Business Executive Travel launches boutique B2B event

After Jerry Allison’s magazine,  Business Travel Executive, barely weathered Covid, he went on to launch a small private event that was profitable in its first year, competing against a much larger annual industry event.

Along the way,  his  T&E Summit,  limited to 78 attendees, broke ground in how buyers and suppliers interact in a small niche with huge purchasing power and rapidly evolving technology.

The category includes about  10,000 corporate travel managers managing $25 to 100 million in travel spending each, Allison said.

They largely control purchasing for the corporate travel market spend that Custom Market Insights (CMI),  estimated at  $251.1 billion in 2022, and which is expected to hit $330.2 billion by 2032. 

The huge, annual association-led event draws 8,000 attendees per year.

But Allison noticed that event, large as it was, often failed to match buyers and sellers in meaningful ways.

Teaming up with a partner that understood meetings, they designed the The T&E Summit as  boutique meeting, limited  to 78 attendees the first year.

Here are some of the elements deployed:

• 20 buyers, 20 speakers, 20 sponsors
• Intimate, with speakers engaging in two-way conversations
• 9 sessions,  plus breakfast, lunch, and dinner provided
• Attendees paid $800 for the hotel and meals, a discount from the larger event
• Sponsors paid  $7,000 to $25,000

“It was intimate. It was conversational. It was thought-leadership. It was about collaboration,” Allison said.

“I’m becoming a meeting publisher.”

The collaborative approach is demonstrated by an event that was called “Buyers only” meeting, and next year will be called  the “Buyers supplier face-off.”

The first day, the buyers get together to meet and discuss “the hot issues that are affecting corporate travel today” and come up with an issue list.

The next day,  buyers and suppliers “get together to talk about solving these problems in corporate travel,” Allison said.

“It is in two parts. The purpose is to enhance and promote collaboration between the buyer side and the supplier side of the industry.

“In many ways, there are huge technology innovations going on, but in many ways, the industry is antiquated in terms of business practice.

“We’re thinking of getting more corporate buyers  who can actually get involved  in dialogue that will move the industry forward.”

The goal is also to expand to two summits in 2026.

Many thanks to Jerry Allison for sharing his insights with members.