Siberian business travel: ABT-ACTE Russia holds its first educational session in Tyumen

On October 14th ABT-ACTE Russia educational session was held in Tyumen for the first time. Participants gathered in Eurasia hotel to discuss burning issues of modern travel management and event arrangement, shared their professional experience, decided to proceed to travel policy optimization and learned a lot of new things about MICE facilities of Abu Dhabi.

Participants of the educational session were staff and record keeping experts, inspectors of workflow management departments, administrative managers and heads of such companies as Partner-Invest, Novatek, TyumenSvyaz, Gazturboservice, Gazprom Geologorazvedka, Vimpel-Communications, West-Siberian Bank of Sberbank JSC, etc. Partners of the event were Utair and Etihad Airways, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Kerzner International.

After morning coffee and standing reception the guests proceeded to spacious Continental conference hall equipped with modern multimedia equipment. Warm colour scale of the hall helped the session participants set themselves up for comfortable business communication. It should be noted that Eurasia hotel has been certified as a business hotel by ABT-ACTE Russia and offers all the necessary facilities to hold business meetings and events. Apart from the conference hall with the capacity of up to 150 persons, there are meeting rooms Europe and Asia, they are suitable for meetings and talks for 30-35 participants. The fireplace lounge for VIP-talks will stress the interest in the result of talks and a special attitude to its participants.

Ekaterina Aleksandrova, ABT-ACTE Russia deputy executive took the greeting word and told the participants about the mission of ABT-ACTE Russia and invited the participants of the session to all the future events and educational programs. «We want business travel to be as important in Russia, as it is in the world market», Ms Aleksandrova noted. Then Svetlana Morozova, director of sales and corporate department of ZCTS took the floor. She named all the business travel market participants and spoke about the advantages of working with TMCs.

During the discussion it turned out that the duties of business trip arrangement were shared by employees of various departments of Tyumen companies — for example, record keeping departments, staff departments or administrative departments. At the same time some companies worked with TMCs and others coped with travel management in house. «We now have two partners — one deals with tickets and the other with hotels, and they do not provide any consultations», staff expert of Gazprom Geologorazvedka Anastasia Pilyaeva said. «I will keep in mind that it is recommended to have one business travel contractor who will deal with all the issues of business trip arrangement. Actually, TMCs account for a huge amount of work and can lessen the load on the staff of the company, save them a lot of work. Our company is now contemplating a switch to cooperation with such an agency — Pelican Bureau».

«There are several agencies in Tyumen that offer business travel services, there are also companies that have long been in the market, like Tyumen Central Agency of Air Transport, and it has a business travel department. It means that competition is here, and it is good. Because competition is an impetus to development», Anna Vasilenko, general director of Pelican Bureau says. «Besides, we are experiencing the emergence of federal companies — travel agencies from Moscow and Saint Petersburg that offer their solutions in our region, which is also good, as it raises overall level and makes us move forward».

Ms Aleksandrova`s speech included a detailed description of ways to optimize travel policy. Most companies that attended the educational session, had their own travel provision, but still, the document that regulates business trip arrangement does not always meet the practice of business trips and the changing needs of the company. At the same time a proper travel policy can not only regulate the process of business trip arrangement, but also provide cost control and cost cutting, this is why it should be reviewed on an annual basis, the speaker stressed.

«As for me, elaboration of a new travel policy is one of the most important issues», Anastasiya Ermakova, senior expert of the department of documentary support of company management of Partner Invest told us. «We already have a travel policy, but it was adopted last year. The educational session has helped me take a new look on many issues, and I already have a plan how to optimize the travel policy of our company, what provisions to add and what to review. It is necessary to attend events like that in order for the company to keep up to the times».

