GSA pulls support for major energy conference

Originally posted by Government Executive

Organizers of GovEnergy, a major training conference for federal employees involved in energy, have canceled this year's trade show and workshops after the scandal-wary General Services Administration withdrew its sponsorship.

As first reported by energy blogger Dan Nolan and confirmed by Government Executive, GSA on Friday pulled its long-standing funding because of concerns the event's structure did not meet new agency standards. The move came in the wake of outrage earlier this year about overspending at a 2010 GSA training conference in Las Vegas. The Obama administration also has been pushing a campaign to reduce spending on conferences and travel.

"After a rigorous review of the 2012 GovEnergy conference, GSA has decided to postpone this year's conference," the agency said in a statement. "GSA has found that the conference does not meet the standards that GSA has put in place for conferences and contracts. There were many unanswered questions about how the conference was structured. There was not sufficient time to make the GovEnergy compliant with these new standards for an August 2012 conference. As a result, we felt that it was best to suspend the program until those issues could be addressed." Read More >>