Introducing the latest myCWT product and service enhancements
Building on our digital, omnichannel myCWT platform, our new products and services will simplify travel management for you and your employees – anytime, anywhere, anyhow.
Note: Featured services may not be available in your country at this time. Please reach out to your CWT representative for more details.
Hear from Chief Product Officer, Erica Antony as she shares the key product highlights of 2024, along with the key areas driving innovation.
-
2040: Baseline, Boom or Bust
As we enter an era of rapid transformation and unprecedented challenges, it is essential for travel managers, meeting & event planners, and corporate decision-makers to look ahead and frame our current strategic thinking with a clear vision of the future. Business travel and meetings and events (M&E) are poised for significant change over the next decade and a half, driven by a complex interplay of sustainability goals, technological advancements, evolving work models, and geopolitical dynamics.
In this paper to mark the 10th anniversary of our Global Business Travel Forecast, we explore, for the first time, a long-term vision of the future and potential trajectories through three distinct scenarios, each offering insights into how these forces should affect policy-making, budgeting and priorities. By examining these scenarios, we can better understand the diverse possibilities that lie ahead and the strategic imperatives required to thrive in each potential future.
Based on trajectory data analysis and interviews with industry leaders, behaviorists and climate tech founders, this forward-looking approach enables us to anticipate changes, strengthen our strategies, and make informed decisions that align long-term objectives. It is through this lens of foresight and adaptability that we can build resilience, seize opportunities, and navigate the complexities of the future.
We invite you to reflect on the insights presented, and consider how your organization can prepare for the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead. Together we can ensure that travel and meetings remain catalysts for growth, scalability and sustainable practices.
- Scenario development is both an art and a science
- Megatrends Shaping the Future of Business Travel, Meetings and Events
- Sustainability goals the new crux of corporate policy
- Technology Revolutionizes Travel Management
- Modern work models spark new travel patterns
- Changing demographics open doors to new opportunities
- Three Scenarios: Base case, boom and bust
- Future-proofing strategies
-
CWT GBTA Global business travel forecast 2025
When it comes to pricing, global business travel has finally reached an enduring, higher baseline. Prices will continue to rise in 2025, but only moderately, so expect a period of normalized growth.
However, this pricing environment, one of marginal gains and price regularity, is fragile. Global leisure travel has now realized a lot of its pent-up demand, while corporate travel has been resurgent, with 2024 edging at preCovid levels.
There are many factors at play, whether its volatile oil prices, labor costs and constraints, inflationary pressures, and geopolitical factors. As this elevated baseline edges upwards, albeit marginally, travel budgets will come under increased scrutiny, especially as travel patterns and attitudes change.
It’s why business travel can’t be viewed in a silo, and the true value to an organization must be fully realized. This forecast can help with those calculations.
-
Capitalize on emerging technologies in corporate travel
Technological advancements are accelerating at an unprecedented pace. How will emerging innovations like Generative AI, blockchain, and self-sovereign identity (SSI) transform corporate travel?
BTN and CWT probed global CEOs, travel managers, industry consultants and tech experts on the promises, questions, and expectations these innovations raise and how they are set to reshape traveler experience, cost control and service delivery in corporate travel and events.
Download and discover
- The technologies that will have the greatest impact on corporate travel in the next 2-5 years
- How these emerging technologies are poised to control costs, enhance service and security, and boost efficiency
- The critical challenges, opportunities, risks and roadblocks each innovation raises
- What travel managers, buyers and experts anticipate from these innovations
-
Global meetings industry day 2019 – How we’re disrupting the industry
Global meetings industry day is back again! For 2019, we are bringing together the meetings and events leaders from across the globe. CWT Meetings & Events takes pride in being forward-thinking representatives, and role models for the sector. As an end-to-end agency, our prime role is to help you, our clients, to achieve the best possible return on investment.
Meetings and events bring small and large scale companies new business across the globe. They are making an impact through business meetings, conferences, conventions, incentive travel, trade shows, and experiential events – all of which we can support.
