Sammit
Khanndeparkar is global travel and expense manager at Astellas and also serves on the advisory board of Business Travel Show Europe
Sammit
Khanndeparkar is global travel and expense manager at Astellas Pharma Europe. He also serves on the advisory board for Business Travel Show
Europe, which takes
place 29-30 June 2022 at ExCeL London, where he is taking part in a buyer-only masterclass called Managing a multinational travel programme
– I want to balance global strategy with local needs.
What are the
biggest challenges facing you right now as a buyer and
why?
The biggest challenge
is where and how to reset and restart the programme, but also negotiating airline and
preferred hotel contracts, as it is very difficult to determine a baseline at this moment.
What action
will you take this year to make your programme more sustainable? What action do
you want to see from suppliers? And how do you want your TMC to support you?
We are looking
at reducing travel wherever it is not required, using trains wherever possible
– especially within the EU – and offsetting C02, working with our TMC to report good C02 data, and to
enhance the train content proposition.
Are you
planning to source/renegotiate with any of your suppliers this year?
We will hold on
and extend the present airlines deals we have in place. For our hotel programme, we have negotiated rates and introduced a global hotel rate cap.
What's the main reason you attend Business Travel Show Europe?
There are
three: rich content, the networking and the supplier showcase.
Tell us in
20 words or fewer why you would recommend other buyers visit the event?
It’s the best
industry event to get access to a wealth of content, speaker sessions, meet
global corporate travel suppliers and to network.
• Diaries open: Travel managers attending Business Travel Show Europe as Hosted Buyers can now request and book appointments with more than 150 suppliers. For more information about the event, and to register, click here.