new era requires a strategic and holistic approach, which is far more complex than simply negotiating rates. Professionals can't just chase the cheapest fare; they need to become savvy strategists. The key talking points converge on the necessity to look beyond the immediate cost to assess the sustainability credentials of airline partners, effectively weigh the risk of operational fragility (e.g., delays from workforce shortages), and anticipate market shifts. Companies must be proactive and agile, positioning their travel programs to capitalise on new, disruptive forces. This includes embracing the rise of the long-haul LCCs and seriously considering investment in Advanced Aerial Mobility (AAM) for regional routes, lest Australia misses a massive opportunity. Successful procurement now hinges on informed, agile decision-making that addresses the full spectrum of costs, including environmental and operational risk, not just the sticker price.

10:30 Discover 10 Smart Ways to Master Your Company Travel

Introduction

At a FACTS session devoted to the art of frequent flyer points, speaker Steve Huey - a long-time media voice and 13-year specialist in points strategy - dives into why points, not status, are the smartest path to business-class comfort. Speaking informally and engagingly, Steve explains his obsession with treating points like a true financial asset and how doing so can transform small-business and corporate travel. His presentation centred on cutting through airline status “games” and using points deliberately to access confirmed premium-class travel without the uncertainty of upgrades.

Key Insights

• Points offer control: once you secure a seat with points, it’s confirmed — unlike status-based upgrades, which remain a “lottery”.

• Airlines are shifting status qualification to spend-based systems, making the old distance-driven status chase less rewarding.

• Treating points like a financial asset helps travellers spot opportunities and extract far greater value than cash alone.

• Earning points can be significantly cheaper and easier than earning the equivalent value in money.

• Points open direct access to business- and first-class perks — lounges, priority check-in, smoother security — without climbing status tiers.

• Status still matters for those without enough points, but travellers with points can bypass the entire tiered system.

• Reward tables create a “flat price” world: the same flight at the same distance costs the same number of points every time.

• This consistency contrasts sharply with airline cash fares, which fluctuate constantly.

Takeaways

Steve’s message is clear: points are powerful, predictable and, when used deliberately, a genuine shortcut to premium travel without the grind of status chasing. By treating points as a strategic financial asset, travellers — especially in small business and corporate settings — can unlock reliable comfort, consistent pricing and meaningful savings. In a landscape where status rules are shifting and cash fares keep rising, points remain the one place where the rules are transparent, the value is substantial and the rewards are firmly in your control.

10:30 Purposeful Travel & Events

Introduction

In his remote keynote from Seattle, Eric Bailey, Managing Director of Purposeful Travel Solutions, challenged the audience to rethink business travel through a “purposeful” lens — one that focuses on impact, sustainability, accessibility and meaningful human connection. Bailey reminded listeners that travel itself doesn’t create value; it enables the social capital built when people meet with intention.

Key Points

·      Purposeful travel is about assessing the why, value and intended outcomes of each trip — and travelling only when it truly drives impact.

·      The Purposeful Travel Platform, created with leading corporate travel executives, is built on four pillars: sustainability, maximising opportunities, accessibility and enhancing the traveller experience.

·      Sustainability requires cutting unnecessary travel, using virtual alternatives and planning smarter — proving that businesses can grow without increasing their carbon footprint.

·      Tools like Ascend’s compatibility scoring can help travellers meet the right people, reinforcing the idea of maximising opportunities and doing better pre-meeting research.

·      Accessibility goes beyond physical needs — it’s about ensuring everyone can participate, even if they cannot travel.

·      To enhance the traveller experience, Bailey recommends digitising conversations, reducing email clutter, and using technology to make trips more productive and meaningful.

11:45 Travel Tech

Moderated by Kaylene Chatterwood (Amadeus), this expert panel brought together Jan Reinmüller (Microsoft), Riky Vittoria (Asai Travel) and Neil White (House of Travel) to unpack how agentic AI and modern data platforms are redefining travel operations, personalisation and disruption management.

Key Insights

• AI transformation ≠ digital transformation — it’s about activating existing data, not replacing systems. Agentic AI enables automation, decision support and rapid task execution across travel workflows.

• Biggest near-term value sits in post-booking tasks — changes, cancellations, ADMs and disruption management, where cognitive AI can handle complexity and reduce handling time by up to 60–70%.

• Hybrid human–AI models will dominate — booking tools remain largely unchanged, while agents gain “co-pilots” that prepare context, analyse problems and streamline responses.

• Data security is non-negotiable

• TMCs are prioritising velocity and value — using fail-fast pilots, agentic automation and AI-powered knowledge tools to lift consultant productivity and service quality.

• Disruption management is the industry’s biggest opportunity — using AI agents to detect issues, pre-empt delays, communicate instantly and coordinate solutions across TMCs, GDSs and airlines.

Takeaways

This session made clear that AI’s future in travel isn’t about replacing booking tools or consultants — it’s about empowering them. The next five years will redefine service expectations, with disruption management emerging as the single biggest transformational frontier.

11:45 Benchmarking Trends

Introduction

This three-part benchmarking session featured Luxsho Logan (CIRIUM) on air market capacity, Sanjay Shenoy (Airline Metrics) on airfare movements and NDC, and Joanne Cohen (STR) on accommodation performance and outlook. Together they delivered a comprehensive snapshot of how capacity, pricing, demand and traveller behaviour are evolving - and what it means for corporate travel programs.

Key Insights

• Global airline capacity has fully recovered, sitting ~9% above 2019 - but growth is uneven; trans-Pacific and Chinese international capacity remain significantly below pre-COVID.

• Australian domestic capacity is still below 2019, but international capacity has surged, shifting the market from 37% to 45% international share over 20 years.

• Major growth markets include Chinese domestic (+30%), Brazil, Europe and the US, while intra-Asia short haul has only just returned to 2019 levels.

• NDC adoption shows Qantas plateauing (~39% domestic, 22% international) and Singapore Airlines nearing 50%, driven largely by short-haul markets.

• Australian domestic fares show a split: business class down (–6% to –14%), economy up (+6% to +10%), with Virgin particularly aggressive on pricing.

• International fares remain resilient; US and Europe show mild softness, while Japan and parts of Asia are up strongly, especially in business class.

• Hotel performance is robust: Australia ranks 7th globally for RevPAR, with strong rate and occupancy growth across most markets.

• Events drive pricing spikes - Taylor Swift, F1, British Lions and Sydney Marathon -produced record occupancy and rates in Sydney and Melbourne.

• Regional Australian hotels outpace capital cities in rate growth vs 2019, driven by leisure, remote work and event-led travel.

• Supply remains tight: major cities show limited future room growth, with Adelaide the standout (+17% pipeline), meaning high rates are likely to persist.

Takeaways

Capacity is returning - but not evenly. Airfares remain structurally higher in many markets, NDC adoption is patchy, and hotel rates continue to climb on the back of strong demand and constrained supply. For buyers, benchmarking matters more than ever: static contracts are losing relevance, event-driven spikes are unavoidable, and destination and supplier choices must be backed by data. The outlook into 2026 remains strong, but so too do pricing pressures - making proactive planning essential.

11:45 Modern Retailing

Introduction

Modern airline retailing - powered by NDC - has officially moved from theory to transformation. In this lively and candid session, moderator Timmo Rol unpacked nine years of experience across Qantas, CTM, Virgin Australia and Gartner, before leading a fast-paced panel discussion with Cherie Drummond (CTM), Andre Moten (CT Connections), and Oronzo Miccoli (Qantas).

Together, they tackled the commercial realities, operational impacts, technology gaps and future retailing opportunities now reshaping Australia’s corporate travel landscape. From fee transparency to servicing delays, ticket credits, GDS capability gaps and the coming era of bundles, SAF and offers & orders - nothing was off the table.

Key Insights

• NDC adoption is accelerating fast - early adopters are seeing real savings, averaging ~7% since launch.

• Traditional TMC revenue models are collapsing; margins now sit at 1–3%.

• NDC-related servicing remains the biggest friction point - refunds, reissues and waivers still require manual work.

• TMCs are investing in automation, workflow redesign and AI tools to protect SLAs and manage higher touch time.

• GDS and OBT capability varies widely; Sabre leads, others lag - buyers must interrogate the tech stack.

• Edifact credits hinder NDC uptake; Qantas is working on credit-migration pathways.

• Personalised bundles, ancillaries and SAF options are coming as airlines shift toward modern retailing.

• Buyers must update policy and governance frameworks to handle richer content and dynamic offers.• Collaboration and transparency across airlines, TMCs and buyers will determine the success of modern retailing. 