We find venues that excite
Sourcing the right venue for a meeting or event is essential. We have a dedicated team of venue sourcing experts to assist:
“Our client is more and more focused on unique venues, and we are creating an extensive portfolio to meet this trend. We go above and beyond to meet your needs.” – Vincent, Venue Sourcing Specialist
We achieve savings
Savings mean bigger budgets to utilize where it is necessary. That means acting on your behalf to maintain those key relationships and getting the best deals from suppliers:
“The same way a smartphone needs to become smarter, or it becomes obsolete, so does our thinking, approach, and strategy – it has to evolve with the times. We understand the need to provide a champagne service on a box wine budget, and suppliers have margins they need to stay within. We have to ensure both parties are happy. Relationships are what wins and keeps business and show value to the client and supplier. We try and go above and beyond with savings, where suppliers are offering their best rate as the first offer. We are always thinking outside the box and ensuring our clients achieve the best savings possible.” – Kristel, Implementation and Process Manager
We create connections
Connections are crucial to business. And, we know the second biggest return on investment is from meetings and events. Through networking, you can increase your return on investment: “We know the importance of meetings. The more meetings you have, the more connections you make. The more connections you have, the more collaborations you produce and as a result, a bigger return on investment. That is why we keep on being innovative and providing new solutions, keeping us ahead of industry trends and ensuring your delegates are engaged.” – Pawel, Business Development Manager
To find out how we excite, save and connect, check out our case studies.
-
Don’t be stingy: Let employees keep their miles
I’ll concede that the title of this blog is a little clickbaity. Most companies have seen the light on this once-thorny issue. They know better than to get between a bleary-eyed traveling employee and their miles. But there are some who subscribe to the idea that because the company paid for the flight, the company owns the miles.
Even if this idea has some basis in law, it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Here are a few reasons why it’s better for everyone if employees can keep the miles for themselves.
1. Hoarding miles creates resentment from valued employees
Yes, the company paid for the flight and the hotel. But it didn’t pay for a holiday. It was the employee who suffered through the long flight. They were in a conference room, not at the beach. For business travelers, time spent in airport terminals is time away from home and family.
When you take away one of the few perks of business travel, employees tend to be pretty grumpy about it. A CWT survey found that 61% of employees factor in a company’s travel policy when evaluating a new job opportunity. Not surprisingly, the number is higher – 71% – among employees who are likely to take more than ten business trips a year.
Letting employees keep their miles shows them you value their contribution and you recognize the sacrifices they make when they’re on the road. If a company keeps the miles then other workplaces could start to look more appealing.
2. Miles are worth much more to employees than to the company
Maybe your company wants to tighten its belt. That’s fair enough. And it’s perfectly reasonable to expect your employees to follow your travel policy, and not book a more expensive flight just for the miles.
But there’s a lot of research calculating how much airline miles are worth in cash terms. And while the estimates vary, the clear consensus is that they’re not worth much. One mile might be worth two cents if it’s a generous program.
On the other hand, a tired business traveler will surely find a great deal of value in an occasional upgrade to business class or a nicer hotel room. So why not let them have it?
3. Do you really want to deal with the mess?
Frankly speaking, miles are a clumsy form of currency. They can only be used in prescribed ways, they expire and who knows when an airline will suddenly require more of them to book a flight?
If a company could find a way to put all its employees’ miles in a single bucket, it would create another mess to untangle. An administrator of a large travel program could find themselves spending hours allocating benefits to where they’re most useful or finding ways to spend miles before they expire. In fact, given the additional hours, it may actually be a cost rather than a saving for the company to keep the miles for itself.
For a company, it’s a headache at best and an expense at worst. For an employee, who only deals with their own miles, it’s not such a problem.
So who owns the miles? In a technical sense, the company might have a legitimate claim on an employee’s airline miles. But a company won’t gain much (if anything) by forcing employees to surrender miles. And given the administrative headaches and general ill will, it’s simply not worth it.
-
B2B, or B2B4E? – that is the question
People are broadly familiar with the acronym B2B – or business-to-business – which, according to the dictionary, involves arrangements or trade between businesses, rather than between a company and the general public (known as B2C, or business-to-consumer).
Traditionally, companies such as ours strategically managed their clients’ travel: they designed travel policy, negotiated with vendors, ran day-to-day operations of the travel program, looked after safety and security, travel and expenses management, and reporting. That is why we used to define our business model as B2B.
