How generations shape corporate travel – which one are you and how can you make change?

In offices and factories around the world it’s not unusual nowadays to find four generations of employees working side-by-side. Outstanding communications must be, therefore, a fundamental characteristic of any successful modern business. Last month, Amy Lynch (Baby Boomer) and Kim Lear (Millennial), of generational research firm BridgeWorks, addressed the GetThere Summit in London. Martin Ferguson reports…

Some corporate travel managers are experts in the art of demand management (aka spend management) – swaying purchasing behaviors to meet greater policy compliance and savings opportunities. By influencing traveler decisions around certain purchases, you give yourself a better chance at meeting organizational savings goals.

Despite numerous warnings about the cascading realities of air traffic controller furloughs mandated by sequester legislation, the U.S. Congress essentially ignored the Federal Aviation Administration and other officials. Four days and nearly 9,000+ aircraft delays after those furloughs began, Congress quickly passed and President Obama signed new legislation to give the FAA the financial flexibility to properly staff air traffic control towers at the nation’s airports.

Roughly 300 corporate buyers, technology experts, expense partners and TMC representatives attended for 48 hours of education and networking. The theme for this year’s event was you + GetThere–how we can team with you to deliver the best products and service to drive your travel program perpetually forward.

Each year at the GetThere Global Summits, we acknowledge our most outstanding corporate and TMC customers of the prior year with GetThere Visionary and Luminary awards. Congratulations to the following award winners, presented at the 2013 GetThere North American Summit.

When you’re traveling to a city for the first time, odds are you’ve either sought advice or been given recommendations by a coworker. These tips typically carry more weight because they come from someone you know, someone from your organization.

GetThere has brought that trusted advice online with Traveler Reviews.

Video conference technology has existed for decades, but despite massive corporate investments, video conferencing rooms around the world are sitting empty. If the collaboration and cost benefits of virtual conferencing are undeniable, then why are rooms empty? The simple answer is user anxiety.

Congratulations to GetThere and Sabre Virtual Meetings President Suzanne Neufang for making Buying Business Travel's "Hot List" of the Top 30 Influencers who matter the most in business travel. Suzanne joins this exclusive list alongside global leaders such as Sir Richard Branson and Google Co-Founder and CEO Larry Page.

With a positive outlook, the freshness of the calendar turn, and a questionable sense of humor, here are some resolutions for travel procurement professionals to consider for 2013.

What a year! We delivered new innovations, such as a new home page, new policy engine options, more expense integrations, and the industry's first integrated virtual meetings booking tool. You have achieved incredible savings, compliance and security-related goals.

As we all head toward a little time off and perhaps travel with family and friends, I'll send you off with my version of the holiday classic (minus the partridge in a pear tree).

A longtime GetThere client, WellPoint’s Cindy Heston is an established expert in the field of managing corporate travel. A recent article in the November 2012 issue of Travel Procurement illustrates the possibilities that GetThere can open up for programs with creative leadership and a technology-inclined travel management company.

The corporate travel world enjoys shiny new objects and storylines woven with possibilities just like any other industry. In an era of constant innovation, these conversations can spur different ideas and creative approaches to business challenges. The recent talk of an alternative corporate booking model fits neatly into the profile.

Odds are you haven’t met Ethan yet — but you should. Who is he you ask, and why should you get to know him?

My GetThere team and I recently spent a couple of intense days preparing for the September roll-out of our new, patent-pending virtual meetings product. It was exciting not only for us to get immersed in GetThere Virtual Meetings, but to think about how it will change the way we – and you – do business.

At GetThere University, our goal is to provide our customers and partners with the knowledge and resources they need to effectively use our products.

GetThere is entering the world of gamification with an educational game for travel arrangers. GetThere Travel Hero is a fast-paced online game that puts players in the role of a multi-tasking corporate travel arranger.

What an exciting week at GBTA for GetThere and Virtual Meetings! To start the week, Fast Company and GBTA named us the winner of its Business Traveler Innovation Awards in the category of travel management.

I'm excited to share that we've recently gone live with the first part of a new GetThere Experience: a reinvented homepage that sets the stage for a flurry of new features and functionality.

We delivered a new-and- improved GetThere Ground product last year, and now we are excited to announce a number of improvements.

Sabre Virtual Meetings is expanding its network in a big way. Sabre Travel Network just announced a partnership with Regus, the world’s largest supplier of public high definition public video communication rooms. Through the Regus network, Sabre Virtual Meetings will offer real-time access to more than 1,200 public video communication rooms in more than 550 cities...

Planes full of business travelers, crowded check-in lines, days packed full of meetings ... it must be the start of a new year. Happy New Year - and Year of the Dragon! We ended 2011 with our GetThere business - and global customer-managed travel programs - more successful than ever. We broke...

Now that we're reaching the end of another year, I believe we should close 2011 with two thoughts...well, maybe two and a half. Thought#1 - What a fantastic year 2011 has been! Thanks to the strong, consistent and continued support from you...

