Great to see Queensland’s business travel community come together thanks to Derek Sadubin and the GBTA | APAC Business Travel Forum at the Sofitel Brisbane Central

March 12, 2026 Traveller Times

M.Z.I. Dalton Zahir | TravellerTimes Desk: Great to see Queensland’s business travel community come together thanks to Derek Sadubin and the GBTA | APAC Business Travel Forum at the Sofitel Brisbane Central

Derek broached the topic of the Middle East early in the day and, with so much misinformation circulating, the quote of the day came from Peter Wiseman from Corporate Travel Management (CTM) AU/NZ – “Don’t listen to the media – listen to ATIA” Australian Travel Industry Association 👏

It was great to hear from Cheryl Embery from Virgin Australia, interviewed by Allan Leibowitz sharing insights into Virgin’s investment back into their fleet with six Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft already delivered and another 12 expected by the end of the year.

A great panel discussion followed with Peter Wiseman, Virginia Fitzpatrick and Tim Davern before an interesting conversation on sustainability with Tony Harrington, Sonya Lowry and Emily Hanrahan 💚

We also got a sneak peek at Deloitte‘s upcoming white paper from Joe De Fazio, followed by a presentation on expense management by Murray Warner from Emburse.

The day wrapped up with a roundtable discussion led by Craig Southee – Wrestling the Travel Program Challenges – and a fun game of Fact or Fiction 🙋

Huge thanks to Derek Sadubin, Emma Jones, Erin Armstrong and the team for putting on such a great day in Brisbane.
With 40 attendees last year and 90 this year, it looks like next year we might be meeting in the bathroom… according to Derek!