THE APPY TRAVELLER

When it comes to travelling on business, time is money and stress equals reduced productivity, so anything that can save time and reduce stress must be a good thing, right? This is why I’ve decided to share my top ten business travel apps:

1              TripIt (iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows)
A serious app for the organized traveller; TripIt keeps track of all your confirmation emails for the trip and creates an itinerary for you to follow. You can even book restaurant reservations or reserve tickets for a show through this app.


2              GateGuru (iOS, Android)Invaluable when it comes to long airport layovers, GateGuru provides maps of terminals, security line wait times and tracking for your flight.

3              Yelp (iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows)

Yelp's free app searches for locations like restaurants, bars and coffee shops around you, then provides details like hours, price and user ratings to help you make the best decision on where to travel next.

4              WiFi Finder (iOS, Android)

Wi-Fi Finder is a free app that helps travellers find over 320,000 registered public Wi-Fi hotspots. What’s not to like?

5              FlightTrack (iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows)

Easy to use app for info about specific flights from more than 5,000 airports and 1,400 airlines. It includes maps, flight statistics and more. Also integrates with your itineraries on TripIt.

6              Turboscan (iOS)

A free document scanner app that saves images as PDF or JPG image files, which you can then e-mail or send to a cloud storage service such as DropBox.

7              DroidScanLite(Android)

Similar to Turboscan for Android handsets.

8              Expensify (most)

Easy to use – either enter details yourself, take shots of receipts or use the app’s auto-scanning tool. Swiftly creates slick expense reports.

9              Worldcard Mobile (iOS, Windows)

Take photos of business cards as you collect them and this app translates them to digital files. Easy as that.

10           Time Master+ Billing (iOS)

This app keeps tabs on how long you spend on different projects or clients and produces detailed reports , which can  be back up on Dropbox to synchronised with other devices to create professional-looking invoices.

David Chapple is event director of the Business Travel Show – talk to him on Twitter @btshowlondon.

HOW DID WE FORGET ABOUT GATWICK?

There has been pretty much one topic on everyone’s lips in the industry this week and that is the argument for a third runway at Heathrow Airport. Why? Because the UK government is due to unveil a consultation document on its new airports strategy in the next few weeks. Note: the consultation document isn’t about Heathrow and its third runway. In fact, expansion at Heathrow isn’t even included as one of the options on the table. And yet, it would appear, all roads (or should that be runways) keep leading back to Heathrow.

There’s no doubting that Heathrow is a problem that needs fixing. It’s currently operating at a perilous 99 per cent capacity. Some have suggested introducing mixed mode flying (ie using its two runways for inbound and outbound flights) to increase this capacity by 15 per cent and another 10 million passengers per year.

But, in my opinion, Heathrow is a bit of red herring in this whole debate. We need to stop talking about it and get back to the real issue: how is aviation going to grow over the next 20, 30 years and how are we going to build an infrastructure fit for purpose to continue supporting the growth of UK Plc?

In the short term, the answer is not Heathrow. Or Marsden. Or Boris Island. Let’s open our eyes and look to other airports in the South East, airports with capacity: Luton, Stansted, Gatwick.

Gatwick, for one, is currently operating at around 80 per cent capacity on its single runway. It’s projected to grow to 40 million passengers by 2020 with that one runway (it’s currently at just under 34 million). It’s connected to London for business better than any other airport, with train links to Victoria, London Bridge, City Link and Kings Cross. And it’s currently investing around £20 million per month into new passenger facilities as part of a six year £1.2 billion programme due for completion around 2014/2015. This investment and infrastructure make Gatwick a great option for business travellers.

But I’m not here to champion Gatwick over Heathrow, or Stansted over Boris Island. I’m here to champion common sense and to say let’s park Heathrow for now and start thinking long term for the good of this industry. 

Posted by David Chapple - talk to him on Twitter @btshowlondon or david@businesstravelshow.com 

LONDON'S CALLING

As the Olympics heaves into sight we’re beginning to see how the main sponsors have chosen to connect their brand to the Olympic theme.

As a Tier-One sponsor, BA’s campaign, which landed on the 19^thJune, is a perfectly executed piece of work from BBH with the cheeky line of ‘Don’t Fly,’ extolling the nation to stay home and cheer on Team GB.

I’ve seen some negative comments about the advert, suggesting that it’s crazy for the airline to encourage potential customers to stay away, but surely that’s missing the point of this creative idea. Beyond the TV advert a social campaign enables viewers to enter their postcode and then see their street go past through the cabin window. It’s clever, relevant and all to the soundtrack of The Clash’s iconic track, London’s Calling, genuine feel-good advert that captures both the spirit of the Olympics and the fun of travel.

Over the next few weeks I’m sure there’s going to be plenty to tut about with regards to the Olympics, but campaigns like this remind us that this is, in part, a celebration of this great city and that despite its faults, something we should all be proud of.


