“It’s SME Again” is the official podcast of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Sports Media and Entertainment (SME) committee and is part of GBTA’s Business of Travel podcast series. 

 

This episode focuses on sports travel — Major League Baseball (MLB) in particular — and features Tom Hamilton and Francine Sommers of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. Your hosts, Amy Thiessen and Greg Bell will give listeners behind the scenes, backstage, and locker room views of how business travel revolves around these very unique industries. Topics include travel during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, use cases and rules of engagement of the sports, media and entertainment world. 

 

Hamilton, the “Voice of the Indians,” has been calling Cleveland Indians baseball games on the radio for 31 seasons. In that time, Hamilton called all 94 postseason games the Indians played over that span, including three World Series’ (’95, ’97, ’16).  Hamilton is a seven-time recipient of the Ohio Sportscaster of the Year Award, was given the Cleveland Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame Award for 2009, and was inducted into the Press Club of Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame in November 2015,

 

Sommers began her career with the Indians in February of 1999 and has managed the travel program since 2000.  In addition to travel, Sommers is responsible for all risk management components including the business insurance program as well as player life and disability insurance. Sommers is the current chair of the GBTA Sports, Media & Entertainment Committee and was named the 2020 Committee Member of the Year. 

 

GBTA’s SME committee currently has 20 committee members from high-level positions within the travel community. Our buyers represent many of the leading sports, media and companies in the world, from professional sports teams and leagues, players associations, movie studios, film production companies, music labels, and so on. On the supplier side we also have top reps from the major travel companies from the airlines, lodging, ground transportation. 

 

The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the world’s largest professional association representing the $1.4 trillion business travel industry. Our global membership includes 9,000-plus business travel professionals from every continent. Collectively, our members directly control more than $345 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually, and also represent every facet of the global travel industry marketplace.

 

The goal of the SME podcast is to leave you with up to date insights and relevant, actionable guidance.

 

Enjoy!