The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) has announced that event organisers from Ikea and Cisco will speak at its Meetings Lab conference in Paris next month.

The event – which will be held from 10-11 November at the Principal Hayley Château Saint-Just – will  be moderated by Chris Elmitt, managing director of Crystal Interactive with speakers Torbjörn Erling, meeting & travel manager from Ikea Group and Rob Leslie Jr, global technical architect from Cisco Events. The panel will talk about their approach to effective meetings.

Other sessions will feature Carole Poillerat, global category leader for meetings & events at AstraZeneca and Kevin Iwamoto, vice president for enterprise strategy at Starcite.

The organisers have announced that a number of high level meetings and event professionals from companies such as Accenture, American Express, Coca-Cola, Lanyon, LEO Pharma, Logica, Philips and PwC have already committed to the event.

Paul Tilstone, managing director of GBTA Europe, said: “This experimental event is attracting individuals who have a real passion for innovation and enjoy the opportunity to try something new in the Meetings & Events space. This type of event is at the heart of GBTA’s approach to the sector, challenging and exploring the issues and methods of management we use.”