The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) and the Institute for Supply Management™ (ISM) this week welcomed 170 corporate travel, meetings and procurement professionals to the second ISM and NBTA Summit on Travel & Meetings in Tampa, Fla. With more than 25 percent growth in attendance over last year, despite a down economy, the Summit offered its attendees a unique forum for travel and meetings managers and those in procurement with supervisory oversight of travel and meetings to collaborate and share insights. Attendees were split evenly between buyers and suppliers -- making the summit unique among industry events.

Craig Banikowski, CCTE, C.P.M, CMM, NBTA President & CEO, said, “Economic changes of the last 18 months have heightened the importance of cost containment, transparency, and supply chain management. The better we understand each other as procurement, travel, and meetings, professionals, the more we can meet these challenges on behalf of our companies.”

Over the past two days, industry thought leaders addressed issues such as current business drivers for senior executives, the “new normal” for the travel and meetings industry, and collaborative technologies and travel alternatives. One underlining theme taken from education sessions is the strategic importance of corporate travel and meetings. Travel professionals agreed businesses are coping with new and uncertain paradigms and shared new ideas and best practices for maximizing travel spend.

According to ISM Senior Vice President and Corporate Treasurer Deborah Webber, CPSM, C.P.M., “Procurement’s charge to continually drive savings without losing value, and even adding value, has only been emphasized during the last several years of the difficult economy. The overwhelming success of this year's Summit highlights the growing importance in the link between procurement and travel and the opportunities that exist to drive better performance from both perspectives.”

Attendees also heard from renowned economist Dr. Lee McPheters, Research Professor of Economics in the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Dr McPheters provided a cautiously optimistic outlook of the U.S. economy, predicting recovery in the next three to five years. He said, “The economy is currently contracting, and the recession will end when the contraction is over. However, we’re better now than where we were.”

Banikowski added, “To get a firm grasp of economic and industry changes, as well as the changing role of travel managers, we need to go beyond simply speaking each other’s languages. We need to work together to create effective approaches to our common challenges, select the best of each discipline and apply it to today’s realities, and shape a new way of thinking about procuring the travel and meetings services that will help our companies meet mission-critical business goals.”

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, the Brazilian Business Travel Association (ABGEV), NBTA Canada, NBTA Europe, NBTA Mexico, and NBTA USA – serve a network of more than 17,000 business travel professionals around the globe with industry-leading events, networking, education & professional development, research, news & information, and advocacy. NBTA members, numbering more than 5,000 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$340 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually on behalf of more than 13 million business travelers within their organizations. For more information, visit .

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 a not-for-profit membership association serving more than 40,000 supply management professionals in 75 countries. ISM offers credentialing to professionals around the world with the Certified Professional in Supply Management® (CPSM®). ISM is a member of the International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Management (IFPSM). For more information on ISM, 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 .

Caleb Tiller
(703) 684-0836 Ext. 138
GBTA