In her turn, Ms Morozova stressed that when you cut travel costs it is important to retain the loyalty of the staff, because they react vehemently to all the changes. The expert brought several examples of practices of ZCTS customers. Thus, one of the largest IT-companies pays up to 50% of the cost difference between business and economy class to its employees to motivate them to book economy class tickets instead of business. And another company offers its employees a certain amount of money that can be spent on presents to their friends and relatives living in the cities they go to, if the traveller stays at his relatives` place, and not at a hotel.

The ways to save on flights were addressed by commercial director of Utair Denis Shkabara, who also spoke about special services for corporate customers and loyalty programs for frequent passengers. «It was very useful to know that Utair introduced a new class — comfort economy, that includes service that meets business class standards», Andrey Moskalenko, head of administrative department of Gazturboservice JSC noted.

In the second part of the educational program Dmitry Saveliev, independent expert in administrative business support spoke about the main components of a successful event, the rules of its arrangement, cutting MICE costs and the role of the administrator of the event. The speaker stressed that the success of the event largely depended on the qualification of providers and gave advice on choosing them.

«Although our headquarters in Moscow is engaged in arranging key events for our company, we also hold part of corporate events and train employees of our branch. This is why the report was very useful and helped us understand the whole process. We would also like to learn more about it at the future sessions, because the budget of our events is rather large», Evgeniya Lubnina, human resources specialist of Vimpel-Communications JSC said.

As practice shows, the venue of the event is important as well. MICE facilities of Abu Dhabi were presented by Maxim Shandarov, MICE manager of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority. The expert spoke in detail about Yas Island that offers entertainment and MICE services to cater for all tastes — you can even hold a race for your staff or partners at Formula 1 track. Special features of various hotel brands belonging to Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and available in Abu Dhabi were vividly described by Isolda Tsimakhovich, business development manager of the company. The presentation of Etihad Airways, UAE`s national carrier was provided by Eugene Koltun, sales manager, who spoke about loyalty programs of the carrier and surprised the guests with luxury and comfort that the airline offers its passengers on board. «It was very interesting to get acquainted with the representatives of such companies as Etihad Airways and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide», Anastasiya Pylyaeva said. «For example, I have only heard of Etihad Airways so far, but have never been its passenger. Now I have a strong intention to do it!»

By the way, partners of the session did not come empty-handed. After presentations they asked questions to the participants, and the most attentive were handed in prizes that included a brand flash drive and a purse, a voucher for breakfast in the Metropol for two persons and an essential oil perfume. One of the most valuable prizes, a voucher for a two nights` stay in the only hotel in the world above the Formula 1 track, Yas Viceroy Hotel, provided by Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority went to Anna Vasilenko. But even this was not the last prize: a voucher for a two nights` stay in The St. Regis Abu Dhabi (for 2 persons, including breakfast) was raffled off by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide — and the lucky winner was the inspector of workflow management department of the West-Siberian Bank of Sberbank JSC Anna Shtromberger.

It should be noted that the questions that were raised at the session aroused such great interest among the participants that the discussion continued in an informal atmosphere during the coffee break and lunch at the end of the session. Records manager of TyumenSvyaz JSC Anna Kochemirovskaya said that she was attending an educational course in service and tourism, so the process of business trip arrangement she had to deal directly with in her work was of particular interest for her. «It would be nice to have such educational sessions regularly and great if representatives of such large companies came to our small Tyumen as often as possible», Ms Kochemirovskaya added.

At the same time chief expert of Novatek Peter Egorov noted that part of the program devoted to MICE was international. But it was also useful to discuss event facilities on the territory of Russia. «Our scientific and technical centre holds a lot of conferences, briefings and work meetings. In order to exchange knowledge, foreign representatives of oil and gas operators come to Tyumen», Mr Egorov said.

«No doubt, the excitement of the discussion proves that the topics raised today are essential and important. We, as a travel agency are glad that such educational sessions come to our region, because we definitely lack information and knowledge. Different companies have different practices, so an unbiased point of view and an opportunity to share experience are very important» Anna Vasilenko stressed.

Natalia Travova