Planned hosts panel at GBTA Conference 2023

With the new reality of meetings and events, new strategies are necessary for efficient workflows and optimized spend.

We are happy to announce that Planned will be leading a panel alongside Dropbox, Jones Lang LaSalle, and DRW at the 2023 GBTA Convention in Dallas on August 15.

Our panelists

Joining us will be three industry experts who have been at the forefront of embracing changes and new ways of tackling travel, meetings and events.

Kara Brayton, Global Travel Manager at DRW

Kara Brayton is DRW Holdings' Global Travel Manager. She leads travel operations for employees across 13 countries. A member of the GBTA Aviation Committee, she has over 10 years of experience in the travel and meetings space.

Her areas of expertise include launching enterprise-wide projects, creating and implementing sustainability initiatives, and building quality partnerships.

Her knowledge, insight and comprehensive thought leadership have resulted in the development of best-in-class strategic travel and meetings programs with cutting-edge technology.

Leslie Andrews, Global Category Leader for Travel at Jones Lang Lasalle

Leslie draws upon over 20 years of expertise in all facets of the hospitality industry and higher education.

She is a pragmatic servant-leader building innovative global travel and expense management systems, inclusive of custom organizational adoption practices.

Her areas of expertise include transformational facilitation, DEI and performance management consulting, experiential learning, and faculty leadership.

Currently, Leslie is Director of Global Travel Category for JLL, as well as an ad hoc Professional Development Trainer and Coach.

Kristina Orlin, Global Travel Program Manager at Dropbox

As Global Travel Program Manager at Dropbox, Kristina Orlin has a wealth of experience in the travel industry and 20 years of experience in customer service.

With previous studies in various international destinations, her firsthand experiences have translated into exceptional travel management and significant cost savings.

Her expertise in travel management drives results through attention to detail, organization, accountability and strategy.

Our Head of Product, Gabriella Hachem, will lead the panel. It will cover the necessary elements of event tech for a strategic approach to event planning.

After a variety of actionable steps and industry insights, we will welcome your questions to go even deeper into the conversation.

We hope to see you there!

Strategies for dealing with inflation and decentralization

Event planning is more and more decentralized. Everyone from marketing to workplace to executive assistants is occasionally planning meetings and events. In other words, in a company of 5,000 people, you now have 5,000 potential planners.

In the meantime, inflation, limited availability, and short lead times are making it harder than ever for planners to optimize expenses on their own. Especially when event planning isn’t part of their day-to-day job.

Travel and meetings professionals rely on Strategic Meetings Management to improve time and cost efficiency. But are your processes and policies in line with the new reality? Does your SMM tools give you visibility and control over all your events, not just the one booked by your centralized event planning team?

What you can expect

During our panel, we’ll review best practices for modern Strategic Meetings Management, as well as must-have tools.

Our panelists will share their own success stories and priority list, to help you step-up your SMM game, in an actionable way.

See you there with our exclusive GBTA offer!

Can't attend but want to see more details? Download our deck on How to save $1 Million with Strategic Meetings Management here.