Takeaways

NDC is no longer experimental - it’s reshaping distribution, economics and servicing today. Buyers need to engage early, understand their TMC’s true technical capability and prepare policies for a future of richer, more dynamic airline offers. The industry’s next leap won’t just be about NDC, but about modern retailing end-to-end.

12:00 Agile Advantage - Travel Strategies for Growing Business

Introduction

In this lively session on The Agile Advantage: Smartest Travel Strategies for Growing Businesses, Sarah Constable (Corporate Sales Manager, Air Canada) teamed up with Craig Subby (Regional General Manager, CT Connections). Fresh from CT Connections’ win as Most Outstanding Australian Owned Travel Management Company, Craig and Sarah walked attendees through practical, data-backed ways SMEs and medium-sized enterprises can reduce travel spend while supporting employee wellbeing. Their focus: agility - making smart, timely choices that deliver immediate savings across corporate travel programs.

Key Insights

• CT Connections has deep SME roots, valuing the agility and quick decision-making of smaller businesses.

• NDC (New Distribution Capability) is a key cost-saving lever, with CT Connections selling ~85% NDC content.

• Shifting to NDC fares can deliver 7–9% savings compared with traditional edifact fares.

• Timing matters: Mondays and Fridays are consistently the most expensive travel days, based on two financial years of customer data.

• Moving trips to mid-week - especially Wednesdays - can reduce fares by ~12–18% depending on carrier.

• Virgin and Qantas show similar fare patterns, reinforcing the benefit of avoiding early-week and end-week departures.

• Adjusting travel policy can support both cost control and staff wellbeing.

• April travel spikes due to Easter and competition with leisure travellers; limiting travel to “essential only” can lower costs and support time at home.

• A CEO-driven message encouraging reduced travel during high-fare periods can positively affect culture and spend.

Takeaways

Sarah and Craig highlighted that agility in corporate travel isn’t just a buzzword — it’s a strategic advantage. By embracing NDC, choosing smarter travel days and rethinking policy settings during high-fare months, businesses can make meaningful cuts to their travel budgets. At the same time, these changes can boost employee wellbeing by reducing unnecessary time on the road. The message is simple: with data-driven insights and nimble decision-making, growing businesses can travel smarter, spend less and look after their people along the way.

12:10 The Future of Travel

Introduction

AWS’s global travel lead Massimo Morin outlined what travel suppliers can learn from Amazon’s growth model - and how agentic AI, digital concierge services, workforce empowerment and customer-centric design will define the next era of travel. Morin urged the industry to focus less on shiny technology and more on understanding “what never changes”: customer needs, stress points, and operational efficiency.

Key Insights

• Travel and Amazon share the same imperatives: margin improvement, customer engagement, loyalty growth, operational excellence and sustainability.

• Amazon’s success is built on a simple flywheel: selection → experience → traffic → sellers → lower prices → reinvestment - a model travel brands can adapt.

• Legacy tech restricts innovation; Morin urged the industry to invert the model: empower people → redesign processes → choose tech that enables ambition.

• A travel version of the flywheel starts with deep customer understanding, leading to personalisation, better experience and loyalty.

• The biggest near-term opportunities lie in digital concierge services that support travellers across the entire journey - not just at booking.

• New channels such as voice assistants, conversational AI and in-flight connectivity will become central touchpoints.

• “Connective media” models like United’s show how anonymised cohorts can power targeted, context-driven offers and ads.

• AI can greatly improve frontline employee experience through crew and agent apps, boosting flexibility and reducing stress.

• Agentic AI is powerful but only ~16% of companies are capturing real value - the blockers are data access, integration, process fit and governance.

• Morin emphasised focusing on timeless truths: travel is experiential, stressful, disruption-prone and operationally complex - solving these unlocks the biggest wins.

Takeaways

Morin’s message was clear: technology alone doesn’t create competitive advantage - customer understanding, empowered people, modern processes and targeted use of AI do.

12:20 Corporate Travel Tech Roadshow

Tom Clark - Sales Director Australia, BCD Travel

·      Showcased the BCD Marketplace and Develop Hub, now featuring 50+ partners across 12 categories.

·      Positioned BCD as a “Digital Services Company”, not just a TMC.

·      14% of clients currently use more than one integrated partner

·      The Develop Hub enables bespoke integration with unique solutions providers (e.g., mobile plans).

Gena Signorini – Director, Commercial Operations, Kudos Travel Technology

·      Addressed the pain of global travel programs built on fragmented tools, multiple TMCs and inconsistent user experiences.

·      Clients want a single, connected global strategy that delivers consistency yet feels local.

·      Emphasised real-time visibility, reliable insights and flexible tools across spend, trends and compliance.

·      Kudos provides one unified view of the multi-national travel program while allowing each region to retain its preferred TMC and OBT.

Wayne Nagle – Director, Procurement Consulting & Supplier Relations Australasia, HRS Group

·      Introduced HRS Copilot, an AI-powered platform for managing hotel and meeting spend.

·      Procurement sets the strategy, and Copilot measures and presents results automatically.

·      Designed with a strong user interface and clear, intuitive dashboards.

·      Positions AI as a practical, operational tool rather than a future concept.

Ilya Gutlin – CEO, AeroLABS

·      Presented an AI-driven customer data platform focused on customer loyalty and premium service experiences.

·      Built to help small teams deliver “gold status” service to every passenger, not just elite tiers.

·      Integrates loyalty, PSS/DCS and GDS data into an AI engine, supporting chat, call, self-service and AI agents.

·      Uses dynamic customer clusters to leverage behaviour patterns.

Michael Chase-Smith – Executive Director, Orbit World Travel

·      Leveraging AI to improve customer conversations and agent knowledge.

·      AI supports operations and finance productivity, reducing manual workloads.

·      Enhanced data, reporting and internal insights to support better decision-making.

·      Demonstrates practical, incremental AI adoption across the business.

Matt Campbell – Director, Content & Distribution Partnerships, Spotnana

·      Explained Spotnana's Travel-as-a-Service platform: OBT, TMC automation, booking engine, and a system of record using Orders (not PNRs).

·      Encouraged the industry to focus on “what doesn’t change” when evaluating innovation opportunities.

·      Highlighted the importance of Next Gen PSS, signalling the industry's direction beyond NDC.

·      Positioned NDC as merely the starting point, not the finish line.

Alex Gnoss – Director, APAC Customer Success, Navan

·      Stressed Navan’s user-first philosophy, using tech to reshape travel experiences.

·      Key capabilities include expense integration and data insights powered by ThoughtSpot.

·      1 in 3 flights booked through Navan is an NDC fare, showing strong leadership in NDC adoption.

·      Showcased generative AI tools: Ava - currently solving 50% of inbound interactions, and Miles - an AI voice agent that prevents hotel cancellations by calling ahead with late arrival and payment information.

12:30 From Novice to Ninja: ChatGPT for Corporate Travel Professionals

Introduction

In this hands-on education session, Theo Shemansky from SkyLink demonstrated how corporate travel professionals can dramatically improve ChatGPT outputs by moving from basic prompts to expert-level prompt engineering. Through live demos - including financial storytelling, policy summarisation, pricing queries and spreadsheet analysis - he showed how clarity, context and specificity turn ChatGPT into a powerful travel assistant and analyst.

Key Insights

• Prompt quality drives output quality - expert prompts define user identity, audience, purpose, constraints (e.g., word limits) and format, producing far more accurate and usable results.

• ChatGPT can analyse long documents (e.g., 75-page travel policy PDFs) and summarise them into custom outputs such as emails or tables tailored for specific audiences.

• Highly specific prompts (location, dates, star rating, brands) return far more precise travel insights, such as hotel rate ranges for defined segments or districts.

• ChatGPT can ingest spreadsheets, generate charts, clean data and build visualisations - all adjustable in real time with natural language instructions.

• Beyond travel tasks, ChatGPT can act as a researcher, writer and teacher, building checklists, drafting alerts, summarising business books and tutoring on complex topics like airline yield management.

Takeaways

Theo’s message was clear: mastering prompt engineering turns ChatGPT from a generic assistant into a tailored, high-performance tool for travel professionals. The more context you provide - who you are, who you're speaking to, what you want and why - the more ChatGPT can deliver targeted, high-quality outputs that save time and improve decision-making.

14:15 Data & Reporting

Introduction

This high-energy session brought together Craig Southey (CT Connections), Thuy Lam (Blackbook.ai) and Chris Lewis (Travelogix) to explore how AI is reshaping data, analytics and reporting in corporate travel. The panel unpacked LLMs, agentic and swarm AI, natural language interfaces, data cleanliness, governance challenges and what the future of dashboards may look like as AI becomes the new analyst.