But, while these tasks will remain very much part of our daily job, what we do goes far beyond travel managers and their companies. It is about connecting people and helping businesses succeed. So we define our proposition as B2B4E – or business-to-business-for-employees.
Because travelers are more than just travelers: they are employees. And while on the road, they need to be productive, engaged, and looked after.
We can bring the best consumer experience to employees while helping clients maximize productivity.
We play a critical role in helping our clients support and engage their employees when they are traveling. Ultimately, this is about our clients unleashing the talent of their people and we help them achieve that potential.
To get there, we thought hard about what it means to be B2B4E:
- Help businesses and employees find a middle ground – For us, it’s about helping clients create a travel program and policy that keeps budgets on track while also looking after travelers. For instance, why ask travelers to get up at 3 am to catch a flight if there’s one at a more sensible time for $35 more? Will the lack of sleep not affect their performance?
- Customize your offer – Using technology to personalize your offer. If employees are only allowed to stay in certain properties included in their travel program, why show them pages and pages of search results? Time is precious, and people are busy. Relevance is key.
- Broaden your offer – As consumers, we expect an anytime, anywhere, anyhow service. So it is key to ensure people can interact with you through multiple channels 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. To paraphrase the late, great Freddie Mercury – “they want it all, and they want it now.”
- Be unforgettable – Offer a positively memorable experience. Blow your customers away. If you erase all the hassle and anticipate their needs, they will love you.
- Keep innovating – Don’t rest on your laurels. Technology and innovation are continually evolving, so don’t stop – there’s always a better way to do things.
- Build a customer-centric culture – Everyone in your organization has a role to play when it comes to delivering your promises to clients. Make sure your employees remember this for their employees.
- Help businesses and employees find a middle ground – For us, it’s about helping clients create a travel program and policy that keeps budgets on track while also looking after travelers. For instance, why ask travelers to get up at 3 am to catch a flight if there’s one at a more sensible time for $35 more? Will the lack of sleep not affect their performance?
-
CWT reports strong growth in 2018
CWT, the B2B4E travel management platform, today reported a strong performance for 2018, with a significant increase in transaction volumes, sales, and revenues.
“I am pleased to be able to report on a great year for our business – our strategy gained further traction and we delivered good growth, while successfully implementing transformational changes across our company,” said Kurt Ekert, President and CEO of CWT. ”Q4 2018 was our sixth successive quarter of traffic and revenue growth – and 2018 revenue, EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are all up comfortably on 2017.”
Highlights for the year ended 31 December 2018:
Financial
- Total transaction volume* US$ 25Bn, a 6.1% increase over 2017
- Contracted new sales** of US$ 1.7Bn
- Revenues*** US$ 1.5Bn, a 4.9% increase over 2017
Operational
- Transactions* up 3.3% to 62 million
- Increased investment in technology by 20%
- RoomIt by CWT™: hotel attachment rate up 1.5%
- myCWT app downloaded more than 650 times every day
- Client retention rates high at 96%
CWT reported a strong financial performance for 2018, with transaction volume up 6.1%, revenues up 4.9%, and US$ 1.7Bn in contracted new sales, driven by growth in North America and Asia Pacific.
In line with our aim of being the world’s leading Business-to-Business-for-Employees travel management platform, and, in keeping with our CWT 3.0 Strategy, our focus remains on customer experience, high growth opportunities, core execution, and culture. Our 2018 results clearly demonstrate the impact of our successful achievements in these areas.
In addition to the main business travel offering, CWT operates four specialist divisions, all of which performed well in 2018:
CWT Energy, Resources, & Marine provides travel management solutions for many of the world’s leading companies in the oil & gas, mining, offshore, marine and alternative energies industries. 2018 revenues remained stable compared to 2017.
CWT Meetings & Events is CWT’s meeting & events division. It delivers innovative, high-quality projects for our clients across all industry sectors globally. Our creative know-how helps us deliver awe-inspiring events, and our logistics expertise guarantees professional meeting services, group travel, and compliance. In 2018, CWT M&E revenues increased 6%.
CWT Solutions Group is the consultancy arm of CWT. Solutions Group helps deliver travel procurement efficiencies through innovations in supplier sourcing, data intelligence, traveler management and mobility.
