3 Big Takeaways From Skift Business Travel and Future of Work Summit

The Skift Live Business Travel and Future of Work Summit was a timely affair, hitting the one-year mark of the pandemic. In March 2020, putting the "future of work" into a conference agenda may have seemed irrelevant, but Wednesday’s virtual event placed a spotlight on just how pivotal it is to the wider travel industry, and especially hotels. Travel managers are sliding into other parts of their organizations, some more willingly than others. There’s more interaction with human resources and real estate teams, as they take stock of post-pandemic working habits. On the flip side, it’s a wake-up call to hotels and travel management companies, which will need to meet these new requirements from corporates, and equally step up to help them redefine the future of corporate travel. Here's three big takeaways that emerged from the summit. The Emergence of the Culture Budget Billions of dollars were saved by companies last year, due to the fact their employees weren’t traveling. At Microsoft alone, global travel director Eric Bailey said this equated to $100 million a month. In 2021, more savings are ahead as offices are phased out. Where does that money go? One area shou