Key Insights

• Three AI types matter most: generative (language prediction), agentic (AI + automation for action), and swarm (multiple AI agents coordinating tasks).

• Agentic AI will have the biggest near-term impact in travel reporting - cleaning data, identifying anomalies and improving data consistency.

• LLMs enable natural language reporting, turning plain-English questions into structured queries and dashboards, removing the need to learn BI tools.

• AI beats traditional BI for scale - it identifies relationships between datasets, generates insights instantly and supports scenario planning.

• Data quality remains the industry's biggest barrier; free-text fields, inconsistent formats and legacy systems ensure “perfect data” is unrealistic.

• AI can improve data hygiene by normalising names, matching variants and reducing human error, but human governance is still essential.

• Ambiguous or multi-factor questions remain challenging for LLMs; users must learn how to ask precise, structured queries.

• Natural language analytics is already here, with platforms delivering automated commentary, insight generation and interactive Q&A inside reports.

• Generative AI unlocks powerful “what-if” modelling, enabling instant scenario analysis (e.g., airline switching, class-of-travel changes).

• Governance and security become critical as Copilot and AI tools scan enterprise data - clean data and clear access rules are essential.

Takeaways

AI is accelerating travel analytics beyond dashboards and into an era of conversational, predictive and automated reporting. While dashboards won’t disappear overnight, the panel agreed that natural language interaction, agentic automation and cleaner data workflows will redefine how buyers, TMCs and managers engage with insights. Human oversight will remain vital - but AI will increasingly become the analyst, the cleaner and the co-pilot driving better decisions.

14:15 Smarter Sourcing

Moderator: Joel Robertson, Head of Business Optimisation, Amex GBT

Panellists: Michael Woodley (CEO, Yindjibarndi Nation), Dan Walmsley (General Manager, Cedrent/Jina), Rick Dyer (Director Global Client Management, Amex GBT)

Introduction

This session explored how Indigenous procurement, capability-building and trusted partnerships can reshape sourcing strategies in corporate travel. The panel highlighted the commercial and cultural value of engaging First Nations suppliers, the practical challenges smaller operators face when entering the travel ecosystem, and the role of TMCs and buyers in breaking down barriers and driving genuine, long-term impact.

Key Insights 

• Companies increasingly engage First Nations suppliers because it’s the right thing to do and strengthens business, community outcomes and ESG performance. 

• Reconciliation Action Plans and Indigenous Procurement Policies have created new market “doors”, enabling smaller suppliers to participate in national contracts through regional carve-outs. 

• New Indigenous suppliers face steep learning curves entering the complex travel ecosystem, where acronyms, processes and legacy systems can be barriers without mentorship. 

• Strong supplier onboarding requires engagement, capability assessment and ongoing support from TMCs to enable smooth integration and performance. 

• A key challenge is visibility and transparency: many systems don’t easily identify Indigenous suppliers, limiting their booking potential. 

• Capability-building is critical - suppliers need education and guidance, not just contracts, to become nationally competitive. 

• Audience call-to-action: Be active changemakers - remove barriers, mentor suppliers, and embed Indigenous procurement into everyday sourcing decisions. 

Takeaways

Smarter sourcing isn’t only about commercial efficiency - it’s about creating shared value. By investing in Indigenous capability, improving system visibility, and building long-term trusted partnerships, organisations can shape more inclusive and sustainable travel supply chains. 

14:20 Qantas Business Rewards Insights for SMEs

Introduction

In this upbeat session, Nick Hurditch (Qantas) walked SMEs through the full value of Qantas Business Rewards (QBR) - a loyalty and savings program designed specifically for small and medium businesses. With SMEs now travelling faster than corporates, QBR helps them access discounts usually reserved for big business, earn double rewards, and turn everyday expenses into powerful points balances.

Key Insights

• Savings scale up fast - QBR flight discounts range from 6% to 10%, with higher tiers earned via points from flights, hotels and car hire.

• Double rewards every trip - employees earn their usual QFF points/status, and the business earns 20–40% bonus QBR points, plus travellers get 250 bonus points per booking.

• Earn points on everyday business spend - fuel (BP Plus), hotels, car hire, credit cards, utilities and 50+ SME-focused partners.

• Flexible rewards & recognition - businesses use points for flights, upgrades, gifts or staff rewards, with Level 3 offering Gold Accelerator fast-track status.

• One-stop SME travel platform - the QBR portal enables booking flights, hotels and cars, managing travellers and cards, viewing travel funds, applying policy and tracking points in one place.

Takeaways

QBR gives SMEs access to big-business perks: real savings, dual reward earning, broad partner benefits and an integrated travel-management platform that removes booking friction. Nick’s key message: SMEs are leaving value on the table - and QBR is the fastest, easiest way to claim it.

14:45 Qantas Fireside Chat

Introduction

Qantas’ CEO of International and Freight, Cam Wallace, joined aviation commentator Peter Harbison for a lively fireside chat. The discussion gave travel professionals a candid look at the national carrier's strategic direction, covering everything from its massive 200+ aircraft fleet renewal to the push for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) and the ongoing rollout of the New Distribution Capability (NDC). Wallace confirmed the excitement around the new aircraft, noting, “It’s the biggest fleet renewal we’ve ever had … It’s a really great time to be at Qantas” and stressed that the airline is evolving its offerings to better serve both premium and price-sensitive business segments. The talk reinforced Qantas's commitment to long-term growth and reform in the Australian market.

Key Insights

• Massive Fleet Renewal: Qantas is undertaking its largest-ever renewal, adding over 200 aircraft, including XLRs, 787s, and A350s.

• A321XLR's Corporate Value: The XLR offers "wide-body range with narrow-body economics", with 16 aircraft configured with lie-flat business class seats for new domestic and Asian routes.

• Project Sunrise progressing: Nonstop flights (e.g., Sydney–London) using the A350-1000ULR are planned for 2027.

• SAF Challenge is Local: Qantas aims for 10% SAF usage by 2030, but a lack of domestic supply is the key challenge, requiring a "level playing field" with competitors.

• Softening Corporate Demand: Domestic corporate travel is still growing but at a slower rate than forecast, prompting Qantas to make capacity adjustments.

• NDC Rollout Ahead of Target: Wallace stated the NDC implementation is "well ahead of our business case" and is a necessary platform for future pricing and personalisation.

• NDC Future-Proofs Qantas for AI: He argued that NDC is the "right platform" to accelerate AI utilisation, enabling dynamic, personalised retailing.

• Dual-Brand Strategy: The group is "very comfortable with our dual-brand strategy," with Jetstar becoming increasingly relevant to price-sensitive SME travellers.

Takeaways

The key takeaway for corporate travel professionals is that Qantas is betting big on premiumisation and flexibility. The future arrival of the A321XLR with lie-flat seats is a game-changer, opening up lucrative routes and challenging the traditional domestic premium offering. While the domestic corporate market growth has softened, Qantas is not retreating, instead focusing on "integrated value" through its dual-brand strategy, making Jetstar a serious contender for the SME dollar.

The NDC rollout is succeeding commercially and is viewed as the critical foundation for Qantas to plug into AI and dynamic retailing, ensuring they avoid being stuck with legacy systems. Finally, the pressure on SAF is real. Qantas is developing tools to help corporates measure their carbon exposure as an immediate response to the lack of Australian supply, making the carrier's sustainability efforts a collaborative challenge for all business travel managers. Qantas's message is clear: they are evolving, and they expect their partners to come along for the ride.

14:45 Complex Travel Programs

Introduction

Moderated by David Golding (UNSW), this session brought together Gaurav Nagwekar (Reliance Industries Limited) and Ajay Bhatt (Godrej Industries Group) to unpack what 'complex travel programs' really look like at massive scale - from 30,000+ travellers to multi-business structures, diverse markets, centralised systems and strict policy governance. The panel explored technology models, supplier integration, compliance, ground transport challenges and how to keep thousands of travellers aligned to one program.

Key Insights

• Centralised frameworks with local flexibility work best - global standards for safety, governance and contracting, with regional policy variations where needed (e.g., frontline workers, women, LGBTQ+ travellers).

• Major challenges include fragmented supplier deals, inconsistent service delivery across regions, and “data jungles” caused by multiple TMCs and systems.

• Success requires one front-end experience with customised back-end policies, delivering unified data, predictable reporting and real-time risk visibility.