David Chapple is event director of the Business Travel Show - he’d love to hear what you think about this topic - contact him on Twitter @btshowlondon

THERE'S HOSTED, AND THEN THERE'S HOSTED

I was interested in the opinions recently expressed in the June edition of C&IT in the Big Debate article: Can trade shows deliver ROI in the current climate? The majority of views, albeit for different reasons, were in favour of trade shows, but the real argument centred on the difference between shows that offer a hosted programme and those that don’t.

It’s just a simple fact that a trade show that initiates and maintains a creative and ambitious hosted programme will always deliver more ROI for both visitors and exhibitors than those that don’t. The question I’d add to the debate however is what is a genuine hosted programme?

We've learnt at the Business Travel Show that you can only really drive ROI for visitors if the hosted programme is a year round commitment with a highly focused business networking and education programme. There also needs to be meaningful ways for both groups to interact and meet over the two days of the show. Having a deeper understanding of the market helps too, BTS 2013 will be our 19th year, enabling us to quickly identify the trends and unique requirements of this complex market.

So embrace successful events, they genuinely do offer a strong return,  but in these challenging times it’s not unreasonable to look harder at the criteria that you use to determine what is and isn't a successful event.

David Chapple is event director of the Business Travel Show - he’d love to hear what you think about this topic - contact him on Twitter @btshowlondon

IS UK PLC TRAVELLING ITS WAY OUT OF RECESSION?

I read good news yesterday. Very good news. The UK appears to be travelling its way out of the double dip recession.

I've always believed that when the going gets tough, businesses should not cut back, but continue to invest in business development to shore up their futures. And, in my opinion, there's no better way to secure new business and maintain strong relationships with existing clients than through face to face meetings. 

According to ABTN, a study carried out by GBTA predicts a 0.7% rise in business travel spending by UK-based businesses this year compared to declines within the rest of Europe. But what's really interesting is where they are travelling from and to.

Delve into the monthly BAA Traffic and Business Commentary for May and you'll see that traffic through Heathrow was down 0.6% last month, while traffic through Glasgow rose by 10%, Aberdeen 16% and Edinburgh 2.2. Why? Well the ‘from’ could very well be linked to my blog on Monday about business travellers using regional airports to connect to long haul flights at European hubs outside of the UK to avoid paying APD.

And if you look at the ‘to’, you’ll find that flights to the North Atlantic rose by 1.6% yet flights to Europe dropped 9%, which implies that we may be avoiding the Eurozone during its ongoing crisis, but we are still flying to see our friends in North America in the hope of doing business with companies and countries that we already know and feel safe with. 

David Chapple is event director of the Business Travel Show - he’d love to hear what you think about this topic - contact him on Twitter @btshowlondon   

Business Travelers Welcome

If you are traveling on business you may not realize it, but you are a hot commodity right now, it's true. unfortunately, customer reward has been hiding ever felt the global economic crisis. These days, hotels, car rental, airline, and hotel industries that pay attention to a slight increase in business travel, and it is a very good thing for their shareholders equity and quarterly profits. Indeed, traveling business people are often given a quote for the extra nights, extra day car rental, and even a free add-on services by companies that want to retain them as loyal customers. type of discount strategy worked. fortunately, the business travel market will come back, and the sign can be read loud and clear; Business Travelers Welcome! You see, as a business trying to grow out of recession, they must re-establish commercial contacts, and send the sales, marketing, and proposal teams to meet and greet clients. This is a win-win for all industries, particularly hospitality concerned that they really need to go back and spend on everything travel related. Of course, these days there are a lot of competition for the business trip. No hotels, extended stay hotel and timeshare rental condos and even serving the business community, a welcome sign that flashes in neon light, they want your business, and they will do anything to use it. they aim to please.

TRAVELLERS GO OUT OF THEIR WAY (LITERALLY) TO AVOID APD

Thanks to a recent report from Sainsbury's Finance claiming that families are planning to avoid or reduce APD by taking more staycations and long-haul flights from other European countries, APD is back in the news again.

Not that it’s been out of the news much (try Google-ing it). Since it was introduced in 1994 to combat the lack of VAT on fuel, APD has been the subject of many an angry rant from leisure and business travel journalists, who fight back with renewed vigour each time an additional price hike is announced.

And who can blame them? What started out as an extra £10 per passenger per long-haul economy flight from the UK peaks at an incredible £125 come 2016. The Government defends APD tooth and nail, claiming it’s a valid eco-tax. But they would, wouldn’t they? It accounts for £2.6bn in additional revenue to the treasury.

My question is whether APD is about to back fire on the Government as savvy business travellers get wise and fly short haul out of the UK using Charles de Gaulle, Schiphol or Frankfurt as their long haul hubs. This would certainly reduce the APD coffers in the short term and damage the UK economy in the long term.

If APD really is a green tax as the Government claims, maybe they need to look at ways to incentivise airlines to be more environmentally friendly rather than penalising the passengers who – just possibly – think they’re already paying enough taxes as it is.

Posted by David Chapple - talk to him on Twitter @btshowlondon