GBTA Convention Attendees Hear from Executives on the Travel Value Chain Panel and from Business Icon Meg Whitman

Commenting on distribution model challenges, Frontier's Bryan Bedford noted it's a question of who owns the customer and who provides the service and while he sees the value in Frontier's relationship with Expedia, he is most concerned about the customer experience. Regarding the customer experience, Gordon Wilson of Travelport told the crowd of his comprehensive view and possible solutions, stating the situation is akin to a triangle with all points needing to agree to change rather than having just one point pushing.

In a discussion of the outlook for the industry, all panelists noted they are seeing continued growth form the business travel segment and despite recent negative headlines on the economy they have not seen a drop off in demand materialize in the airline industry yet. From the hotel industry view, Jan Freitag noted hotel supply is leveling out and there is a strong base level of occupancy for hotels, sharing the Smith Travel Research (STR) forecast for 2012 of a 4.9% growth in the hotel industry.

GBTA unveiled the new GBTA Academy, a new world class educational institution for travel executives. The GBTA Academy offers business travel professionals innovative education, training, and development that promotes industry best practices and addresses relevant business and travel trends. GBTA is also proud to announce its second premier university partnership with the University Of Virginia Darden School Of Business. The partnership will offer an executive education program at the manager-level for practicing corporate travel managers and industry suppliers.

GBTA and the Wall Street Journal also announced the winners of the annual 2011 Business Traveler Innovation Awards. Thirteen of the top submissions from travelers were featured at the GBTA Convention on Monday August 22. A panel of judges evaluated the submissions to determine the 2011 Business Traveler Innovation Award – Judges' Choice with Hipmunk.com taking the top prize. Hipmunk co-founder and CEO Adam Goldstein accepted the award. The Hertz NeverLost Gen 5 took the 2011 GBTA Business Traveler Innovation Award – People's Choice and Robert J. Stuart, senior vice president for The Hertz Corporation and Roger Stevens, president and CEO of Navigation Solutions accepted the award on stage.

Scott Solombrino, president and CEO of Dav El Chauffeured Transportation Network and GBTA Allied Leadership Council President announced the upcoming 2012 Masters Program headliners: Louis Gerstner, Jr., IBM's former Chairman and CEO, who is credited with turning around IBM's fortunes, and Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter, the leading authority on business strategy. The Masters Program is made possible by the exclusive support of Allied partner – Amadeus. The 2012 Masters Program will take place in Washington, DC, on February 6- 7, 2012.

GBTA also warmly congratulated all 70 of its newest Certified Corporate Travel Executive (CCTE) graduates on the stage. During the session, GBTA also announced the Allied Member of the Year, Dwayne Ingram. Fellow members saluted Ingram for this well-deserved honor, noting he is a true team player, a balanced leader and puts people first.

The afternoon session, opened by Frank Petito, president, Orbitz for Business, featured Meg Whitman, one of the most well-known corporate CEOs in the world. Whitman, past president and CEO of eBay, grew the company from 30 employees and roughly $4 million in revenue, to more than 15,000 employees and $7.7 billion in revenue. Whitman's appearance, made possible by Orbitz for Business, included her views on innovation as a necessary part of any healthy business, encouraging the audience to be open minded and stating "the price of inaction is far greater than the cost of a mistake." While she also told the audience of her interest and love for technology including her former acquisition at eBay, Skype, she knows there is no substitution for meeting in person. The crowd was moved by her family stories about balancing family with running a 24/7 company. She is currently advising women encouraging them to step into leadership roles.