• Compliance improves dramatically when platforms offer retail-like choice, mobile apps, local-language interfaces and integrated approval logic - lifting adoption to 80–100%.

• Organisations capture “lowest fare found” data to renegotiate with suppliers and close gaps between market and contracted pricing.

• Effective rollouts require involving HR, IT, finance and frequent travellers early, then piloting with high-volume groups before enterprise-wide deployment.

• Strong travel platforms enable detailed deviation tracking, with automated escalations for late bookings and measurable financial impact.

• Ground transport remains the hardest category - managed via hybrid national + local vendor models, WhatsApp communication, and radius-based sourcing to control cost and safety.

• Smaller suppliers struggle with tech integration; companies must supplement with call-centre workflows, simple tools and manual safety checks.

• Final advice: prioritise digital platforms, clean data, policy clarity, safety and strong supplier partnerships - and avoid over-engineering. Keep it simple.

Takeaways

Managing complex travel programs requires structure, visibility and simplicity. The panellists stressed that technology is only effective when paired with clear policies, strong supplier relationships and data that tells a meaningful story. With thousands of travellers, multiple business units and diverse geographies, success comes from centralising where it matters, adapting where it counts and keeping program design rooted in safety, clarity and practicality.

14:50 Hotel Sourcing

Introduction

Moderated by Lata Gosch (SiteMinder), this packed session brought together hotel leaders and CTM to unpack the realities of rate structures, distribution strategy, partnerships, technology and RFP performance. The message was clear: there’s no one-size-fits-all model - but data, transparency and year-round engagement make all the difference.

Key Insights 

• Dynamic vs static isn’t binary — hotels are using blended models; buyers should choose based on program maturity, compliance and volume (static viable at ~250+ room nights). 

• Distribution discipline matters — hoteliers must focus on net ADR and ROI and ensure direct pricing remains competitive. 

• Buyers don’t care about channels — they only need correctly loaded rates, consistent availability and bookings routed through the TMC for compliance and duty of care. 

• Partnerships win when they’re active year-round — not just at RFP time. • Hotels must fix content & connectivity gaps — strong GDS/API connectivity, virtual card acceptance, accurate content and sustainability data are now non-negotiable. 

• Consortia programs and RFP tools require understanding, accuracy and compliance — not just rate loading. Consortia visibility influences SME, leisure and group demand. 

• Corporate buyers want simple wins — correct rates, wide availability, fewer blackouts, better cancellation terms and relationships that deliver room nights as promised. 

• Success = a “triple win” — corporate buyer gets value, hotel gets volume, TMC gets compliance; all reinforced through regular engagement rather than seasonal negotiation. 

Takeaways

The panel’s message was consistent: hotel sourcing is becoming more strategic and more collaborative. Blended rate models, smarter distribution choices, cleaner connectivity and stronger year-round partnerships will determine who wins business in 2026. For both buyers and hoteliers, success hinges on visibility, accuracy and alignment - not just a good RFP. 

16:00 Pioneering Tomorrow: The forces reshaping TMCs & Travel Tech

Introduction

In a lively panel discussion expertly guided by Mike Orchard of Festive Road, a line-up of industry heavyweights tackled the seismic shift brought by AI. The panel featured Melissa Elf (FCM), Nikunj Agrawal (Zenmer), Jonathan Nelson (CTM), Nicola Winchester (EY), and Darren Grafton (Serko). The consensus? The pace of change is accelerating, demanding rapid adaptation and a radical rethink of how travel is managed. Grafton boldly claimed, "We're building technology to destroy our company," signalling that the move to a traveller-first, AI-driven model is revolutionary and well underway.

Key Insights

• Customer needs are consistent, but the pace of change is high: Melissa Elf stressed that while seamless travel and safety remain core, agility is now key to staying relevant.

• AI will obsolesce traditional approval processes: Darren Grafton predicts that trust in intelligent AI systems will eventually remove the need for human approval in business programs.

• The OBT is facing extinction: Jonathan Nelson suggested that traditional online booking tools will not exist in three years, evolving instead into comprehensive travel operating systems.

• Conversational AI boosts adoption globally: Nikunj Agrawal noted that in regions with low OBT use, conversational AI makes booking feel more natural, increasing online uptake.

• Corporate buyers face internal AI complexity: Nicola Winchester revealed that EY's decentralised AI development risks different countries building "something similar or something different."

• Centralised systems are the new gateway: EY's solution is a centralised "travel app in our Teams environment," pulling all services into a single entry point.

• The human element is irreplaceable: Panellists agreed that while AI handles 90% of operational tasks, the emotional nuance and personal touch, particularly during crises, require human consultants.

• Disruption is the new constant: Elf highlighted the need for companies to be agile and proactive in supporting travellers through continuous disruptive events.

• Travel policy must reflect future operations: Agrawal advised organisations to adapt their travel policies to align with the company's expected state in the coming year.

  
  

Takeaways

The old-school booking tool is on the way out. The industry is in the midst of a massive, exhilarating overhaul, transitioning to intelligent, traveller-first operating systems driven by AI. The goal is simple: remove friction from the travel experience entirely. However, the shift isn't just about code; it's about balance. Corporate buyers are urged to stop operating in a silo - "Invite us into your world," as Nelson put it - and collaborate closely with TMCs to innovate. Ultimately, the future hinges on listening to travellers, adapting policies to reflect the coming AI landscape, and ensuring that the new systems create better, more empathetic experiences.

Day 2: Wednesday 26 2025

09:00 Rethinking Destinations

Introduction

In this powerful keynote, Roger Sharp (Chair, Technology Queenstown) shared how Queenstown - a region heavily over-indexed on tourism - is transforming its economic future by building a world-class tech sector. After COVID exposed the community’s vulnerability, Sharp led a volunteer-driven initiative to diversify the economy, attract talent, partner with universities, and leverage Queenstown’s unique advantages to become a Southern Hemisphere hub for travel and hospitality tech.

Key Insights

• Queenstown’s economy was dangerously concentrated: 3m tourists vs 54k residents, with tourism making up ~60% of GDP - a fragility sharply exposed during COVID.

• Data showed tech contributed only 1.7% of local GDP, prompting a bold, evidence-based plan to grow this to 20% over 20 years (~$1B annually), modelled on successful US mountain towns.

• The transformation requires four foundations: a plan, a champion, a functioning airport, and a university - all now in place with a new Otago tech campus launching in Queenstown.

• Diversification starts with strengths: Queenstown is building a travel and hospitality tech cluster, leveraging 8–9 emerging local tech firms, strong tourism brands, and global executives who live part-time in the region.

• The initiative is entirely community-driven and independently funded, focused on talent pipelines, accelerators, corporate partnerships and hosting global travel-tech events to attract companies and investment.

Takeaways

Sharp’s message was both pragmatic and inspiring: Queenstown cannot rely on tourism alone if it wants world-class jobs for its people. By building a tech economy rooted in data, education and global partnerships, the region aims to secure a more resilient future - planting the “acorns” today that will become tomorrow’s economic oak trees.

09:00 Travel Payments & Expense Trends

Introduction

Drawing on SAP Concur’s seven-year global study, James Hogben unveiled fresh insights from 600 CFOs across 29 countries - the first year CFOs were included in the research. The session unpacked their attitudes toward travel spend, value creation, cost pressures, AI expectations and the emerging trend of “travel scrimping.” The findings reveal a surprisingly optimistic outlook for travel, paired with increasing scrutiny on outcomes, policy and technology.

Key Insights

• 90% of CFOs expect travel budgets to increase, despite economic pressures - signalling renewed confidence in travel’s role in competitiveness.

• 45% believe not travelling poses a serious business risk, outranking even geopolitical concerns. Travel is seen as essential for customer relationships and revenue growth.

• CFOs are shifting from cost-only thinking to value-based evaluation - focusing on how trips drive deals, customer retention and growth, not just the T&E line item.

• A major emerging trend: “travel scrimping” - organisations making many small cutbacks (hotel allowances, fare classes, day trips) rather than formal policy changes. 90% of travellers report experiencing these micro-cuts.

• 59% of CFOs have already made cuts in 2025, with 10% signalling more to come - mainly in small incremental reductions.

• CFOs feel overloaded and under-informed on travel, with many lacking background knowledge and seeking clearer storytelling, not just data.

• AI hype is causing fatigue - CFOs say vendors keep pitching “AI roadmaps” without real deliverables, and they want tools that work now, not in five years.

• CFOs expect AI to help detect fraud and anomalies, but don’t believe it will catch everything - highlighting trust and risk concerns.