In 2018, the team achieved 4.2% revenue growth, and notable developments, a next-generation data insight, reporting and visualization tool.
RoomIt by CWT is the hotel distribution division of CWT. Every day we match travelers with the right room at the right rate, and every minute we book over 30 hotel rooms. We also provide travelers with the amenities and loyalty programs they want, while helping organizations control their budget and improve travel oversight. In 2018, RoomIt revenues grew 12.8%.
* On a constant currency basis, including joint ventures but not the international partner network.
** Annualized contracted new sales, excluding renewals, but including joint ventures, with no comparative to prior year.
*** On a constant currency basis.
CWT is a leading global partner in business travel, meetings, and events. Operating across six continents, we deliver sustainable, tailored solutions that help organizations connect, engage, and thrive in an evolving world. Our myCWT platform integrates advanced technology with human expertise to simplify travel and enhance traveler and attendee experiences. Extensive global coverage, seamless data integration, AI-driven analytics, and carbon-conscious travel tools enable businesses to optimize their travel and meetings programs while delivering measurable value.
With 150 years of industry experience and a deep commitment to partnership, CWT collaborates with clients to shape the future of business travel and events, making them more efficient, responsible, and impactful.
-
CWT rated Gold by EcoVadis for third year running
CWT, the B2B4E travel management platform, announced that its responsible business practices have been rated Gold by EcoVadis, the independent corporate social responsibility (CSR) rating agency, for the third year in a row. This puts CWT among the top 1% of over 55,000 companies rated every year, across 150 countries.
“Achieving the highest EcoVadis rating for the third year is a testament to CWT’s commitment to running our business in a responsible way,” said Françoise Grumberg, CWT’s Vice-President, Global Responsible Business and Diversity & Inclusion. “This success would not have been possible without the commitment and hard work of all our employees all around the world.”
Responsible business is a core element of CWT’s culture, and EcoVadis’ Gold rating publicly underlines the company’s commitment to work to the very highest standards of corporate responsibility.
“One of the reasons we have been acknowledged for is the significant progress we made in areas such as diversity and inclusion and anti-human trafficking,” said Grumberg. “Among our many 2018 achievements was the publication of a diversity and inclusion charter, signing up to the UN’s Women’s Empowerment Principles, company-wide training on unconscious bias, and our work to raise awareness about human-trafficking among our internal and external stakeholders.”
EcoVadis rates companies according to 21 CSR criteria, grouped into four broad themes: Environment, Labor, Fair Business Practices, and Sustainable Procurement. CWT’s performance in each of these four themes was evaluated looking at policies, actions, and results.
CWT is a leading global partner in business travel, meetings, and events. Operating across six continents, we deliver sustainable, tailored solutions that help organizations connect, engage, and thrive in an evolving world. Our myCWT platform integrates advanced technology with human expertise to simplify travel and enhance traveler and attendee experiences. Extensive global coverage, seamless data integration, AI-driven analytics, and carbon-conscious travel tools enable businesses to optimize their travel and meetings programs while delivering measurable value.
With 150 years of industry experience and a deep commitment to partnership, CWT collaborates with clients to shape the future of business travel and events, making them more efficient, responsible, and impactful.
-
Halving hotel room leakage among travelers in 5 months
This case study looks at how a strategic communications plan helped to bridge the misconceptions that business travelers had, and ultimately improved compliance and improve the hotel program for a client in India.
The challenge
A professional services firm wanted to increase compliance and encourage their employees to use hotels that were part of the company’s hotel programme.
Travelers, on the other hand, believed that they were able to get better rates by booking directly with a hotel or through an online travel agency.
This disjoint caused inefficiencies in the client’s booking process, reduced the hotel spend with preferred vendors, and caompromised safety policies as travel managers could not track their staff’s whereabouts in the event of an emergency.
The solution
Recognising that this issue can be solved with a cohesive communications effort, CWT worked with the client to develop a plan to educate and dispel misconceptions. This included face-to-face meetings and online training sessions with both travellers and travel bookers, as well as a useful FAQ document as a reference guide.
The training topics focused on helping travellers understand their company’s travel policy better, and the reasons why they should adhere to it.
