Alexandria, VA (July 22, 2011)—Ensuring the well being of your athletes and getting the most from your managed travel were topics that dominated on day two of the first ever Global Business Travel Association’s (GBTA) Sports Conference event,  held July 21-22, 2011 at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown, Indianapolis, Ind.  The GBTA Sports Conference focused on the unique needs of the sports business travel sector.  Sports business travel is a distinct segment of travel management that represents a significant impact on the business travel industry.

Friday’s general session, “Time Zones and the Sleepy Athletes—Travel Considerations with Professional Sports Organizations,” featured W. Christopher Winter, M.D., medical director, Martha Jefferson Hospital Sleep Medicine Center. Dr. Winter discussed home field advantage and what he called circadian advantage. Explaining, teams who travel across time zones need days to acclimate while the opposing team will win because they have circadian advantage because they received the rest and sleep needed to compete.  He said the single most important thing that hotels could do “is to have a room that can be completely blacked out” so an athlete has the best chance at a good night sleep.

Trip Davis, co-founder and non-executive chairman, TRX, and president of the Darden School Foundation, University of Virginia, moderated the panel discussion, “Pitching a Perfect Game—Communicating the Value of Your Sports Business Travel Program,” which discussed how to quantify and articulate the value of a travel program both in and outside an organization. 

Panelists included, John Anthony, president and CEO, Anthony Travel, Kevin Maguire, travel manager for Intercollegiate Athletics, University of Texas at Austin, and Darla Montalto, corporate travel manager, Major League Baseball.  The panelists discussed the importance of a well managed travel program because managing sports business travel costs can be tricky. “Everyone is entitled to make a profit and to think otherwise is unrealistic.  My concern, however, is that we are being charged higher rates simply because we’re a major university with a big athletic program,” said Maguire.

The morning concluded with breakout sessions focusing on contract negotiations, traveler safety and security and best practices in ground transportation and chartered air regulations and efficiencies.

Dave Hilfman, senior vice president of Sales, United, delivered a fascinating and entertaining luncheon keynote.  He discussed the issues currently facing the airline industry saying a, “healthy airline industry helps everyone.”  He went on to say that the airline industry has been changed over the years by a variety of challenges it has had to face, including the rising cost of oil.

About the Global Business Travel Association
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the world’s premier business travel and meetings organization. Collectively, GBTA’s 5,000-plus members manage over $340 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually. GBTA provides its network of 17,000 business and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers, with networking events, news, education & professional development, research, and advocacy. For more information, visit gbta.org