As a member of the Sabre Human Factors team, Brian Sullivan performs usability studies for GetThere. Brian is a noted voice in the usability field and a big reason why GetThere leads the industry in usability results. Brian recently authored an article...

We have heard from your travelers and arrangers loud and clear - and all we can say is thank you! In our latest aggregate of GetThere user experience surveys, 95 percent of our users gave our air shopping a positive score, followed by car shopping with 93 percent...

Being a business traveler sucks a lot of the time, doesn’t it? Not always, obviously. But I can’t remember reading many business traveler tweets or status updates celebrating a 6 a.m. airport check-in or proclaiming a smooth, friendly and hassle-free experience at security...

How often do you request extracts of user data from GetThere? What about booking logs? It’s an important responsibility for travel managers. At GetThere, we’re committed to making it easier for you to do your job. Enter the new GetThere User Data Extract Tool and Customer Log Tool...

Nobody likes to endure a lengthy checkout process - especially at work when you're trying to get things done. That's why your travelers should be excited about GetThere Express, which speeds up the time it takes to checkout by consolidating all your travel information on a single page.

Policing travelers isn’t necessarily fun. Travelers can be a noisy bunch, especially when they don’t get their first choice of travel options. It is, however, critically important to the success of your program.

With the new Travel Policy Engine from GetThere, you have the ability to build more flexible rules that meet the needs of your program – and won’t necessarily put out your travelers – with relative ease.

Sally Abella, director of corporate travel for Harman International Industries, recently discussed the benefits of GetThere and the integration of the IBM expense solution. Lynnora Ruth, corporate travel manager for Harman in North America also comments. 

GetThere Ground allows business travelers to book and pre-pay executive car services online in real-time, including limos, executive sedans and taxis. Employees can view and compare these point-to-point services on a single screen, and book any option with a...

How do you get the most value out of unused airline tickets? Are you worried that your travelers are uninformed about how to exchange a ticket?  GetThere Ticket Manager Exchange lets your travelers change their tickets, void trips and get refunds.  All online, all without the need for expensive travel agency assistance...

In today’s world, online consumers increasingly want more control over how they learn. Whether it’s watching a YouTube video or reading an article on Wikipedia, people expect engaging ways to learn online. At GetThere, we’ve applied these principles in the form of traveler tutorials...

The theme this year at GBTA is Elevating the Business of Travel. GetThere is ready for the challenge with several of our most innovative product announcements ever. If you were at the Summit, you experienced the excitement firsthand. We expect even more buzz in Denver...

Occasionally a travel manager will get questioned about how long it takes to use online booking to plan and book a trip. A traveler may complain about response times or a manager may question why it takes so long for his people to plan their travel. The answer is complicated as there are many factors that can affect the process. Here we review the top 8 factors that may impact average booking times using an online tool... 

GetThere represents more than just a great solution for our customers. We represent a strongly connected community of travel management professionals. At last week’s Summit, this community created a steady hum of excitement, camaraderie and information sharing across a wide range of corporations, TMCs, technology partners and the GetThere team. We created a buzz! And that buzz is resonating across the industry. Thanks to the hundreds of you who joined us!

The leaders in business travel expect business travel to increase. GetThere customers represent the largest global travel spenders and they gave a clear viewpoint of travel budget planning in this year’s annual benchmark survey. Seventy-six percent say they are increasing their travel budgets, a clear recognition of the importance of business travel...

Every now and again, it’s important – not to mention refreshing – to take a step back from your day-to-day responsibilities and discuss new ideas and evaluate what others have done and are doing to accomplish goals that may be similar to yours.  The GetThere Summit is opportunity to engage in one of those times.

New Coke—customers didn't want it.  Ford Edsel—customers thought it was ugly. Apple Newton—customers didn't know how to use it. Each of these product launches were tremendous flops for well-established brands that tried to do something different and innovative.  In their attempt to foray into new territory they forgot that more important than being innovative is listening to your customers. While GetThere is focused on delivering the newest innovations in travel technology, we also want to ensure we are delivering products that our customers want, like and can easily use.  That is why our user interface design work is so important.

Once again, ACTE successfully brought together thought leaders and experts in corporate travel for a few days of meaningful discussion and interaction. The common...

Five years ago I read an article in a travel industry publication that resonated with me then and still does today.  The article highlighted the need for suppliers to better understand the broader...

GetThere has launched the first multinational sites in Brazil in recent weeks - on its new domestic content connections - and the excitement was everywhere at the recent LACTTE...

Whenever I stay at a hotel with my wife and kids (4 and 2), I always check out hotel information and reviews to make sure there’s a pool, the rooms are clean and...

Nobody gets more excited about innovation than I do. At GetThere, we pride ourselves as inventors and leaders in travel management systems. But there is a certain level of pragmatism that must be applied to manage innovation...

We recently concluded our annual user group sessions.  Every fall GetThere customers get together to discuss hot industry topics and share best practices...

We’ve come a long way since the Internet went commercial. The fundamental goal of the Internet was collaboration – first with the military and academic researchers...