ABT — ACTE Russia Council: from the first meeting to the Association’s development strategy
On September 2 the Executive Committee and members of ABT — ACTE Russia Council held their first meeting devoted to strategic development of the Association, the largest independent alliance of corporate buyers in Russia and the CIS that has obtained international status following the partnership agreement with ACTE in March 2014. The participants shared their vision of trends and prospects for the Russian business travel industry, determined the main goals of the Association for 2015 and passed the plan of future events.
The following experts took part in the Council meeting:
• Olga Khorasanova, Accenture — Head of ABT — ACTE Russia Council
• Irina Kostuykova, Kaspersky Lab. — Deputy Head of ABT — ACTE Russia Council
• Eugene Evlannikov, EY — member of ABT — ACTE Russia Council
• Angelica Snitko, Bayer — member of ABT — ACTE Russia Council
• Vadim Zelensky — Chairman of ABT — ACTE Russia Council
• Julia Kutina — Executive Director of ABT — ACTE Russia
• Ekaterina Aleksandrova — Deputy Executive Director of ABT — ACTE Russia
Council participants started with the discussion of oncoming ABT — ACTE Russia educational events: its traditional sessions for corporate buyers, «MICE geography» seminars, one-day thematic courses for travel managers and other industry specialists, seminars for hoteliers. Thus, the following topics will be raised by business travel industry experts in 2015: travel policy, tenders for TMSc, modern travel management, expense management and many others.
Members of ABT — ACTE Russia Council aim to increase the geography of these events, introduce best practices of travel management in Russian regions. After the successful Educational session in Saint Petersburg, which was held on August 26-27, seven sessions in various cities, including Tyumen and Sochi have been planned for 2015.
An anticipated event for industry participants will be the annual end-of-year session of ABT — ACTE Russia, which will sum up the results and help exchange experience gained for the past 12 months. The first event of this series will be held this year — on December 10th.
According to the unanimous decision of Council members, a new form of events will be launched in 2015 — Executive’s sessions that will be the platform for discussion between the most powerful representatives of the Russian business travel community.
The preliminary program of ACTE Forum that will traditionally be held in Moscow in spring was discussed at the Council meeting. Possible topics include duty of care, corporate social responsibility, open booking technologies, key performance indices and the ways to achieve them.
«Russian business travel community has not just changed, it has literally grown up on ABT and ACTE Educational sessions, so I was happy to accept the offer to take the position of the head of ABT — ACTE Russia Council», Olga Khorasanova stressed. «I have always advocated this approach to professional community organization — by cooperation, talks and discussions with industry colleagues and business partners. For the years when I took part in preparation of almost all ACTE conferences in Russia as a member of work groups, I gained invaluable experience that I would call cross-cultural communication and personal enrichment. My fellow ABT — ACTE Russia Council colleagues and I will be glad to continue sharing my knowledge and receive feedback from my colleagues in order to understand the burning issues and look for the ways to solve them. Follow our conferences, educational sessions and take part in discussions to raise the level of the Russian business travel industry. Nowadays our industry is evolving rapidly — trends are changing, but the aim of achieving general success must prevail and bring the community to the next more progressive development stage!»
The next meeting of ABT — ACTE Russia Council members is planned for November 2014.