ISM and NBTA Partner on Travel & Meetings Procurement Summit

Tempe, AZ and Alexandria, VA | Institute for Supply ManagementTM (ISM) and the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) today announced a new kind of conference – the ISM and NBTA Summit on Travel & Meetings: Supply Management’s Critical Role – designed specifically to meet the needs of senior travel, meetings, procurement and supply management professionals with oversight responsibilities for their companies’ meetings and business travel spend. The inaugural Summit on Travel & Meetings Conference will be held January 27-28, 2009, at the Westin Charlotte, in Charlotte, NC. The conference is being held in conjunction with ProMedia.travel LLC, which will provide marketing and content development support.

The two-day conference will feature start-to-finish educational content designed by an advisory board of leading supply management professionals. The hosts are widely viewed as premier providers of travel and meetings supply management resources. ISM is the largest supply management institute in the world. NBTA is the world’s largest business travel and corporate meetings organization and the pioneer of the practice of strategic meetings management.

“As the largest category of indirect spend and generally one of the most complex to manage, travel and meetings represent the ‘next frontier’ for pioneering supply management professionals,” states ISM CEO Paul Novak, C.P.M. “To help them meet the challenge, the ISM and NBTA Summit on Travel & Meetings pulls together leading education and content providers for business travel, meetings and supply management professionals to deliver the world’s first event focused exclusively on travel and meetings spend.”

NBTA President & CEO Kevin Maguire, CCTE, remarks, “One of the most important shifts in business operations in recent years has been the trend toward a convergence of procurement, travel management and meetings management. The ISM and NBTA Summit on Travel & Meetings will explore the challenges presented by that convergence and will give attendees tools to advance their companies’ travel and meetings management capabilities.”

ProMedia.travel – an integrated media company serving the managed travel and meetings markets with a variety of services and publications, including Procurement.travel – will help design the summit’s content and will provide marketing support. ProMedia.travel CEO & President, Tim Reid, comments, “Professionals working at the intersection of meetings, travel and supply management are looking for unique educational opportunities. ProMedia.travel is pleased to support ISM and NBTA in developing the world’s first conference uniquely positioned to meet that need.”

About ISM | As the largest supply management institute in the world, the mission of Institute for Supply Management™ (ISM) is to lead supply management. By executing and extending its mission through education, research, standards of excellence, influence building and information dissemination — including the renowned monthly ISM Report On Business® — ISM continues to extend the global impact of supply management. ISM is proud to recognize professional excellence in supply management with awards such as the ISM R. Gene Richter Awards for Leadership and Innovation in Supply Management and the J. Shipman Gold Medal Award. ISM's membership base includes more than 40,000 supply management professionals in 75 countries. Supply management professionals are responsible for trillions of dollars in the purchases of products and services annually. ISM is a member of the International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Management (IFPSM). For more information on ISM, visit

About NBTA | The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) is the world’s premier business travel and corporate meetings organization. NBTA and its regional affiliates – NBTA Asia Pacific, NBTA Canada, NBTA Mexico and NBTA USA – serve a network of more than 13,000 business travel professionals around the globe with industry-leading events, networking, education & professional development, research, news & information, and advocacy. NBTA members, numbering more than 3,200 in 30 nations, are corporate and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers. They collectively manage and direct more than US$170 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually on behalf of more than 10 million business travelers within their organizations. For more information, visit .

About ProMedia.travel LLC | ProMedia.travel LLC is an integrated media company serving the information needs of the managed travel and meetings marketplace. ProMedia.travel publishes Procurement.travel, the industry’s newest and only magazine designed exclusively for corporate travel and meetings procurement professionals worldwide. Procurement.travel provides the trends, case studies, market intelligence, analysis and benchmarks that expert buyers need to source, procure, fulfill, measure, evaluate and report. In addition to Procurement.travel, ProMedia.travel, publishes Management.travel, The Transnational and The Beat. For more information, visit .