• Transparency matters: users feel more confident when tools label where AI is used; regulators (especially in Europe) are pushing for this.

• CFOs want clear success metrics for travel - tying trips to measurable business outcomes, not just compliance or cost control.

Takeaways

Hogben’s findings show a paradox: CFOs remain bullish on travel, yet increasingly surgical about spend and desperate for clearer value demonstration. With AI expectations rising and patience falling, organisations must deliver real-time insights, transparent policies and measurable business impact. The age of “prove the value of every trip” is officially here - and travel teams need the data, storytelling and technology to back it up.

09:00 Managing People & Risk

Introduction

The "Designing for Disruption" session was led by a team from International SOS: David Ball, Consulting Director; David Cameron, Chief Security Officer; and Dr. Renee Petrilli, Medical Director and human factors expert. The session was action-oriented, kicking off with a gripping, potted crisis management exercise. Attendees were plunged into a real-life-based scenario in Madagascar, role-playing as a crisis management team to deal with escalating civil unrest, looting, and a strict curfew while finalising a critical deal. The aim was to simulate the challenges of sensory overload, information abundance, and making swift decisions under intense time pressure, which Cameron described as getting inside the military's OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) loop. Following the simulation, Dr. Petrilli delivered a reflection on the critical human factors that determine true business resilience.

Insights

• Crises are Constant: Disruption has always been present; what has changed is the velocity, density, and interconnectedness of events (known as "permacrisis").

• Information Overload: Crises become chaotic when "information arrives faster than we can make sense of it", causing people to drown in data.

• Fatigue is a Top Risk: Fatigue is the "biggest performance disruptor" and an operational risk that can be objectively measured and managed, as learned in aviation and medicine.

• Non-Linear Performance: The relationship between fatigue and performance is paradoxical; teams may slow down for accuracy, which creates bottlenecks and later time pressures.

• Team Familiarity: The main determinant of team performance is familiarity (time spent working together), allowing crews to anticipate each other's movements like a "jazz ensemble."

• Psychological Safety: High-performing teams require psychological safety (openness, candid dialogue) to function as a "performance multiplier" and counter internal biases.

• Foresight over Prediction: Future thinking (horizon scanning) is not about predicting but about "seeing further" and running "what-if" scenarios to experience and adapt to different futures.

Takeaways

The big lesson here is that resilience in business isn't about perfectly predicting the next polycrisis; it's entirely about human factors. We’re living in a "permacrisis" where the turbulence is both outside and inside the team. Dr. Petrilli clearly demonstrated that disruption is constant, but how we adapt — our capacity for change — is the actual determinant of resilience. This means organisations need to stop treating human vulnerabilities like fatigue as just an inconvenience; it’s an operational risk, mate! Furthermore, for teams to truly perform like a well-oiled machine, or a "jazz ensemble," they must cultivate psychological safety to counter the risks of bias and the dangerous, timeless influence of ego. Ultimately, leaders must focus on "supporting the human minds" within the team and practice foresight, not prediction, by running scenarios to prepare for future chaos.

09:20 SAP Concur & AMEX GBT Fireside Chat

Panel: Jonathan Beeby (SAP Concur), Nigel Rowe (Amex GBT), moderated by Catherine Logan (GBTA)

Introduction

This fireside chat unpacked the biggest partnership announcement of the year - the SAP Concur and Amex GBT strategic alliance and the launch of Complete, a fully integrated travel–expense–payments–servicing platform. The panel explored why the alliance formed, what it means for customers, how it affects other TMCs and OBTs, and how AI will reshape booking and compliance.

Key Insights

• Customers want one unified, fully integrated solution, not fragmented systems - Complete brings travel, expense, payments and servicing together.

• Concur’s challenge: innovation was slowed by multiple TMC integrations, misaligned messaging and inconsistent rollout experiences - a joint build accelerates delivery.

• Complete is already live - three customer waves migrated within weeks, with full migration underway into early next year.

• Concur will continue supporting all TMCs; Concur Travel remains fully funded with its own roadmap (e.g., new GDS content, NDC expansion, mixed-carrier trips).

• Amex GBT customers will still have choice - Neo, Egencia and third-party tools remain supported and continue to receive investment.

• AI is central: chat-based booking using SAP’s “Joule” will interpret traveller profiles, policy rules and expense logic to deliver compliant options instantly.

• AI will police fraud too - new tools detect AI-generated fake receipts, turning AI into both “good cop and bad cop.”

• SAP’s $2B AI investment gives Complete access to enterprise-grade AI agents, policy-aware decisioning and automated servicing.

• SMEs gain big-business capability: mobile booking, integrated expense, dashboards and controls that reduce admin while improving compliance.

• The goal: a consumer-grade, AI-driven booking experience that finally outperforms leisure tools - especially for infrequent travellers.

Takeaways

The alliance represents a structural shift in corporate travel tech. By pairing Concur’s global scale and SAP’s AI investment with Amex GBT’s servicing and marketplace, Complete aims to deliver a faster, more intuitive, policy-aware experience for travellers and program owners. The message was clear: choice remains, innovation accelerates, and AI will soon sit at the centre of every corporate booking.

09:20 AI & The Workforce

Introduction

In this energetic keynote, Rita Arrigo (National AI Centre) explored how AI is transforming every major industry - including travel and events - while emphasising Australia’s leadership in responsible AI. She unpacked generative, agentic and physical intelligence, showcased homegrown innovators, and provided a practical framework for safe, effective AI adoption.

Key Insights

• AI is rapidly evolving across three stages - efficiency/productivity, agentic AI (goal-setting and autonomous action), and physical intelligence - reshaping sectors from healthcare and construction to cybersecurity, retail and agriculture.

• Australia has a vibrant AI ecosystem of 850+ companies, including Sapia (recruitment AI used by Qantas), Canva and Leonardo.ai, Heidi Health, Archistar, Lunar Tax Copilot, Altitude.ai and AgenticScale.ai.

• In travel and events, AI enables predictive disruption management, automated bookings, logistics optimisation, personalised engagement and streamlined procurement, with platforms like Altitude.ai reducing booking time to seconds.

• Agentic AI is emerging fast, enabling digital concierges, autonomous task management and multi-agent workflows for research, CRM updates, sales outreach and event matchmaking.

• Responsible AI requires clear governance: assign accountability, assess impacts, manage risks, disclose usage, test systems rigorously and maintain human oversight - supported by new National AI Centre adoption guidelines.

Takeaways

Arrigo’s message was both optimistic and grounded: AI can dramatically improve travel, events and daily work - but only if deployed responsibly. With strong governance, transparent adoption and a willingness to experiment with new tools, organisations can unlock productivity, enhance customer experience and build a safe, AI-enabled future for Australia.

09:50 AI & Journey Mapping

Introduction

In this insightful session, Alexi Thornton (Founder, Epalithia) argued that before deploying AI, organisations must deeply understand their customers and employees. With AI failures rising, she emphasised that trust, empathy and journey mapping are essential tools to ensure businesses automate the right things - not the wrong ones.

Key Insights

• Trust and empathy must come before automation - skipping discovery leads to broken processes being automated at scale.

• Journey mapping starts with true personas built from real data, not demographics, to understand what customers see, feel, hear, want and do.

• Cross-functional teams (front-line, ops, accounts, call centres) reveal hidden friction points and break down organisational silos.

• Mapping the current state vs the “happy path” exposes pain points, enabling teams to generate practical improvement ideas and prioritise AI use cases.

• Future-state mapping must stay human-centric - respecting privacy, monitoring AI, involving loyal customers, and continually iterating as data and processes evolve.

Takeaways

Alexi’s core message was clear: AI is not a magic wand - it is a mirror. If processes are broken today, AI will break them faster tomorrow. Journey mapping gives organisations the empathy, clarity and human insight required to adopt AI responsibly and design solutions that genuinely improve customer and employee experience.

10:10 AI & Customer Journeys

Introduction

In this session, Phil Faraj from Endava explored how AI is dissolving traditional travel interfaces and reshaping the entire customer journey. With consumers already beginning trips in ChatGPT rather than booking sites, he urged TMCs, airlines and suppliers to rethink their role as AI moves from back-office tool to front-end experience - shifting the value of travel management upstream into trust, context and orchestration.

Key Insights

• Travellers are starting their journeys in AI assistants, not airline/TMC websites - dissolving interfaces and reducing brand control, as seen with flight searches appearing directly in LLMs.

• AI is moving from efficiency to autonomous, anticipatory systems that act on user intent - booking, suggesting itineraries, predicting disruption and delivering personalised experiences without screens.

