Postal Service Defends Pricey Conference as Chance to Boost Revenue

Originally posted by Eric Katz on Government Executive

The U.S. Postal Service on Wednesday defended its decision to spend more than $2 million on an upcoming conference, saying the event is an opportunity to grow revenue.

USPS is sending 400 employees to the National Postal Forum Conference, an annual event held to educate businesses and mailing industry professionals on the services available to them. The vast majority of USPS attendees participate in the conference for free, as they are deemed to have added value, according to the Postal Service.

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AFCEA Announces The 2013 Distinguished Young AFCEAN And Emerging Leader Award Winners

Originally posted by PR Newswire

AFCEA International is pleased to announce the 2013 Young AFCEAN of the Year, Distinguished Young AFCEAN (DYA) and Emerging Leader Award winners. These awards were presented on Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at the West 2013 Conference in San Diego, CA. For more information visit www.afcea.org/awards.

The DYA Award recognizes and rewards exceptional performance in two areas - a record of going "above and beyond" at the local AFCEA Chapter level, and superior technical achievement in the professional arena. The AFCEA Regional Vice Presidents have the honor to personally select an individual from their Region to receive the Regional DYA Award. These honorees represent an elite group of individuals that have gone above and beyond for their Chapters. These honorees are also eligible to win the Young AFCEAN of the Year Award.

View the list of winners on CNBC >>

Industry, Academia and Government Converging On Cyber Security Innovation 19 and 20 March in Palo Alto CA

Originally posted by on CTOVision

The Security Innovation Network (SINET) is a virtuous collaborative collective led by the highly regarded mission-focused cyber security community leader Robert Rodriguez.

The mission of SINET is to advance innovation and enable global collaboration between the public and private sectors to defeat cybersecurity threats, and they have proven past performance in their ability to make a difference in this domain.

One of their key events is the annual IT Security Entrepreneurs' Forum (ITSEF).  This event is sponsored by the US Department of Homeland Security, Office of Science and Technology, and this year is being held 19 and 20 March in Palo Alto, California. If you are in a high tech firm with cybersecurity capabilities, or are innovating in academia, or have cyber mission needs in government, please consider engaging at this event.

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Ten more cities will get non-standard travel reimbursement rates

Originally posted by Kedar Pavgi on GovExec

The General Services Administration has decided to designate 10 additional cities as "nonstandard" areas for travel reimbursement rates, according to an announcement posted in the Federal Register on September 5.

The designation means the regions -- frequently traveled by government employees -- will get unique per diem rates rather than being lumped together with the rest of the country. The reimbursement levels will be determined by the average daily industry rate. In August, GSA announced it was freezing fiscal 2013 per diems at fiscal 2012 levels.

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Cvent Reveals the Top 50 U.S. Meetings Destinations for 2012

Originally posted by Terri Hardin on Cvent

Cvent, the leader in cloud-based event management solutions, today announced the top 50 cities for meetings and events in the United States, according to meeting and event booking activity in the Cvent Supplier Network. Cvent operates the number one marketplace for group meetings business in the world, expecting to source $7 billion of meetings business in 2012.

"Meetings and conventions are important revenue generators for cities, supporting not only the meeting venues and hotels, but also local restaurants, entertainment and numerous other businesses within the city," said Bharet Malhotra, Vice President of Sales for the Cvent Supplier Network. "Cvent's role in the meetings ecosystem is to connect venues and planners to facilitate efficient and informed meeting booking. As the single largest marketplace for meetings activity, we have an excellent feel for which cities and properties are popular and growing, and the data to back it up."