The Institute of Travel Management (ITM) has announced that the line-up of keynote speakers at its annual conference on April 27-28 will include Gary Neville, renowned  footballing legend and  hospitality entrepreneur. He will address delegates on day two sharing his insights on this year’s ‘Revive’ conference themes which include return to travel, sustainability, wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, plus meetings and events.

The conference will be delivered by a ground-breaking new Venueless platform allowing unprecedented virtual networking and interactivity between delegates, speakers and sponsors. Designed to simulate a face-to-face event, it allows participants to explore event rooms and group call other conference delegates in real time via an interactive ‘Networking Hall’. The platform also provides an innovative sponsors expo, break out rooms, polling, direct messaging and set-up meeting options.

Day one of the conference programme opens with a session entitled ‘Where Are We?’ led by Kelly Beaver, Managing Director of Ipsos MORI’s Public Affairs division designed to give delegates greater understanding of the business travel industry’s current recovery status and future public opinion.

Other panel and break-out sessions over the two days include a debate on the Future of Managed Travel, as the dramatic reduction in volumes has entirely reframed the way people and organisations view business travel.  Experts will explore what the managed travel of the future will look like and how to optimise and stimulate it.

Further sessions will look at Travel Enablement, its requirements and the reality. Delegates will gain insight into how the journey experience will have changed when business travel resumes. A panel of frequent travellers will also discuss their sentiments about embarking on a business trip, whether by plane, train or car, and staying in hotels again given the safety and health concerns caused by the Covid pandemic. The session also examines how organisations will encourage their most valuable assets to give up working from home and return to the office.

Scott Davies commented: “This year’s conference is very much focussed on providing a programme of sessions that will support and guide our business travel community as we rebuild our industry and return to travel.  As we start to recover from the greatest challenge our industry has ever faced ITM is here to help REVIVE your travel programme, business and career.

“We are delighted to welcome Gary Neville as a keynote speaker this year,” he continued. “Gary’s many business interests include a rapidly growing and highly successful hospitality company, and he has shown great leadership throughout the pandemic by supporting key workers and his teams with equal care and compassion. This is definitely a conference session that no one should miss.

“We are also excited to announce that, following on from the success of our Thrive virtual conference series last year, we are taking this year’s event to new heights in terms of deploying an all-new, innovative platform to enable rich content delivery, special guests, unprecedented interactivity and the opportunity to directly meet each other,” said Davies. “It combines top-notch live streaming with powerful communication tools into a digital event experience that both attendees and speakers will love. We are also optimistic that this will be the last time our conference is delivered virtually and we will meet face to face again next time.”