• TMC value shifts upstream: from transactions to advising, curating and configuring the rules that digital agents will follow - teaching AI “what great travel management looks like.”

• Major enablers: faster LLMs, exploding contextual data (calendar, behaviour, policy), and rising “liquid expectations” set by Uber, Amazon and Google’s AI-driven trip-building.

• To keep pace, organisations must start small with high-impact use cases, connect fragmented data, participate in open ecosystems, automate the mundane, and design for orchestration rather than interfaces.

Takeaways

Phil’s message was unapologetically direct: AI is already rewriting the way travellers discover, decide and book - whether the industry is ready or not. The future belongs to brands that integrate deeply, personalise through context, orchestrate across ecosystems and shift from clicking to anticipating. In an AI-enabled world, travel experiences won’t be booked - they’ll simply unfold.

10.30 Technology & AI

Introduction

In this provocative session, Johnny Thorsen (Serko) unpacked the seismic tech shift under way as AI, MCP protocols and autonomous software reshape travel infrastructure. He argued that we’re entering a “Less World” - less manual work, less legacy, less human intervention - and the implications for airlines, TMCs, buyers and technology providers are profound. Thorsen challenged the audience to rethink where to place their bets as the industry prepares for radical disruption.

Key Insights

• AI is a new kind of platform shift - unlike past hardware-driven evolutions, this one can self-build, fuelling uncontrollable acceleration as investment in AI infrastructure surges beyond forecasts.

• MCP (Model Context Protocol) may replace legacy standards like NDC, enabling direct airline connectivity that bypasses ticketing, PCCs and GDS-era plumbing — forcing airlines to reconsider future tech investment.

• TMC revenue models face major pressure as automation drives down cost-per-transaction, reduces manual service and shifts value toward data, insight and orchestration rather than booking.

• AI-native startups will move faster than incumbents, as 1,500+ travel tech companies scramble to bolt AI onto legacy stacks while new entrants build clean-sheet architectures.

• Corporate travel booking may be the last area AI transforms, but “during-trip” support, automated approvals, dynamic policy enforcement and expense removal (“green-light travel”) are near-term opportunities.

Takeaways

Thorsen’s conclusion was clear: the travel industry is heading for extreme automation, collapsing old revenue models, new content rails, and AI-driven service layers. Winners will be those who experiment early, understand their tech infrastructure, embrace new protocols and build for a world where travellers expect intelligent, seamless and fully automated experiences - with humans stepping in only when it matters.

11:45 Traveller Centricity in Payments & Expense

Presenters: Joh Webster (Festive Road) & Marten Jagers (Emburse)

IntroductionIn this practical, energetic session, John Webster and Martin Jaegers challenged the long-held belief that “compliance equals control.” Their argument: when processes are intuitive, mobile-first and frictionless, travellers naturally behave in-policy - no policing required. They explored policy design, out-of-pocket stress, manual admin costs, system fragmentation and how to build a truly traveller-centred payments and expense ecosystem.

Key Insights

• Rigid, one-size-fits-all policies drive workarounds - organisations should personalise policy using agile micro-guidelines aligned to traveller personas and organisational goals.

• Out-of-pocket spend creates real financial stress, delays travel, encourages direct bookings, and reduces trust — virtual cards and instant reimbursements remove the pain.

• Manual expense processes cost millions in lost productivity - mobile-first tools, real-time receipt capture and agentic AI auditing eliminate unnecessary admin.

• Disconnected systems break the traveller journey - modern, open platforms allow TMCs, payments, expense tools and booking systems to integrate seamlessly.

• Companies shouldn’t feel “locked in” - the best results come from choosing best-fit partners, not forcing travel, card and expense into a single vendor.

• Traveller experience is now strategic - simple, intuitive journeys drive adoption, deliver clean data, and create compliant behaviour without supervision.

• By 2026, “great” will mean zero out-of-pocket travel, fully automated expenses, connected ecosystems and total trip-cost visibility, with compliance achieved automatically by design.

Takeaways

Webster and Jaegers reinforced that traveller-centricity is not about giving travellers everything they want - it’s about removing friction so doing the right thing becomes effortless. Organisations that redesign payments and expense around simplicity, mobility and automation will gain cleaner data, stronger compliance and a happier, more productive workforce.

11:45 Business Practices

Introduction

In a lively and insight-packed session hosted by business travel journalist Alan Leibowitz, four industry experts unpacked the realities of outsourcing, offshoring, resourcing and risk in today’s travel landscape.

Phil Murphy, Co-Founder of Smart Outsourcing Solution, broke down outsourcing models and the definitions behind them. Denise Farrell, General Manager, Travel Operations at Webjet Business Travel, explored the evolution of offshoring from cost-cutting to capability-building. Anthony Cassar, Managing Director at Centrecom, outlined the contractual and compliance essentials that underpin successful partnerships. Finally, Leron Zinatullin, Chief Information Security Officer at Linkly, highlighted cyber-security challenges and practical risk-mitigation considerations.

Together, the speakers offered a grounded, real-world look at how organisations can scale, strengthen resilience and protect customer trust while working across borders and time zones.

Key Insights

·      Outsourcing, offshoring and nearshoring differ by who does the work, where it’s done and the level of organisational control.

·      Three models dominate: direct remote hiring, employer-of-record and fully outsourced operations - each with distinct compliance and cost considerations.

·      Modern offshoring has shifted from cost reduction to capability building, particularly for 24/7 travel service demands.

·      Global teams support rapid scaling, queue management, quality control and specialised functions across time zones.

·      Cultural alignment is achievable with shared onboarding, consistent communication and integrated systems.

·      SLAs and KPIs form the “beating heart” of outsourcing contracts and must be realistic, measurable and collaboratively set.

·      Compliance frameworks such as ISO 27001, PCI DSS and GDPR provide strong baselines for global data protection.

·      Clear audit rights, incident-notification clauses and business-continuity expectations are essential contractual elements.

·      Cyber-risk often arises through the supply chain, not the main organisation, making supplier due diligence critical.

·      Businesses retain accountability for customer data, even when services are outsourced.

Takeaways

Outsourcing and offshoring in travel have evolved far beyond cost-cutting strategies. Today’s best-performing models blend global capability, structured processes, smart contracts and strong cyber-risk frameworks. The speakers highlighted that success lies in choosing the right model for your needs, integrating offshore and onshore teams as one ecosystem, and maintaining clear contractual guardrails around service, security and accountability. As travel demands 24/7 responsiveness, scalable operations and resilient systems, outsourced partners can provide the backbone - so long as organisations remain fully engaged, data-aware and intentionally collaborative.

11:45 Predictions

Introduction

In this data-rich storytelling session, James Hogben unpacked SAP Concur’s global research across 3,750 travellers, 700 travel managers and 600 CFOs. He explored rising costs, the new reality of “travel scrimping,” traveller sentiment, value expectations and how AI is shaping booking behaviour and program design.

Key Insights

• Budgets are holding or rising - travellers, travel managers and CFOs broadly believe travel spend will stay the same or increase despite cost pressures.

• Travel scrimping is widespread - 90% of travellers report small but noticeable cutbacks (fare classes, allowances, bleisure restrictions). 59% of CFOs have already implemented cuts; 10% plan more.

• Travellers will pay personally for comfort - 84% already spend their own money on better seats, rooms or sustainable options.

• Safety & experience concerns persist, with 90% saying global instability and poor service (e.g., overcrowded transport) influence their willingness to travel.

• Travel managers feel undervalued - 67% say their role isn’t understood; 86% of travellers think TMs could “do more,” often tied to demonstrating value.

• AI expectations diverge - 52% of travel managers trust AI for travel tasks; only 28% trust it for expenses. CFOs see AI as useful for error detection but not foolproof.

• Changing bookings is the #1 use case for AI - 39% now feel comfortable with AI for initial booking (up from 25% last year), signalling fast-growing acceptance.

• Generational differences affect expectations, but behaviour isn’t always predictable - younger users may avoid phone calls, preferring digital channels even when not typical of their cohort.

• Value storytelling matters - CFOs want clear linkage between travel spend and business outcomes, not just activity or compliance reporting.

• “How Might We” framing helps teams design better travel experiences - e.g., enabling infrequent travellers to feel confident using AI-driven booking tools.

Takeaways

Hogben’s predictions point to a year defined by value, visibility and behaviour change. Travellers want better experiences, CFOs want proof of ROI, and travel managers want recognition. AI adoption is accelerating, but trust and capability gaps remain. The winning programs will be those that communicate value clearly, adapt to small cutbacks without harming experience, and embrace AI where it genuinely improves outcomes.