- The value of the hotel programme, including cheaper rates for the company as a whole and add-ons such as complimentary breakfast and Wi-Fi
- Benefits of booking through CWT including visibility of travellers in the case of an emergency and reduced transaction fees when booking hotel and air in one transaction
Support from key stakeholders from within helped drive the project and ensure buy-in from travellers and travel bookers.
The results
In just 5 months, we managed to halve the number of travellers who booked hotels outside of the programme – from 73% to 38%.
This in turn increased the client’s occupancy with preferred partners by 480 nights per month, contributing to increased traveler safety and an improved hotel program for the client.
-
Why external recognition is important for your CSR program
If you have been following our responsible business (it is how we call CSR at CWT) efforts for a while you would have noticed that this is the fourth year in a row that we are announcing our EcoVadis rating.
After a first Silver year, we have managed to keep our Gold status for the third consecutive year, proving that all of our efforts towards a first-class CSR program are paying off.
Abraham Lincoln said, “Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.” We agree with this statement but, in this case, we are delighted to have such an important entity corroborating that we are taking the right path towards a more sustainable future.
Building a global CSR strategy and program is a huge effort that requires the involvement not only of a dedicated team but also of all company members. It takes a solid culture that strengthens the importance of embedding responsible business into all your business actions.
It might seem a pat on the back exercise, but it is essential counting with third-party experts that can properly evaluate your performance and set up the bar.
CSR professionals and executives can benefit from an independent view on their performance, and how it compares to peers. This can be a powerful incentive for taking actions and steps toward increasing performance.
Nowadays CSR is becoming a key criterion for measuring business performance and mitigating risks. It is part of stakeholders’ expectations, not only from a reporting and regulatory requirements point of view but as a key factor in business relationships, supply chains, investment – and also – business lending.
Receiving third-party endorsement on corporate responsibility can enhance your reputation, which increases selection prospects for tenders, co-innovation programs, and preferred partner networks.
Last but not least, CSR recognition helps attract the best talent, boosts employee’s engagement, and fosters a robust company culture.
-
How to make travelers comfortable with your hotel program
For those of us who have been in the industry for a while, you’ll remember when a good night’s rest was defined by a small, somewhat hard mattress with well-tucked, flower patterned blankets. Then hotels introduced a big fluffy, white bed, and just like that basic bedding was no longer acceptable to travelers.
It’s laughable to think a bed could be so revolutionary because today it’s such a basic necessity. Traveler expectations for comfort have grown tremendously in the last 20 years or so.
Hotels can’t just have basic clean sheets, they have to be eucalyptus-scented and organically washed. Gyms with a couple of treadmills and a few free weights don’t cut it anymore. Fitness centers need a full suite of wellness options. If restaurants and food kiosks don’t have fresher, healthier options, nobody will use them today.
Hotels are even offering free wine tasting, putting televisions in bathroom mirrors, matching their décor to local flair, rooms with air purifiers, and using mobile for check-ins, as keys and to control everything in the room.
Business travelers want hotels to be a place where they can rest, eat well, rejuvenate and be productive.
What do business travelers want then?
In a recent GBTA/RoomIt by CWT study, travelers told us exactly what amenities they wished were covered by their travel policies:
- 51% want premium Wi-Fi
- 40% want food delivery services to be reimbursed
- 36% wish to unwind with in-room entertainment/movies
- 33% would like to use fitness class passes
The downside is most travel buyers don’t want the added cost of reimbursing those amenities.
Where does that leave us?
Hotels recognize that appealing to today’s travelers requires a revamped approach. With stress on the rise, many chains have launched entire brands dedicated to wellness or taking steps to help travelers maintain their health-focused life styles. In fact, the wellness travel market is expanding 50% faster than the overall industry.
That really is the key. Hotels are finding that they need to build a seamless living experience from home to road. At home, some people will head straight to spin class right after work, so hotels are putting spinning bikes in their gyms and even in their rooms.
With the rising number of food-obsessed people, or “foodies”, and the increasing presence of food delivery services like Doordash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub, people require more than basic room service or pizza. To help meet expectations hotels are now partnering with some of these services, and directly with surrounding restaurants as well.
Additionally, people often end workdays by unwinding to Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services, so it should come as no surprise that they hope to replicate that when away. Luckily, some hotels are beginning to offer streaming services built into guestroom TVs, so travelers can sign into their accounts and binge watch their favorite shows.
