Last month, over 50 people gathered at the brand new etc venues property in London’s Chancery Lane for Inntel’s 2019 Travel & Meetings Forum.

Titled The Lab because of its experimental and interactive concept, the event focused on three key industry topics:

  • Traveller and delegate well being
  • The latest travel and meetings technology
  • Future insights

Delegates enjoyed a highly nutritious, high energy lunch which ensured a very interactive and engaging afternoon.

The sessions provided information to help guests stay up to speed with the latest developments, with a speaker line-up of industry leaders sharing their insight on what to expect across the spectrum of business travel – from the points of view of airlines, rail operators, hoteliers and from Douglas O’Neill, Inntel’s CEO.

Sustainability was a key topic for the event as 83% attendees said that they have sustainability as ones of their organisational pillars/objectives.   So the session led by Nick Vadis, ex Head Chef at British Airways and now Culinary Director UK and Ireland at Compass Group was highly relevant.   Nick talked of the importance of providing nutritious food at corporate events, how this impacts performance, balancing cost with sustainability and the Compass Group’s campaign for removing food waste at conferences. #FORO (fear of running out).

The keynote speaker, Professor Chris Beedie, Science Director at CHX Hardcross and an Honorary Professor (Cognition and Neuroscience) at Kent University gave a highly engaging and thought provoking talk on wellbeing, the environment and the mind.

In an interesting twist to the event, delegates were given a choice of conference seating.   They were encouraged to move around between sessions to see which style they felt most alert and engaged in. 55% said that they liked the cabaret seating best, 15% said they liked theatre/row style and 30% felt that Inntel’s new festival style seating suited them best.  This relaxed seating environment offered deckchairs, beanbags and cushions.

In a tech panel, our road testers talked about their experience of using some of the industry’s latest technology and the pros and cons of each piece of tech.   Tools tested were Breather.com,  LOGiC – Inntel’s brand new online booking tool, CultureMee and Troop Travel.   At the end of the session, delegates were asked via Slido on which piece of tech they would most like to take back to their organisations.   An outstanding 83% said that they would like to implement LOGIC immediately but each of the new tools were commended by the audience.

The Lab was a resounding success.  100% of attendees said that they would highly recommend the event to a colleague. 

“Dynamic, relevant, thought provoking and broke the mould on conventional conferences” (Sourcing Manager, Lloyds Banking Group)

“It was a really insightful conference! I feel like I gained so much from it. Thank you again for the invitation, Inntel really know how to run a memorable event.  (Travel Manager, Haymarket Media Group)

“It was enjoyable and educational – I definitely came away with a few areas to look at, in particular in relation to food for meetings/training.  I really enjoyed the tech panel as it included products that I didn’t know about and gave me the opportunity to think how we would use them. (Travel Manager, Kuehne + Nagel)

“The session was very thought provoking, and I took something from all of the sessions.  “My particular favourites were Central Processor – some great apps – with further modification, I can see these being very useful tools.  Can’t wait to have the new Inntel system loaded and the Keynote Speaker – my head is still buzzing!” (PA, National Express)

“It was very engaging and interactive and I love the experimental undertone of the food and the room layout. I loved the panellists and the debates and discussions that were being had around the Travel Management Industry, it was very interesting and informative.  (Procurement Manager, RICS)

Next year will see a full programme of Inntel led events which are open to our clients and also to those who are not yet our clients.   These will be communicated to you very soon and we hope to see you at one of these in the not too distant future.