12:20 Big Ideas

Moderator: Ben Wedlock (BCD Travel)Speakers: Andy Winchester (Bloomberg LP), Lisa Batchelor (Cochlear Limited), Timmo Rol (Neoke)

Introduction

This debate brought three speakers to the stage to defend provocative positions on the future of AI-driven booking, the evolution of travel policies, and the role of biometrics in seamless travel. With moderator Ben Wedlock challenging each stance, the audience saw the clash between visionary promise and pragmatic caution.

Key Insights

• AI-led booking will eclipse traditional OBTs - natural language, calendar integration, real-time rebooking and personal preference learning will reshape how trips are planned.

• AI boosts efficiency but introduces risks - hallucinations, data privacy gaps and compliance frameworks remain major barriers to fully autonomous travel booking.

• Younger generations and talent shortages will drive more flexible, nuanced policies, including clearer rules for bleisure, insurance and risk management.

• Policies will become more complex, not simpler, as data protection, sustainability, tax risk and multi-stakeholder oversight expand.

• Bleisure incentives may become a recruitment tool, particularly for Gen Z, provided safety, duty of care and cost separation are clear.

• Traditional travellers still need transitional support - many still print itineraries and prefer physical documentation.

• Biometrics already enable seamless airport journeys, but current models require travellers to hand over sensitive data to third parties, limiting trust and scale.

• The future lies in traveller-controlled identity wallets, where biometric and passport data stay on the user’s device and are shared only with consent.

• Global interoperability is the major hurdle - progress exists (Hong Kong–Narita trials), but adoption varies dramatically by country.

• Despite enthusiasm, governments and legacy processes (e.g., paper arrival cards) will slow full biometric enablement for many years.

Takeaways

The Big Ideas Debate highlighted a clear tension between what’s possible and what’s practical. AI-powered travel, flexible policies and biometric identity are accelerating fast - but adoption depends on data protection, cultural change, policy evolution and government cooperation. The future is coming, but getting there will take both bold thinking and pragmatic safeguards.

12:30 Friction-free Business Travel: SME Travel Trends

Introduction

In this session, Tom Walley (Global MD, Corporate Traveller) unpacked how SME travel has shifted from simple point-to-point bookings to complex, multi-sector, high-pressure journeys. He highlighted three major trends shaping SME travel today - premium cabins for productivity, the convergence of travel–payment–expense, and the rise of AI-enabled service - all centred on delivering friction-free travel for small and mid-sized businesses.

Key Insights

• SME travel needs now mirror large corporates - global routes, multi-stop trips, blended travel and high expectations for smooth, safe journeys.

• Premium cabins are rising fast: premium economy up 35% YoY; SMEs prioritise rest because fatigue kills performance; productivity is the new justification for upgrading.

• Travellers increasingly blend business + leisure (“bleisure”), extending trips to reduce fatigue and improve wellbeing.

• Payment, travel and expense are converging - 30% of finance time lost to reconciliation; 8–12% spend leakage; expense management now a top SME buying driver.

• AI will split into two paths: fully autonomous travel vs AI + human “superhuman service” - Corporate Traveller chooses human-centred AI to elevate consultants, not replace them.

• AI automates the repeatable while humans handle the meaningful - delivering reliable support when trips change, disruptions hit or travellers need reassurance.

• The winning SME program combines premium travel, integrated payments/expense and AI-enhanced service to maximise performance, control and traveller experience.

Takeaways

Walley’s message was simple: SMEs face the same pressures as big corporates, but with fewer resources - making friction-free travel a competitive advantage. Premium cabins keep travellers productive, integrated payment/expense tools control leakage, and AI-enhanced human service delivers confidence when things go wrong. In this model, AI boosts intelligence, people provide care, and SMEs get the best of both worlds.

13:00 Benchmarking Trends (Accommodation) Introduction

In this on-floor session, Joanne Cohen from STR unpacked global and Australian accommodation trends using verified hotel performance data collected over 40 years. Speaking to travel buyers, procurement teams and industry insiders, she broke down how occupancy, rate, supply and demand are evolving - and how major events and regional dynamics are reshaping what travellers can expect to pay.

Key Insights

·      Global occupancy is trending upward, with China and the US the only major regions showing slight declines.

·      Hotel room supply is tightening worldwide, increasing pressure on occupancy and rates as demand outpaces available rooms.

·      Australia ranks 7th globally for hotel performance, with strong dual growth in occupancy and average nightly rate.

·      Regional Australia is outpacing capital cities in rate growth, with post-COVID price rises holding firm.

·      Major events - from Taylor Swift to the Formula One and Sydney Marathon - continue to drive record-breaking spikes in both occupancy and rate.

·      Brisbane is the standout performer, posting the fastest rate and occupancy growth as it builds towards the Olympics.

·      Sydney rates now sit consistently above pre-COVID levels, with high occupancy (80%+ on five nights a week) enabling revenue managers to push pricing higher.

Takeaways

Australia’s hotel market is in a period of sustained strength, with demand consistently outstripping supply - and no sign of rates loosening. Cities like Brisbane and Sydney are commanding premium pricing thanks to surging occupancy, major events and sophisticated revenue strategies. Regional Australia, meanwhile, is enjoying its own growth curve as travellers increasingly look beyond CBDs. For travel buyers, procurement teams and corporate travellers, the message is clear: budget for higher rates, expect event-driven volatility, and anticipate continued upward movement over the next three years.

13:00 Benchmarking Trends (Air)

Introduction

In this session, Luxsho Logan from Cirium unpacked the real state of global and Australian aviation capacity using Cirium’s rich data set - spanning schedules, aircraft, traffic and fares over a 100-year history. He explored where capacity has rebounded, where it hasn’t, why passenger numbers lag their pre-COVID trajectory, and how aircraft orders and airport expansions point to the future shape of global air travel.

Key Insights

·      Global seat capacity surpassed 2019 levels in early 2023 and is tracking 9% higher by end-2025, but recovery is uneven across regions and routes.

·      Asia-Pacific short-haul capacity has only just returned to 2019 levels in 2025, with Japan, Korea, Thailand and Malaysia still lagging; Australian domestic capacity remains below pre-COVID.

·      Long-haul recovery varies widely: transatlantic and Europe–Asia routes are strong, while China’s international capacity remains heavily depressed due to geopolitical and economic factors.

·      Passenger numbers have recovered to 2019 volumes but remain ~20% below where they would have been without the pandemic’s disruption.

·      Australia has added 400,000 seats in five years - driven entirely by international growth - shifting the market from 37% international to 45% today.

·      Top international markets include New Zealand, Malaysia and Hong Kong, with Qatar’s sharp growth linked to a Virgin wet-lease; Qantas/Jetstar plus three major foreign carriers make up 50% of all seats.

·      Future growth will be powered by Asia-Pacific: 40% of all aircraft on order belong to the region, enabling new long-haul, non-stop routes and intensifying competition through next-gen aircraft and expanding mega-airports.

Takeaways

Aviation’s headline recovery masks a far more complex reality. Seat capacity is up, but regional disparities, lingering constraints in Asia, and a structural shift toward international flying are reshaping Australia’s aviation landscape - and influencing pricing. With Asia-Pacific driving the next wave of aviation growth through massive aircraft orders and ambitious airport expansions, travellers should expect more long-haul routes, fewer stopovers and fiercer competition. For corporates and travel planners, the message is clear: watch capacity trends closely, because they will determine both availability and the long-term price of travel.

14:15 Talent Mobility

Moderator: Kate Vircoe (Newland Chase). Panellists: Colin Murphy (Grace Corporate Services), Jovina Rasiah (ResMed), Kelli Allsop (Rabobank)

Introduction

This session explored the increasingly blurred lines between business travel and global mobility, driven by hybrid work, geopolitical shifts, visa tightening and leadership hesitation to commit to long-term assignments. Speakers unpacked compliance risk, tax exposure, visa pitfalls, employee wellbeing and the need for cross-functional alignment between travel, HR, tax, mobility and the business.

Key Insights

• Extended business travel is rising sharply, filling the gap left by costly short-term assignments  but many organisations underestimate its immigration, tax and compliance risks.

• Business traveller visas are often misused — attending meetings ≠ performing work; incorrect visas can lead to fines, bans, or employees being detained.

• Tax exposure is complex and multi-layered — income tax, payroll tax, social security, double tax treaties and permanent establishment risks all need assessing per country.

