Andrew Sheivachman

Venues are getting smarter about designing space in a more flexible way to enable more creative events. This is a welcome change as companies and groups gravitate away from the tired old meeting concepts and toward more memorable, experiential events.

By revenue and booking volume, Serko remains a small player among global travel management companies. Its technology prowess, however, has outstripped many of the bigger players, setting it up for future expansion.

Sabre has slimmed down over the last year and is investing in its airline and hospitality technology products. Find out more from CEO Sean Menke at the Skift Tech Forum on June 12 in Santa Clara, Calif.

In a somewhat bizarre twist, even hotel chains are beginning to provide travel management tools to small businesses. This further underscores how much some growing businesses don't really want to deal with a travel management company at all.

Designing a conference like a festival leads to some edges and messy experiences that challenge and confuse attendees. It will be fascinating to see how the concept fares as it is exported to a diverse range of global destinations.

C2 may be past the point of reinventing itself as it looks to export its brand of experiential business conferences around the world. Yet, the tweaks it has made to its hallmark event demonstrate the work to scale its interactive festival as its popularity surges.

Hotel companies are reporting strong earnings from corporate business. This is as good a sign as any that the latest business travel boom has continued into 2018, and it will be interesting to see how this tees up corporate hotel rate increases that make business travel even more expensive for companies.

Hyatt seems to realize not only that small businesses are the most untapped portion of corporate travel, but that a solid business travel experience can lead to dividends on the leisure side as well. Whether this program catches on is another story, though.

Corporate travel continues to grow as the global economy hums along immune to the geopolitical issues cropping up around the world. How long can it last? And will increasing hotel rates eat away at the increased spending made by corporations?

Event planners know technology can enhance the attendee experience if deployed appropriately. How much technology is too much, though, remains an open question.