The first annual Green Travel Summit, the travel industry's first event dedicated entirely to green business travel strategies, will take place next week, March 23 and 24, in Newport Beach, Calif. In advance of the event, its organizer, Milford, Conn.-based Unicomm, has announced its line-up of speakers and panels.
Speaking at the Green Travel Summit will be Olivia Zaleski, host of CNN's
The Business of Green; Auden Schendler, executive director of Aspen Skiing Company; David Refkin, Time Inc.'s former director of sustainable development; and Harry Lewis, attorney advisor to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Panelists, meanwhile, will include Frank Schnur of American Express Business Travel, Leilani Latimer of Sabre Holdings and Guido Bauer of Green Certifications Inc.
"The Summit is long overdue and necessary for our members to have the opportunity to share and exchange ideas on this critical topic," said National Business Travel Association Past President Suzanne Fletcher, who is chair of NBTA's new CSR Awards program, which will honor companies' green programs for the first time at the Green Travel Summit.
The Green Travel Summit's program will focus on a variety of enterprise-wide sustainability strategies that organizations can use to address climate change, cut costs and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Among the panel topics presented, for instance, will be:
• Recession Proofing Your Travel Program with CSR
• The Effects of Global Climate Change on the Business of Travel
• The ROI of Green & The Journey of Getting There
• The Greening of Hotels & Venues
• Getting Green Done: Hard Truths From the Front Lines
• The Green Journey: Traveling Smarter by Focusing on Demand and Change Management
"The issue of green in the business travel and meeting arena is not going away," Unicomm CEO John Golicz said in a statement. "In developing this event, we knew it was critical that we address all aspects of the issue with a view to allowing the attendee to take away concrete guidelines and specific models to improve or start their own CSR programs. As we watched the global economy transform, it became apparent that there was also an imperative to focus on the ROI of green."
MeetingNews will be among the attendees at next week's Green Travel Summit, where we'll re-launch our "Planners Choice Award" in order to showcase the best green program from a hotel, conference center, CVB or gaming facility.
For more information, visit
www.greentravelsummit.com.