“There’s no shortage of new technologies in the business travel arena,” says ACTE executive director Ron DiLeo, “but the potential these tools bring are limited as long as we continue buying and managing travel as we have for the past 20 years.” What are needed now, he says, are new ideas and fresh approaches to travel management, “and we will be scouring the world in search of the top three thinkers aged under 33 for their ideas about next-generation travel management”.

A recent survey of ACTE members revealed surprising results: while the use of social media, marketing and communication skills, and behavioural management topped the list of those attributes perceived as most important, procurement was deemed least important.

One respondee noted that programmes designed by the over-50s, built by the over-40s for use by the under-30s, was a “complete disconnect”. And while DiLeo concedes that good ideas are certainly not limited to young people, he says that with 3 under 33, ACTE is trying to create “the sizzle that will attract new talent to our industry”.

The 3 under 33 programme is scheduled to commence before the end of 2010, with the first trio of winners from the Americas being announced at the ACTE Global Education Conference in New York City (April 2011), the second set of three recipients from Asia-Pacific being announced at the ACTE Asia-Pacific Education Conference in Singapore, (August 2011) and three additional winners being announced at the ACTE Global Education Conference in Paris (October 2011), culminating with one top winner globally being announced at the end of the Paris conference.