What’s your part in this?
The first thing you have to do is make sure you understand your travelers’ needs. While breakfast and Internet access may have been enough a couple of years ago, it may not be today.
Also, evaluate if you are offering enough choice to account for the varying needs of your travelers. If not, they will book outside your travel program.
Next, you need to get your travelers excited about these appealing lifestyle options at the hotels in your program. Many companies are hesitant to allow TMCs or hotels to market directly to their travelers, but when they can highlight exciting opportunities, travelers will be motivated to book within policy.
To be even more effective, take that message beyond email communications. Put it in your corporate intranet, and promote these amenities at your corporate travel fairs. For example, if a hotel has Pelotons, bring one to your travel fair for people to test out. Don’t stop communicating with travelers. There is no better way to close the many gaps between your policy and their understanding of it.
To satisfy the foodies, it may be worth negotiating food and beverage discounts with hotels that have revamped their food offerings. Restaurants are becoming an increasingly bigger focus at hotels with some bringing in chefs and implementing completely new menus, and some brands are even putting together customizable to-go bowls with healthy, local ingredients.
The good news is improving traveler satisfaction isn’t all about letting travelers spend more money on the road. Quite often hotels are stepping up to help meet many of your traveler’s needs, and it might only require a little marketing on your part, or a slightly different approach when negotiating in order to make travelers realize you are meeting their needs. And when travelers are happy with your hotels, they’ll reward you with better hotel program compliance.
-
Stressed? Why you should purge your mind and do nothing
Raphael Pasdeloup, Global Head of CWT Energy, Resources and Marine speaks with the president of Houston-based Cohegic, a management consulting, executive and sales coaching firm, Ravi Kathuria. Ravi is also president of the Houston Strategy Forum, which brings together a who’s who of Houston CEOs. The interview is the first in a series Raphael is hosting with business leaders in Houston and in the ERM space.
For the inaugural talkfest, top of mind was how to deal with stress in your organization. Find out why Ravi recommends a ‘do nothing’ approach and invites his audience to quiet their minds through mind purge exercises.
Here are excerpts from the interview, edited for brevity.
Raphael: Ravi, can you give me your view on the world we live in?
Ravi: The challenges for business is growing. We, as human beings, are facing an incredible amount of stress. We have so much geopolitical tension in the world. We have business tensions, and business in this digital age is moving at the speed of light. That is putting an incredible amount of stress on everyone in organizations. We live in a culture that’s outcome driven and that culture becomes very challenging to cope with.
Raphael: What do you hear most frequently from industry leaders and CEOs of large companies faced with that challenge?
Ravi: Companies do their best to have a long-term focus, but market volatility is putting a lot of pressure on CEOs. They have to respond to Wall Street. That results in decisions being made [that] are not in the long-term health of the company. These create huge challenges.
CEOs themselves, as they deal with marketplaces that are changing so fast, begin to question themselves. They have to learn to calm themselves down, or they get caught up in the frenzy. If people in organizations are not able to keep themselves calm and have the right perspective, they will make decisions that are not in the interest of the organization.
Raphael: Do you see that primarily in the US, or when you discuss with global leaders, something that is more of a global trend?
Ravi: The US culture is highly-competitive and very outcome-driven. But as we travel more, as we visit other global divisions of our companies, we’re all becoming a global community. The way that business is structured, it’s fundamentally structured around driving the organization and putting a lot of stress into the system.
Stress is almost like steroids, it will help you in the short-term, but long-term it’s going to debilitate the organization. You don’t want to use stress as your weapon of choice.
Raphael: Travel for business is a huge area of stress. All the variables to contend with. What’s your advice for road warriors and people who extensively travel to find a better balance?
Ravi: I was coaching a very senior executive whose job required him to travel all over the world. The problem was, he could not sleep on an airplane. He would work. He was on all the time.
I gave him the technique about purging the mind, where you sit down and take a few minutes every day, you pick the time, and let the mind just go through whatever it has gone through during the day. So if you have a meeting tomorrow, you don’t start engaging thoughts about preparing for the meeting that’s coming tomorrow. You just go through today’s events. It’s like we eat food every day, and we let the body process that food and throw away the waste the next day.