• Tracking is critical — organisations must monitor days in-country over rolling 12-month periods to avoid breaching tax or visa thresholds; automation and detailed reporting are essential.

• Employee wellbeing matters — extended stays require appropriate accommodation, health insurance, support for pre-existing conditions, family considerations and cultural training.

• Poor planning carries high business cost — from fines and late tax bills to reputational damage and even operational shutdowns if immigration breaches occur.

• Cross-functional collaboration is essential — HR, travel, mobility, finance and hiring managers must align early to avoid “hot potato ownership” and ensure compliant, sustainable mobility decisions.

Takeaways

Extended business travel is no longer a simple travel activity — it is a mini mobility event with real tax, immigration, compliance and wellbeing implications. The panel stressed that organisations must stop treating it as “just travel” and build shared processes, visibility and ownership across departments. When mobility, travel and HR work together, businesses minimise risk, protect employees and make smarter, more sustainable decisions.

14:15 Sustainable Travel

Presenter: Professor Susanne Becken (Griffith Uni), followed by panel discussion with Brett Giddings (Tasman Environmental Markets), Stuart Johnstone (Stralis Aircraft) and Jamison Warren (FCM Travel).

Introduction

In this session, Professor Susanne Becken challenged the audience with the physical realities of decarbonising aviation - from the scarcity of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to the limits of hydrogen, offsets, and current policy settings. A panel of industry experts then explored the role of government, corporates, virtual meetings, carbon pricing, hydrogen infrastructure and the behavioural shifts needed to meaningfully reduce emissions.

Key Insights

• Aviation is “extremely hard to decarbonise” - SAF is only 0.3% of total fuel use, and even 100% SAF still contains embedded fossil carbon; scaling to 2050 volumes requires unrealistic biomass and clean-energy inputs.

• Hydrogen offers better long-term potential than SAF, but requires massive clean-energy build-out, new aircraft and cost breakthroughs; SAF is seen as a short-term bridge, not the final solution.

• Carbon offsets are not a path to net zero - they can contribute positively but do not undo aviation emissions; integrity, transparency and reframing offsets as “contributions” are essential.

• Transport is the dominant problem - in some markets (e.g., Brazil), 80–97% of tourism emissions come from transport, not hotels or events, making flight reduction the most impactful lever.

• Corporate travel decisions shape the system - choosing lower-emission flights, setting carbon budgets, and limiting unnecessary trips can shift demand and influence airline behaviour.

• Government policy is essential, from SAF/ hydrogen investment to carbon pricing and mandatory disclosure, which moves climate risk from sustainability teams into CFO accountability.

• The biggest myth: “we have to travel.” Many trips can be avoided; virtual meetings increase efficiency but also paradoxically increase global business relationships - making policy, budgeting and culture critical.

Takeaways

Becken and the panel left the audience with a sobering message: the physics of aviation don’t bend to optimism. SAF alone won’t solve the problem, offsets can’t erase emissions, and true progress requires demand reduction, diversified technology investment, and policy that creates a level playing field. Corporates have significant power to shift the system - by choosing smarter, reporting honestly and pushing for innovation where it matters.

14:15 Travel & Expense Management

Introduction

In this session, moderator Thomas Marland, Principal Solutions Consultant at SAP Concur, spoke with long-term customers Janina Babaic (Business Process Analyst, ANSTO) and Aline Yamamoto (Finance/IT Director, L’Occitane ANZ). Together, they unpacked how SAP Concur’s integrated travel and expense ecosystem has reshaped employee experience, boosted finance efficiency, strengthened compliance and delivered richer visibility across their organisations. From ditching paper to driving proactive behaviour and smarter decision-making, the conversation highlighted real-world wins and evolving expectations in corporate travel management.

Key Insights

·      Both organisations shifted from manual, paper-heavy processes to a streamlined, mobile, self-service platform - drastically improving employee experience.

·      Concur returned significant time to users: L’Occitane staff gained hours each month; ANSTO reduced month-end accrual processing from 4–5 days to just 30 minutes.

·      Integrated corporate cards, automated approvals and e-receipts improved accuracy, compliance and proactive guidance for travellers.

·      ANSTO used Concur Request to tailor workflows - including fields for personal leave, parking needs and trip-specific safety checklists.

·      Visibility improved across travel spend, future commitments, policy exceptions and ROI from travel activity, supporting better financial and operational decision-making.

·      Change management success came from showing “what’s in it for them” - demonstrating time savings, ease of use and quick wins to drive adoption.

·      Looking ahead, both organisations see AI, sustainability metrics and mobile-first workflows as key to evolving travel and expense programs.

Takeaways

This session showcased how travel and expense transformation isn’t about technology alone - it’s about empowering people. By consolidating travel, expense and request workflows into one intuitive ecosystem, ANSTO and L’Occitane unlocked real efficiency, richer data and happier employees. The theme that echoed throughout: time is the new luxury, and giving it back to employees pays dividends in compliance, culture and operational performance. With AI, sustainability reporting and mobile capability accelerating rapidly, organisations that embrace integrated, insights-driven travel programs will be best placed to adapt, innovate and support travellers well into the future.

14:15 Peak Performance

Presenter: Jono Nicholas, Managing Director, The Wellbeing Outfit

Introduction

In this compelling keynote, Jono Nicholas unpacked the science behind peak performance and why wellbeing is now inseparable from organisational success. He explored the shift from computerisation to the AI era - where cognitive intensity, social intelligence and adaptability outweigh the old markers of “hard work.” He also outlined how travel, hotels and events can become performance enablers through better sleep, healthier choices and deeper human connection.

Key Insights

• We’ve entered a world where “everything is true until it’s not” - rapid change demands mental agility, resilience and high social intelligence.

• The AI era shifts value from effort to cognitive intensity - problem-solving, curiosity, empathy and team-boosting “social intelligence” now define peak performance.

• Wellbeing drives performance - people with wellbeing at 6+/10 think better, collaborate better and adapt faster; organisations effectively “monetise the brains of their people.”

• Executive and younger generations are moving toward wellness-first travel - prioritising sleep, movement, nutrition and low-alcohol lifestyles, not traditional corporate perks.

• In an AI-driven, atomised world, human connection becomes more valuable, making hotels and events critical third spaces for meaningful interaction.

• The travel industry can create sleep-, movement- and nutrition-friendly experiences - from better bedding and natural light to easy gym access and healthy food aligned to longevity trends.

• As cognitive volume drops and intensity spikes, travellers will increasingly seek cognitive relief - environments that reduce stress and support focus between high-value work moments.

Takeaways

Nicholas argued that peak performance is no longer about grinding harder - it’s about supporting brains to operate at their best. Travel providers can differentiate by designing for sleep, wellness, connection and cognitive relief. In a world of rapid change and rising cognitive demands, the organisations - and travel partners - that enable wellbeing will gain a decisive competitive edge.

14:40 Mindfulness

Presenter: Steve Vela, Founder, Present Sense

Introduction

In this calm and immersive session, Steve Vela (Present Sense) guided the audience through the science and practice of mindfulness, framing it as a powerful antidote to modern distraction and emotional overload. Using storytelling, neuroscience and a live mindfulness exercise, he showed how simple techniques can help us regulate stress, reclaim attention and reconnect with ourselves and others — no special equipment, location or lifestyle required.

Key Insights

• Modern life creates constant allostatic load, with distraction, busyness and emotional baggage triggering our fight-or-flight system even when we’re not in danger.

• Big tech’s core business model competes for our attention, making presence harder - yet research shows we’re happiest when we are fully present.

• Mindfulness practices (breathwork, meditation, attention training) help reduce stress, improve focus, enhance emotional regulation and support better sleep.

• Presence builds compassion, empathy and genuine human connection - qualities essential in workplaces and travel-centred industries.

• Simple techniques like box breathing, posture resetting and body scanning can quickly shift us into the parasympathetic nervous system.

• Mindfulness is a portable, practical toolkit - available anytime, anywhere - helping us “drop the backpack” of accumulated emotional weight.

Takeaways

Steve’s session reinforced a simple truth: presence is power. In a distracted world, the ability to regulate attention, soften stress responses and reconnect with our own body is a competitive advantage - personally and professionally. By weaving mindfulness into daily moments, we recover faster, think more clearly and relate to others with more empathy, making us calmer travellers, better colleagues and more grounded humans.

---

At FACTS, we're leveraging a mix of human expertise and AI to bring you all the event's content at speed. While our fingers are working over-time, we welcome your feedback on our session summaries to make them even more valuable. Please send any feedback to info@amplifly.co and we'll continue to make updates throughout the event.