One Global Community Partner Event 2024
A week never to be forgotten – that’s how our One Global Community Partner Event was described by delegates.
With partners and suppliers jetting into Cape Town from all over the world, it followed last year’s partner event in Atlantic City.
This year’s event was at Boschendal Farm, about an hour from the centre of Cape Town.
Nestled among the mountains, the working farm with sustainability and regenerative farming at its heart, has produced wine for more than 330 years, making it one of the oldest wine estates in South Africa.
And it is famed for its warm welcome, which didn’t disappoint.
With guests arriving on the Monday, the week’s proceedings eased into action over drinks while listening to local music and singers before tucking into a braai – a traditional South African barbecue.
The first night was rounded off with people renewing acquaintances and forging new friendships around a log fire – it all made for a great start!
Waking to a stunning sunrise at Boschendal – Dutch for bush and dale – the One Global community mobilised early to enjoy a networking breakfast together before being officially welcomed to South Africa via video message from One Global General Manager, Jodie Gentles.
This was followed by One Global CEO, Pat McDonagh, who explained why we were having the conference.
He said: “It is about meeting people that you are doing business with face and building really, really strong relationships.
“It doesn’t mean we are going to Powerpoint you to death for the next three days and send everyone away wondering what they have just heard and listened to.
“This is about us building the kind of relationships where we can pick the phone up to each other and solve problems together really, really effectively. I don’t think you do that sitting in a room together for three days. I think you do that by having fun together, dining together and doing great things together. That has always been a principle we’ve applied here at One Global.
“I go back to those of you who went to our night at the pub in Manchester. Good fun, and we had a laugh. It is really important we can laugh together, have fun together and play together because that is how you build friendships, that’s how you build really strong connections.
“That’s what is going to separate us from the networks and make us a community. That’s going to make a difference.”
Updates from across the business were the order of the first day with sessions in the morning and afternoon, split by networking breaks.
Delegates first heard from Ewan Kassir, Head of Global Sales, of Clarity Business Travel and Lisa Lundquist, Vice President Global Accounts Partners, World Travel Inc.
They gave business updates from across One Global which included 14 wins to date, worth $73m.
Ewan then hosted a business session with Pat and World Travel Inc President Erika Moore as panelists which focused on the present day, as well as the future for business travel. They also answered questions from partners and suppliers in the audience.
World Travel Inc’s Barbara Barnard then gave a really engaging presentation on ‘roots of revenue’. Again, members of the audience were quick to get involved as Barbara used data to show One Global’s collaborative efforts can cultivate success.
Now with 21 community partners worldwide, the conference was able to welcome its newest partners – XL Turners Travel from South Africa, Worldlink Travels (Sri Lanka and The Maldives), Gattinoni/BT Expert (Italy), Thomas Cook (India) and Almosafer (Middle East).
The community now has more than $5.3bn purchasing power, with more than 10.5m managed transactions globally, thanks to its group of market-leading TMCs.
Oliver Moore, on behalf of supplier Enterprise, gave delegates an update on business, with a focus on Enterprise Mobility, and revealed Enterprise has a reach of more than 90 countries and territories worldwide, with more than 9,500 branches with new locations springing up all the time.
Insights and trends were discussed, including electric vehicles, before closing with an optimistic outlook for the rest of the year.
World Travel’s Ivan Imana took to the stage next for an eagerly-anticipated talk ‘AI… 4th Evolution of Cultural Change’.
He used a number of case studies to show how AI is changing business travel, as well as the hospitality industry where it’s transforming guest experiences, enhancing operations and, as the delegates were pleased to hear, increasing revenue.
The afternoon session was handed over to the partners and suppliers – including representatives from Enterprise, Umbrella, Snowstorm, Posadas, Accor and Hilton – who were able to meet face to face in the fabulous surroundings of The Retreat conference area.
The day was rounded off with a visit to The Pot Luck Club in Cape Town, considered to be one of the best restaurants in South Africa, where the chef prepared a special menu for our visit.