Similarly, our mind needs to process what it has gone through because if you don’t process and let the mind work through it, these get buried in your subconscious.There is nothing else in this world that will have a bigger impact on your life than learning how to quiet your mind. If you quiet your mind, your performance at work improves because your objectivity improves, your creativity improves. Your fear goes down.
Raphael: What attitude, behavior, or practice can leaders show in the workplace so that everyone is more effective and gain in productivity?
Ravi: Dedicate some time to what I call ‘do nothing’ activity. Every weekend, you take 15-20 minutes for doing nothing. It’s really powerful when you sit back and do nothing. What it does is it allows your stress to leave your body and to leave your mind. We’re always on. When we wake up at 3:00 am, the first thing we do is reach for our phone to see what emails have come. We have to step back from all of this.
Doing the mind purge exercises on the weekdays, and setting aside 15-20 minutes on the weekend to do nothing, you will find your attitude will change. You’ll find that the circumstances around you are not going to change but your ability to deal with these circumstances will become much better as you go through these exercises.
-
Inspiration Destination: Scotland
Beautiful greenery, gentle rains, lakes, rivers, stones, moss, whiskey, kilts, golf, theatre, castles and, of course, the famous Loch Ness monster. These are just a few of the reasons why, time and time again, we advise our clients to visit Scotland, a magical land anchored in the collective subconscious of everyone with an unbeatable offer for meetings and events. Avant-garde and modernity are mixed with the most ancient traditions to make the experience of event attendees unparalleled. Scotland offers its visitors beautiful historic stories, and endless, beautiful landscapes. We are absolutely in love with this destination, and here are just some of the reasons we think it makes an amazing M&E destination.
By land, sea and air
Arriving in Scotland and moving across its 79,722 square kilometres is very simple. The region has five international airports – Glasgow, Prestwick, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Inverness- which connect with more than 150 international destinations on scheduled and charter flights. The roads and highways are excellent and, since there are so many islands in Scotland, ferry services are frequent.
I would walk 500 miles…
To see all of the beautiful sights, landscapes, and attractions Scotland has to offer. Urbanites and nature lovers are in luck. Scotland’s cities are full of charm, art, architecture, and world famous lochs. Scottish locks are particularly famous, and are considered a true highlight of the countryside. In particular, Loch Ness, where thousands of tourists travel every year to try their luck at catching a glimpse of Nessy.
If you’re looking for a more unique trip itinerary, you can travel to Luss, a village on the west bank of Loch Lomond. You can take a boat that runs across Lake Lomond and stops at the prestigious Hotel Cameron House pier. This five-star hotel is perfect trip incentive, as in addition to its exclusivity, it has a spa and a magnificent golf course.
Visiting a distillery is also a must to visit. Some of the best known are Deanston, Glenkinchie and Glengoyne.
Scotland also has many castles that are well worth a visit: Edinburgh Castle, Stirling Castle, Eilean Donan…and we’ll stop ourselves here because we could go on and on!
One of the lesser-known travel itinerary options of Scotland is the opportunity to see the Auroras Borealis, as the northern part of the region is in the same latitude as Stavanger in Norway and Nuvinak Island in Alaska. The best time of year to capitalize on this opportunity is in winter.
And if you want to do original teambuilding activities, CWT Meetings & Events suggest you wear the colours of your clan and give it your all at the Highland Games. It is possible to hold a Championship consisting of outdoor team activities in which participants compete in traditional Scottish competitions such as Scottish hammer throwing, log throwing, boot throwing and rope play.
If you’re interested in planning your next corporate event in Scotland, give us a call today and we will be happy to provide you with a personalised offer to enjoy this beautiful country in a unique way.
-
The room is mine – How to captivate your audience
Like it or not, at some point in our careers it is likely that we will need to deliver a speech or a presentation in front of a big audience.
Whether it is a talk at a major event, a sales pitch to win a top account or a presentation for an internal audience, public speaking is a key skill to develop if you want to advance your career.
Now that we’re all used to TED talks, expectations are higher than ever before. So, what can you do to shine in your next public appearance?
