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Meeting industry worried about government conference fallout
The General Services Administration’s lavish Las Vegas conference where there were $44-per-person breakfasts and teambuilding that involved the assembly of 24 bicycles has not only raised eyebrows at such lavishness but also could pose a threat to the government meeting industry, observers say.
"The event in question is GSA’s $823,000 conference at the M Resort Spa Casino in 2010," writes the Washington Bureau Chief of The Business Journals, which says the scandal could make federal agencies think twice about holding out-of-town meetings in the future.
The scandal has cost several top officials their jobs and the US Congress plans some hearings.
US Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said her Environment and Public Works committee will meet April 18 to hear testimony, to cite just one example.
The US Travel Association has been quick to say canceling such events would be a mistake.
"We know through repeated studies that travel for face-to-face meetings increases worker productivity," said USTA President and CEO Roger Dow. "We also know that meetings, conferences and events are critical to our economy and support 845,000 US jobs.
"GSA’s problem wasn’t that it held a meeting; the problem was it didn’t follow federal travel rules and regulations, which impose cost limits and require competitive bidding," writes the Business Journals.
One way GSA got around these restrictions was by promising the hotel an additional $41,800 in catering charges in return for reducing room rates to the government’s limit, according to the agency’s inspector general.
"Unfortunately, a single instance of irresponsible decision making has the potential to cast a negative light on the millions of men and women who work every day to make America’s meetings, conventions and events industry the best in the world," Dow said.
By David Wilkening
David
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