In the green heart of South-West London on May 12th, our Smart, Safe, Sustainable Summit welcomed a variety of industry experts to the beautiful Nash Conservatory at Kew Gardens. Taking place over three unique sessions, 12 experts gathered together from companies including KPMG, Delivery Hero, and Millennium Partners to participate in thought-provoking discussions on how to make the corporate travel sector more smart, safe, and sustainable.
How Technology Can Make Mobility Smart, Safe & Sustainable
The first panelists, led by Brian Friedman, industry legend and Non-Executive Board Advisor at AltoVita, took the stage to discuss how technology is shaping the global mobility landscape, and in what ways the evolution of tech is impacting our access to safe, secure, and sustainable mobility processes within the corporate travel sector.
Louise Worbey, Head of Global Mobility at KPMG, highlighted the importance of having “flexibility within a framework” as a mobility manager. In order to implement more transparent safety standards and encourage sustainable action, she explained that technology is needed to create an agile infrastructure that can accommodate travellers looking for advanced safety standards and green practices.
Karen O’Brien, Senior Manager of Global Mobility at BD Group, echoed this, stating “technology gives you more time to be strategic”. Removing the layers of bureaucracy involved with the mobility process will empower individual travellers and also boost time and cost savings, helping manage employee expectations.
Tracy Figliola, Co-Head of Global HR Operations & Global Immigration/Mobility at Millennium Partners, added “smart decisions are fundamental to creating workforce planning” to help mediate the balance between mobility and the obligation to accept what trips are truly necessary when it comes to conscious travel.
Redesigning Travel Policy With a Smart, Safe, Sustainable Focus
With the climate crisis unfolding, traveller security heightened, and new tech adoption, constructing a transparent travel policy goes without question. Nouran Zarroug, VP of Global Strategic Partnerships at AltoVita, led this conversation around how to navigate the modern post-pandemic world and create future-proof business travel policies that support both traveller experience and duty of care.
Strong data collection is the first step in putting together a holistic travel framework that accounts for individual safety and personal environmental standards. With that, Alison Rogan, Global Head of Travel & Expense at Barclays, stated that “people will not sit up and listen until you present the facts and the facts come from data”.
Harriet Brennan, Security Manager, UK & Ireland at International SOS, contributed to this statement by saying, “we need to put a new travel infrastructure in place” that is flexible and agile. This will deliver more bandwidth and leave customers with fewer shocks when faced with travel hurdles.
Sammit Khanndeparkar, Associate Director at Astellas Pharmaceuticals, explained this will be facilitated by the consolidation of data. “Duty of care, user experience, and travel safety security” all make up an end-to-end travel policy programme.
Imagining Smart, Safe & Sustainable Corporate Housing of the Future
The discourse around traveller safety and sustainability is now more prevalent since the pandemic, creating a gap for talent mobility and business travel specialists to deliver innovative approaches. This panel, moderated by AltoVita’s VP of Global Growth Ben Cross, explored what ESG might look like in corporate accommodation and other global mobility and travel products.
Yuki Watanabe, Senior Global Mobility Manager at Delivery Hero, expanded on this and said: “We need to see more of a global alignment of philosophies when it comes to sustainability and safety”. Yuki suggested that technology is a core pillar for providing all the information necessary to meet the level of duty of care that is now rightfully expected by travelers.
Patricia Tavares, Co-Founder of Brazil Talks/Latam Talks, built on this, and looked at the future of the corporate housing sector. She advised that technology has to be educational and “culturally accessible”.
Jamie Finnie, Head of Travel at NES Fircroft, summarised that although travel won’t halt, “we essentially want to minimise the effect we have on the planet” by raising awareness of ESG.
By bringing together this diverse community of corporate travel professionals to debate key topics around mobility, corporate accommodation, and travel policy, we enriched the discussions and action within the smart, safe, and sustainable corporate travel space, including the launch of our Sustainable Practice initiative, RPF Builder, and Safety Certification offering.
To find out more about our product developments, check out our latest blog here.
