Hailed as “the guru of green business practices” by The Associated Press, keynote speaker Joel Makower will address 1,500 delegates during his presentation, entitled “The Environment Challenge: A New Mindset” at the…
Hailed as “the guru of green business practices” by The Associated Press, keynote speaker Joel Makower will address 1,500 delegates during his presentation, entitled “The Environment Challenge: A New Mindset” at the 15th Incentive Travel & Conventions, Meetings Asia (IT&CMA) and 10th Corporate Travel World (CTW) Asia-Pacific 2007.
With Asia topping world charts in travel and tourism growth and activity, businesses and travellers in Asia hold important roles in fronting environmental efforts to go green. Makower will address rising concerns on energy security and climate change, as well as the opportunities and obstacles faced by businesses by turning environmentally friendly. Most importantly, the keynote session is anticipated to harness green thinking amongst delegates who aim to create business value and competitive advantage in today’s world.
On the keynote topic, Makower remarked, “Nearly every aspect of travel is being viewed through a ‘green’ lens, from transportation to tourism, hospitality to conference venues. But there’s no single standard – as with so many other sectors, there’s no definition of ‘how good is good enough’. That makes it challenging for even the most committed companies to be seen as green.”
Makower elaborated, “It’s not just the travel industry, of course. Nearly every sector is facing similar challenges. The result is that today’s travel industry customer can arrive with a wide range of interests and expectations.”
For nearly 20 years, Joel Makower has been a well-respected voice on business, the environment and the bottom line. As a writer and strategist on corporate sustainability practices and clean technology, he has helped a wide range of companies align environmental goals with business strategy. He is chairman and executive editor of Greener World Media, which produces the acclaimed resource centre, GreenBiz.com and its sister sites, ClimateBiz.com and GreenerBuildings.com. In addition, he is the co-founder of Clean Edge, a clean-tech research and publishing firm, and a senior advisor at GreenOrder, a sustainability strategy consultancy. He also writes “Two Steps Forward” a popular blog on sustainable business, clean technology and green marketing.
A former nationally syndicated columnist, he is author of more than a dozen books, including Beyond the Bottom Line: Putting Social Responsibility to Work for Your Business and the World and The E-Factor: The Bottom-Line Approach to Environmentally Responsible Business. Makower has helped a variety of companies develop and implement their sustainability strategies, including GE, GM, Hewlett Packard, and Nike. He is a Batten Fellow at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, an advisor to VantagePoint Venture Partner’s clean-technology practice, and serves on a board or in an advisory capacity for a variety of other for-profit and non-profit organisations.
IT&CMA and CTW Asia-Pacific will be co-located for the fourth year and will be held at the Bangkok Convention Centre (BCC) at CentralWorld from 23 – 25 October 2007. IT&CMA is the region’s premier meetings and incentive travel show which promotes the Asia-Pacific region as a MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions & Exhibitions) destination as well as a source for MICE visitors. CTW Asia-Pacific is a conference and exhibition on Travel & Entertainment (T&E) management for the Asia-Pacific region.
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