National Travel Forum Highlights Tools, Trends and Training Opportunities
CONTACT: Caleb Tiller, +1 703-684-0836, ext. 138
Nicole Hayes, +1 703-684-0836, ext. 133
Atlanta (June 6, 2008) – More than 1,100 government travel professionals are taking advantage of informative and educational sessions at the National Travel Form, being hosted through today by the National Business Travel Association’s (NBTA) Government Travel Group (GTG) at the Marriott Marquis in downtown Atlanta.
Participants in Thursday’s discussion sessions continued exploring the complexities of government travel and discussing both the challenges and solutions likely to characterize the immediate and long-term future of their profession. Of particular interest to many participants were sessions that focused on Federal Travel Regulation and the Joint Travel Regulation.
“Joint Travel Regulation (JTR) is the law for government travel, and that’s what makes it so important,” noted Adrienne Relliford, a participant representing the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Cleveland, Ohio. “The JTR is a large and complex document and one section of it can seem to contradict another section if you don’t understand the specific context,” explained Relliford, describing her own reasons for valuing the National Travel Forum and its education sessions. “Added to that, there’s a synopsis document of the JTR that’s more user-friendly, but if you don’t read the details of the full document, you can interpret things wrongly, and we’re all concerned about avoiding fraud, waste and abuse.”
The networking and discussion facilitated by the National Travel Forum have opened possibilities for future travel-focused training sessions, seminars and conferences among agencies across the federal government. In a discussion session focused on the Federal Rental Car Program, participants responded with unanimous interest in the offer made by the Defense Travel Management Office to host conferences in individual agencies so as to ensure well-informed government travelers.
At session after session, participants were reminded that there are key benefits to streamlining procedures and centralizing systems across the government travel industry. Cost optimization, administrative savings and expenditure reductions were reported in several sessions, including more than $1.8 billion in administrative processing cost avoidance in 2007 through the government’s GSA Smartpay® system.
Other sessions making an impact during Thursday’s National Travel Forum agenda were such sessions as: Supporting the Department of Defense Traveler, Automating the State Travel Process, General Services Administration Persuasive Communication, and Managing Change.
About NTF and NBTA GTG
The National Travel Forum (NTF) is the largest and most important event for the federal travel and relocation community. Government travel and relocation are constantly changing to meet the needs of government travelers and their agencies. NTF helps attendees continue to offer worldclass travel management for their agencies by offering dozens of educational sessions on the topics most important to government travel professionals, an exhibition to facilitate networking with key suppliers of travel and related services and multiple opportunities for attendees to interact with government and industry travel and relocation peers. NTF was historically organized by the General Services Administration (GSA), and at the conclusion of NTF 2006, GSA entrusted the management of the event’s future to the National Business Travel Association’s Government Travel Group (NBTA GTG). For details, visit www.nationaltravelforum.org.
In 2004 NBTA created the GTG to serve the growing needs of government travel professionals within GSA, DoD and the states and to provide government travel managers with access to the member benefits that have long set NBTA apart as the leading association for corporate travel professionals. The GTG is steered by an Advisory Board comprised of leading travel figures, including officials from GSA and DoD. For more, see www.nbta.org/gtg.
About NBTA
The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) is the world’s premier business travel organization. U.S.-based NBTA and its regional subsidiaries – NBTA Asia Pacific, NBTA Canada and NBTA Mexico – serve more than 3,200 members in 30 nations around the globe. NBTA has 41 U.S. Chapters with more than 5,000 members. NBTA members are corporate and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers, who collectively manage and direct more than US$170 billion of global business travel expenditures annually. The association provides industry-leading networking, education & professional development, research, news & information, and advocacy. For more information, visit www.nbta.org.
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