American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) has announced the addition of a new green hotel badge to its proprietary travel and expense software, Neo. The new display is the latest in a series of developments to support GBT’s commitment to helping companies attain their carbon ambitions by enabling travelers to choose sustainable transport and hotel options.

Travel industry leaders Joe D’Alessandro, president and CEO of the San Francisco Travel Association, and Ernest Wooden Jr., former president and CEO of the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, will be honored as the 2020 inductees into the U.S. Travel Association Hall of Leaders, the organization announced this week.

Meeting Spotlight recently spoke with Mike Ferreira, owner and founder of Meetings Made Easy, a global site selection and meeting/virtual event services company. We discussed what business has been like during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic and how it will change going forward for the company that celebrates its fourth anniversary in January 2021.

How has your segment of the industry changed since March?  ​

Meeting Spotlight sat down with John Paladino, owner and founder of Milestone Meetings, to discuss what business has been like during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic and how it will change going forward. Based in Scottsdale, AZ, Milestone Meetings is a full-service meeting planning agency that provides a full service solution for meeting planners throughout the world.

How has your segment of the industry changed since March? 

Last week week, a coalition of almost 200 travel, hotel, franchise, and state and local government groups called for Congress to not go on recess without providing relief for sectors devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, a group of 17 CEOS of the largest U.S. travel companies sent a statement to leaders in Washington, pleading to advance a subsequent round of legislative relief from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

EventsAIR this week has announce the launch of the latest release of its OnAIR virtual and hybrid event solution. Version 3 includes AIRCast streaming and studio, giving event organizers the ability to raise the bar on how virtual sessions are produced and staged.

Corporate Travel Management Limited (CTM) has agreed to acquire Travel and Transport, Inc. (T&T) including its Radius Travel business for $200.4 million, creating one of the world’s leading global mid-market corporate travel managers, with combined CY19 global TTV of $7.6 billion.

Hickory Global Partners, a global corporate travel alliance for travel management companies (TMCs), corporate travel departments (CTDs) and corporations has engaged Partnership Travel Consulting (PTC), a corporate travel management consulting firm comprising travel industry veterans with an average of 20-plus years of experience. PTC will deliver unbiased corporate hotel sourcing and optimization solutions to corporate clients of Hickory’s membership.

Ovation Travel Group is taking the wraps off its enhanced "Travel Lifetime Care" (TLC) suite, consisting of its corporate travel offerings that now have added safeguards in the wake of the global pandemic.

As part of this week’s GBTA (Global Business Travel Association) Collaboratory 2020 webinar series, Robert Schott, managing director and chief procurement officer for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and GBTA interim-executive director Dave Hilfman discussed navigating procurement changes during a pandemic and how to use this period to improve processes and strengthen partnerships.