The Biz at BTN Podcast · Business Travel News

The Winners' Circle - Best Practitioner Akamai Technologies' Priscilla Campbell

·22 min·1 clip

Akamai may add an internal meeting tab because one trip can mean 15 people meeting in one place.

1. The Biz at BTN features The Winners' Circle with Priscilla Campbell on Akamai Technologies' remote-work-driven travel changes. 2. Michael Baker interviews Priscilla Campbell, Akamai Technologies' Director of Global Travel and Expense, because she manages travel policy and spending for a dispersed workforce. 3. The episode asks how Akamai's FlexBase model is changing internal meetings, hotel sourcing, and travel policy. 4. Campbell says Akamai's leadership lets employees decide where they are most productive, and she says about 95% of employees qualify for FlexBase. 5. She says the remaining 5% must be in office for functions such as the network operations center and mailroom. 6. Campbell says the company kept remote work after COVID because its infrastructure and systems could support employees logging in from many locations. 7. She says employees initially wanted face-to-face contact after months of Webex meetings, and that demand for in-person meetings did not fade. 8. Campbell says the initial meetings happened in office locations, but office closures and smaller footprints created a second-phase challenge. 9. She says facilities began looking at satellite locations and third-party spaces, including hotels with overnight sleeping rooms. 10. Campbell says Akamai can no longer assume meeting locations will be near historic office sites, so hotel sourcing must shift. 11. She says hotel data now shows increased transient spend in cities and hotels that were not on prior lists. 12. Campbell says Akamai is working with facilities, finance, and HR because budgets, meeting frequency, and employee guidance all affect the program. 13. She says HR produced an FAQ-style document that she refined and placed on the company's T&E page for employee guidance. 14. Campbell says Akamai uses a homegrown pre-trip approval tool that gives managers and budget owners visibility before travel occurs. 15. She says the company is considering an internal meeting tab so one meeting with 15 people can be tracked with a clearer budget view. 16. Campbell says she could not answer her CFO's question about how much the company was spending on this type of meeting because there was no way to identify it. 17. Her tone is practical and policy-focused, and she often links employee flexibility to budget control and supplier planning. 18. The interview format moves from Akamai's internal changes to broader questions about hybrid work, supplier adaptation, and industry trends. 19. People managing travel, finance, HR, or hotel sourcing for hybrid workforces. 20. Listeners looking for a pure leisure-travel or entertainment segment.

As heard by us

A pragmatic look at how remote work turns travel policy into a data and governance problem.

Priscilla Campbell frames a practical tension inside a flexible remote-work policy: employees choose where they are most productive, but the company still has to track the travel that follows, understand the cost, and decide whether the policy needs clearer language.

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Why you'd press play

A remote-work policy conversation about dispersed teams, travel visibility, and the spending questions finance keeps asking.

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