The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) – the voice of the global business travel industry and German business travel buyer association VDR– today announced their planned CEO panel, “Technology Horizons – Beyond the Firewall” on Centre Stage at the GBTA Conference on 12th – 14th November in Berlin, which this year incorporates VDR’s autumn symposium.
The panel will consider how the corporate accommodation sector is being disrupted and enhanced across distribution, price transparency and customer experience through the latest technology and the new entrants this technology is facilitating.

The C-level panel will feature:
Federico Gonzalez, CEO of NH Hotels
Olivier Gremillon, Managing Director Europe & Africa for Airbnb
Tobias Ragge, CEO of HRS.

“The internet and the technology it facilitates are without doubt the greatest and most interesting disruptors of our age,” said Catherine McGavock, GBTA’s Regional Director – EMEA. “We have entered a new era where traditional, safely ensconced firewall protected proprietary solutions are being challenged by cloud computing, Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD), metasearch marketing, mobile apps and new leisure travel experiences. This raises fundamental questions around how to build the travel programme of tomorrow to take account, and advantage, of these technological and social changes across the whole corporate accommodation spectrum. We need to look beyond the firewall to create the corporate accommodation programme of the future.”