NBTA Set To Work Cooperatively To Boost Education

The National Business Travel Association has a long list of initiatives it will be focusing on before next July's annual convention in Dallas, where president Kevin Iwamoto will step down and new leadership will be elected.

Among other things in the next 12 months, the association will raise funds for the NBTA political action committee, boost its educational offerings, search for a new executive director and participate in the first event of the Paragon Agreement coalition of international business travel associations.

Current NBTA vice president Carol Devine is considering a bid for the presidency. "I am interested, but I will first have to run and be elected by NBTA's members," said Devine, who is director of corporate travel at Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway.

Devine said NBTA has been revitalized this year. "The Salt Lake City convention in July was a resounding success," she said. "We had nearly 1,200 buyers in attendance, 10 percent more than ever. Booths for next year's event in Dallas are already almost sold out."

Incumbent Iwamoto praised Devine's abilities and said she is a valuable resource for the association. "Carol is an extremely capable lady," he said. "She's worked very closely with me over the past year."

Devine is serving as chair of NBTA's executive director recruitment efforts, which began in May when former executive director Marianne McInerney resigned. NBTA is receiving résumés by the dozen. Devine said that with the help of an executive search firm, the association hopes to have a new executive director in place by November.

From Nov. 6 to 9 in Salzburg, Austria, NBTA will participate in the first meeting held under the Paragon Agreement, a new international alliance of business travel associations, consisting of NBTA; the Institute of Travel Management, which is the business travel association of the United Kingdom and Ireland; the Canadian BTA; VDR, the German travel management association; and the Australasian BTA.

The Paragon Agreement will promote cross-attendance at events, strengthen the associations' educational resources and provide a central voice to represent travel buyers to government organizations and suppliers, Iwamoto said.

During the next several months, Paragon's member organizations will finalize the structure of the alliance, which formalizes connections that already had been developing between NBTA and CBTA, ABTA and ITM, and cements a bond with the German VDR, which dissolved its ties to the International Business Travel Association several years ago.

Meanwhile, on the heels of a flurry of model RFPs that NBTA released at its Salt Lake City conference, including new car rental, chauffeured services and aviation RFPs, the association within the next 12 months will release its first agency RFP and white papers on data privacy and Web fares. The association this summer will release its complete glossary of industry terms, which will be accessible on the NBTA Web site.

Advancing its political agenda, NBTA in July announced a political action committee, a separate entity that already began collecting voluntary contributions from buyer and supplier members.

"Our goal this year is to introduce the brand to our chapters," said Eugene Laney, director of legislation and information. "In 2003 and 2004, there are critical congressional and presidential campaigns. The PAC will help provide a voice for the business travel industry."

Meanwhile, NBTA plans to beef up the industry's educational resources. "We are working to improve our Web-based Netsmart distance learning program," Iwamoto said. "We're working to create a version for allied members, in addition to the six or seven Webcasts we're holding this year for direct members. Next year, hopefully we'll be holding twice as many Webcasts."

This summer, the NBTA board unanimously moved to donate $500,000 over the next five years to IBTM educational efforts.