- Prepare, prepare, prepare – Unless you are a consummate actress like Olivia Colman, you will not get away with charm alone. There is no such thing as enough preparation. Know your subject, rehearse in front of a mirror or, even better, get someone to record you so you can see yourself afterward and spot the points you need to improve. Being really prepared will save you from reading your notes; a big no-no by TED standards.
- Be genuine – Colman’s success at her acceptance speech at the 2019 Oscars was due in part to the fact that she was genuine. She showed who she really is without putting boundaries on her personality.
- Use humor – Again, Colman mastered this and made everyone cry with laughter.
- Become a storyteller – The most impactful speeches are the ones that use storytelling techniques. There is nothing more boring than someone throwing disconnected information at you. Transform yourself into a narrator and keep your audience engaged. It is especially compelling to use personal examples to keep your audience interested.
- Be ready to change direction – Study your audience carefully to detect possible signs of disengagement. If you see them yawning, it’s time to try something different.
- Control your body language and speaking ticks – Use your hands and do not be static, but do not overdo the gesticulating. You do not want your audience worrying about you suffering from St. Vitus’ Dance. Equally, control your speaking and vocal ticks. No throat clearing, sniffing, grunting, ‘um’, ‘like’, ‘you know’ and so on, please.
- What starts well, ends well – The most powerful parts of your speech are the opening and the closing, so invest your time in working on these parts.
- Prepare, prepare, prepare – Unless you are a consummate actress like Olivia Colman, you will not get away with charm alone. There is no such thing as enough preparation. Know your subject, rehearse in front of a mirror or, even better, get someone to record you so you can see yourself afterward and spot the points you need to improve. Being really prepared will save you from reading your notes; a big no-no by TED standards.
-
CWT Energy, Resources & Marine launches ERM mobility, a workforce management platform that saves time and money and helps keep employees safe
CWT Energy, Resources and Marine, a unit of CWT, the B2B4E travel management platform, has launched a brand new version of ERM mobility, a powerful workforce management platform that allows companies to manage complex travel needs through one single interface, reducing complexity, speeding up processes, boosting safety, and saving money.
“Travel in the ERM industry can be a hugely complicated business, involving crew rotations to the world’s most difficult places via commercial flights, chartered planes, helicopters, or speedboats, fleets of buses, camp and site accommodation, and dozens of different service providers. ERM mobility ties it all together, making travel simple,” said Raphaël Pasdeloup, Senior VP and Global Head of CWT Energy, Resources & Marine. “The upshot is that our clients save around 15%, spend up to 75% less time on booking – and get much more control over their travel program.”
ERM mobility consolidates all the myriad data sources and processes into a single seamless workflow, with all the complexity hidden away behind an easy-to-use interface. CWT ERM can thus provide travelers with a fully-integrated booking solution, which looks and handles like a consumer-grade product. Logistics coordinators use a single touchpoint to access all aspects of commercial and remote site travel management.
Meanwhile, travel managers get accurate, real-time information on each traveler, enabling them to react quickly and effectively in emergencies like extreme weather events, industrial accidents, or security incidents. Since the energy, resources and marine industries operate in extreme, dangerous and remote locations, that can mean the difference between life and death.
By combining and consolidating all the data flows involved in travel – commercial and specialist, global and local – the ERM mobility platform also delivers clean, consistent data for financial reporting, efficient workforce management and optimization of travel spend.
ERM mobility is available globally.
CWT is a leading global partner in business travel, meetings, and events. Operating across six continents, we deliver sustainable, tailored solutions that help organizations connect, engage, and thrive in an evolving world. Our myCWT platform integrates advanced technology with human expertise to simplify travel and enhance traveler and attendee experiences. Extensive global coverage, seamless data integration, AI-driven analytics, and carbon-conscious travel tools enable businesses to optimize their travel and meetings programs while delivering measurable value.
With 150 years of industry experience and a deep commitment to partnership, CWT collaborates with clients to shape the future of business travel and events, making them more efficient, responsible, and impactful.
CWT Energy, Resources & Marine
We provide specialist travel management solutions for many of the world’s leading companies in the oil & gas, mining, offshore, marine and alternative energies industries. With our rich heritage and experience, we help our clients find the right solutions for their complex travel needs, often in some of the least accessible places on earth. We are proud to be part of CWT – a global leader in travel, hotel booking and meetings & events.