Businesses Turn to NBTA in Uncertain Economic Times
2008 NBTA Convention Breaks Attendance, Exhibits Records
The business travel community has turned to the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) and its Annual International Convention & Exposition as the source of resources, information, networking, education and relationship-building to help companies navigate the future in an economy uncertain. On the first full day of the NBTA Convention, being held this week in Los Angeles, registration is at a record high of nearly 6,400 attendees, and...
Los Angeles -- The business travel community has turned to the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) and its Annual International Convention & Exposition as the source of resources, information, networking, education and relationship-building to help companies navigate the future in an economy uncertain. On the first full day of the NBTA Convention, being held this week in Los Angeles, registration is at a record high of nearly 6,400 attendees, and additional attendees are continuing to register. Travel buyer attendance is expected to top 1,400. The Expo is the largest in NBTA history, with more than 130,000 square feet of booth space and over 475 exhibitors.
"The NBTA Convention is even more important in today"s economic environment. With a slow-down in the U.S. economy, the industry is looking for new approaches to driving savings, managing risk, and driving value," said NBTA President & CEO, Kevin Maguire, CCTE, GLP. "I"m pleased that at least 6,400 attendees see the NBTA Convention as the source for that information."
The convention opened last night with Cindy Lauper concert sponsored by LA INC. The Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau at the Nokia Theater at L.A. LIVE! Today attendees have taken advantage of a dozen education sessions on a wide range of topics including the new NBTA Airline RFP and the new 2008 NBTA CSR Toolkit. The impact of rising fuel costs and the steps companies can take to manage increasing travel costs have been major topics of discussion among convention attendees. In today"s General Session, attendees got a break with comic relief from Craig Fergusson, host of the Late, Late Show. The Expo opened this afternoon, giving attendees the chance to learn about the latest supplier products and services to help travel managers contain costs and streamline travel processes.
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 15,000 business travel professionals around the globe with industry-leading events, networking, education & professional development, research, news & information, and advocacy. NBTA members, numbering more than 4,000 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$200 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 www.nbta.org.
Widely recognized as the must-attend event for business travel buyers, suppliers, industry leaders and business travel journalists, the 2008 NBTA International Convention & Exposition will be held in Los Angeles from July 27-30. More than 6,000 travel professionals are expected to take advantage of the convention"s programming, designed to empower attendees to maximize value for their companies, including more than 40 seminars on the most important topics in business travel, more than 460 companies exhibiting in the Expo and countless opportunities for networking with peers. For details, visit www.nbtaconvention.org.