Wednesday sprung into life with some early morning activities for the delegates who headed out for a hike, on a bike, or for a wander around the grounds of the farm.
It set them up nicely for breakfast at The Retreat before the second day of business sessions took place, with plenty of networking breaks in between to talk shop over a coffee or tea.
In the morning session, there was a focus on insights into Meetings and Events.
Paul Casement, Brighter’s Executive Director of Groups, Meetings and Events, was joined on stage by Lisa Lundquist, as well as Fiona Prosser from Globetrotter, and Gianni Salvadori of Melia Hotels International.
Again, insights into the industry were discussed with plenty of audience engagement, and Paul reiterated how important technology has become, with Brighter’s meetings management software, MeetingsPro, being demonstrated on the big screen.
The hotel industry was the next topic of conversation with Snowstorm Technologies’ Chief Commercial Officer Julie Janzen joined for a panel session by Posadas’ Jame Haberckon, Reka Szivropulosz of Accor, Peter Maltby of Hilton and Sofie Gransbo of BIG Travel.
They covered a wide range of subjects including GDS, loyalty cards, bed banks and sustainability in an engaging session where audience questions freely flowed.
Last but not least before the lunch break was Lisa Lundquist who talked about ECPAT International, a group of organisations who are aiming to end child prostitution and trafficking around the world.
It was an enlightening presentation showing how the travel and tourism sector was doing its part to keep children safe and information was given on how to get involved.
Straight after lunch, Ivan was back on the stage, with David Rifkin from eGlobal Fares, one of One Global’s suppliers.
They talked about how global TMCs can find it tricky to access and manage global fare content.
But it was explained how eGlobalfares can simplify it all, with benefits like increased revenues, speciality fares, and after-hours service.
Some regional business insights were discussed next by the penultimate panel of the day, hosted by Lisa Lundquist, which was made up of Linda Edwards of XL Turners, Prasad Shriyan of Thomas Cook India Limited, Felicity Neary of Globetrotter, Andreas Neumann of ADAC in Germany and Andreas Schneider of Kuoni.
They gave a glimpse into how trading is in their part of the world before looking to the future, and how One Global can play a part.
That led nicely onto the final panel session of the conference, ‘The Future of the TMC’ where Ewan and Pat spoke with Paul Broughton and Sheila Thorp of suppliers Travelport and Umbrella Faces.
They discussed how travel tech can really help all of the One Global community while predicting what could happen in the coming months and years.
That closed the business part of the day and the party headed off to the Haute Cabriere winery in Franschhoek where they watched the sun go down after a champagne sabre was used to open the first bottle of the night.
We were then treated to some audience-participation African music, before some wine tasting and fabulous food, even getting a look around the wine cellar.
Thursday was a very special day indeed.
The One Global party made its way to Nondzame Primary School which had benefited from contributions from those attending the conference.
While there, we cleaned walls, painted a mural, got busy in the kitchen, removed rocks from the football field and dug up and planted gardens.
It’s safe to say it was an emotional day. The children were wonderful little helpers and many delegates found it difficult to leave but are determined to keep in touch with the school and hope One Global’s contribution really helps them going forward.
For the final evening we met at Boschendal’s Werf restaurant where we enjoyed live music from jazz band while taking part in a wine-tasting quiz before sitting down to eat.
And afterwards we were enlightened by keynote speaker John Sanei, a futurist, who gave us ideas on how we could prepare for our future.
Following these futuristic revelations, it was time for the auction of paintings which were done at the school in the morning.
Brighter’s Kate Wolstenholme and Claire Conboy did well to prise wallets and purses open and it meant the One Global community raised more than £4,000 to be given to Nondzame.
Erika Moore, President of World Travel Inc, said of the whole event: “This has been outstanding and emotional. I always knew coming into this place, I knew World Travel was very, very special but I had no idea how special One Global was.
“The connections, the people, what you bring to this is so unique. I am really touched, the conversations we have had, the commitment to one another and the ability to help support our businesses above and beyond – this is just the beginning.”
