ITB Introduces MICE Days 2017

Berlin (Germany) – December 12, 2016 (travelindex.com) – Making travel planning easier: from 8 to 10 March 2017 at the ITB Business Travel & MICE Days participants can find out everything about the latest trends and developments in the business travel market. Qualified experts and specialists with a wealth of practical experience will be offering visitors to the ITB MICE Days and the ITB Business Travel Corporate Days worthwhile practical tips on travel policy, measuring success in travel management and ways to reduce costs. From 8 to 10 March, for the fifth time, the stand of Home of Business Travel by ITB & VDR in Hall 7.1a, with Verband Deutsches Reisemanagement e.V. (VDR) in attendance, will be the meeting place for managers and visitors representing the business travel market.

On 8 March 2017 the slogan of the ITB MICE Day will be ’Meetings, Incentives, Conventions & Events – Balancing Effectiveness and Efficiency’. Among those taking part will be Dr. Charles M. Savage, president of Knowledge Era Enterprise, Intl., who will talk about ’Digitalization, Sustainability and Wisdom – Forces Remodelling the MICE World’.

On 9 March 2017 the ITB Business Travel Corporate Day will be taking place in Room ‘New York 3’ in Hall 7.1a. Gerd Otto-Rieke will moderate the programme, whose topics will focus on ‘reducing costs, minimising risks and adding value’. Dr. Stefan Schulte, president of the Association of the German Air Transport Industry (BDL) and CEO of Fraport AG, will hold the keynote speech on the ‘struggle for slots and competition among airline hubs’. In her opening speech Andrea Zimmermann, lecturer at the VDR Academy, will talk about the new challenges for travel policy. Despite there being numerous software tools on the market, travel policy is an important instrument for travel management. Rules are required, especially in times of new airline services, ancillaries and the sharing economy. In her speech Andrea Zimmermann will also address service apps for travellers, web meetings as part of travel guidelines, and open booking.

The topic of the panel discussion to follow will be ‘Is hotel procurement in trouble?’. Jan Berghold, travel manager of GfK, Michael Krenz, managing director of Corporate Rates Club and Dr. Christian Temath, director of Sourcing Solutions HRS, will explain what travel management can do faced with Airbnb bookings and how procurement reacted to Starwoord being taken over by its competitor Marriott. The event will be moderated by Andreas Konkel, a member of the travel manager of Diehl Stiftung. Christoph Zimmerli, head of Travel Services F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., will explain how success can be measured in travel management. In his lecture he will examine which key performance indicators are important. At the Business Travel Awards 2016 of the Travel Industry Club the prize went to Swan, a new travel community platform. In her lecture Yvonne Moya, director of Global Travel, Event and Fleet Services, Unilever Enterprise & Technology Solutions, will explain what this new platform has to offer.

Four examples will be given showing intelligent ways to reduce costs: compensation claims for delays and cancellations, alternative airport parking options, reclaiming VAT on foreign purchases and calculating total costs. The panel discussion to follow with Carsten Knauer, member of the specialist committee of Business Travel BME, and Inge Pirner, DATEV eG and member of the board of VDR, will be moderated by Oliver Graue, chief editor of biztravel. This will be followed by four more presentations moderated by Gerd Otto-Rieke, which will highlight new options for travel management.

On 8 March 2017 the workshops of the ITB Business Travel Day will also be taking place in Room ‘Regensburg’. Thus, at her workshop Anne-Katrin Schulz, head of Corporate Communications and Marketing of Bund der Auslands-Erwerbstätigen (BDAE), will talk about ‘legal pitfalls on business trips’ and will draw travel managers’ attention to issues regarding social insurance, tax and residency laws. For example, she will explain the consequences of a person posted abroad not registering with the authorities in time and the importance of distinguishing between a business trip and a posting abroad. Alexander Langhans, managing partner of Visumpoint GmbH, and Olaf Heinen, managing director of Business Visum GmbH, will use their lecture to explain problems surrounding the issuing of visas.

Sales of tickets to ITB Berlin will begin on 12 December 2016 here: http://www.itb-berlin.de/en/Visitors/Tickets/. Trade visitors’ tickets are also valid for the ITB Berlin Convention and the ITB Business Travel Days.

This year’s ITB Business Travel Days and ITB Berlin Convention are again being sponsored by the daily news service Biz & MICE vor9, which compiles the main business travel and MICE industry stories in a concise newsletter and provides links to the original sources.

About ITB Berlin and the ITB Berlin Convention
ITB Berlin 2017 will take place from Wednesday to Sunday, 8 to 12 March. From Wednesday to Friday ITB Berlin is open to trade visitors only. Parallel with the show the ITB Berlin Convention, the largest event of its kind, will be held from Wednesday, 8 to Saturday, 11 March 2017. More details are available at www.itb-convention.com. Slovenia is Convention & Culture Partner of ITB Berlin 2017. ITB Berlin is the global travel industry’s leading trade show. In 2016 over 10,000 companies and organisations from 187 countries exhibited their products and services to 180,000 visitors, who included 120,000 trade visitors.

Contacts:
Messe Berlin
Emanuel Höger
Press Spokesman and Press and Public Relations Director
Corporate Communication
Messe Berlin Group
Messedamm 22
14055 Berlin
phone: +49 30 3038-2270
fax: +49 30 3038-2279
hoeger@messe-berlin.de
www.messe-berlin.com

ITB Berlin / ITB Asia / ITB China:
Julia Wegener
PR Manager
Messedamm 22
14055 Berlin
phone.: + 49 30 3038-2269
fax: + 49 30 3038-912269
j.wegener@messe-berlin.de
www.messe-berlin.com

Additional information:
www.itb-berlin.com
www.itb-convention.com

Management board:
Dr. Christian Göke (CEO), Dirk Hoffmann (CFO)
Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Peter Zühlsdorff
Commercial Register: Amtsgericht Charlottenburg (District Court) HRB 5484 B (Commercial Code)