Originally posted by Charles S. Clark on Government Executive
Citing tight budgets, the General Services Administration on Friday announced it is suspending its signature Training Conference and Expo, which had been scheduled for May 14-16 in Orlando, Fla.
The annual event, designed for federal, state and local government employees and military members who make or influence procurement decisions, was attracting fewer than usual agency participants, GSA noted.
"The GSA Expo and Training conference serves as a valuable forum for government procurement professionals to receive acquisition training and where vendors can access business opportunities with the government," the agency said in a statement. "However, in the current fiscal climate, agencies and businesses alike have been forced to make tough spending cuts. After carefully reviewing the projected spending and attendance for this year's conference, GSA is suspending Expo for 2013 in an effort to use our resources responsibly and to deliver better value and savings for our government partners, our vendors, and the American people."
The Obama administration, even before the scandal over lavish spending at a 2010 Las Vegas training conference run by GSA officials, has been curbing spending on travel and conferences, and encouraging more use of virtual meetings and teleconferencing.
The Training and Expo event is billed as a Continuous Learning Point -certified training class program, and typically attracts thousands from the public and private sectors.
