In late February, CWTSatoTravel hosted a booth at the annual National Defense Travel Association (NDTA) GovTravels Symposium in Alexandria, VA. The conference included three days packed full of general and breakout sessions where decision makers from government and the travel industry gathered to meet, learn and collaborate on common travel issues.
The theme of the 2019 Symposium was "Empower. Engage. Innovate." CWTSatoTravel President Nick Vournakis was invited to speak as a panelist on the industry panel, "A Progress Report - Government Travel at the Crossroads One Year Later." In the panel, Nick engaged in conversation with other travel industry leaders discussing the impacts of technology affecting areas such as personalization, the rise of the traveler, supplier upselling and innovations.
In addition to the main session, members of the CWTSatoTravel team spoke in three breakout sessions including:
- Updates from Kindall Farwell, Director of FedRooms, on the "Government Wide Managed Lodging Programs" session, including a recap of FedRooms' 2018 performance and discussion of the upcoming 2019 contract period
- A discussion on "Hotel Program Goals, Needs and Policies - Bridging the Gap between Travel Buyers and Travelers", which was led by Joel Wartgow, CWTSatoTravel VP of Program Management, Michael Jarrard, CWT RoomIt VP of Sales, and Hannah Jaffee, Research Analyst for GBTA
- Input from Justin Cooper, CWT VP of Data Product Management, on the "Engage, Empower and Innovate with Data" panel
CWTSatoTravel was also a recipient of a 2018 Distinguished Service Award in recognition of our support of the goals and aims of NDTA! It was great to see and connect with many of our clients and travelers at the conference.