Category Archives: Event News Articles

Event News Articles on GovEvents Blog includes editorials directly pertaining to Government & Military Event News.

Are Government Attendees an Endangered Species?

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Originally posted on Meetings & Conventions by Cheryl-Anne Sturken

How the meeting industry is pushing back against general travel restrictions

It has been a rough two years for government meeting planners. Following several high-profile cases of lavish conference spending, and with economic recovery from the Great Recession remaining in fragile mode, Congress has turned up its scrutiny of federal travel and conference spend and pushed for legislation that would restrict and regulate meetings outlay. Determined to avoid potential accusations of excess, federal agencies responded last year by taking an ax to meeting budgets, canceling multiple conferences and shunning resort destinations such as Hawaii, Las Vegas and Orlando, concerned that even the location alone could raise eyebrows.

The slash-and-burn reaction resulted in a 30 percent drop in government meetings in most of the top-tier markets in 2013. It also set off a heated debate on the importance of face-to-face meetings and spawned a flurry of white papers and studies from various groups anxious to reaffirm the power of in-person gatherings.

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GEOINT 2013*: Operationalizing Intelligence for Global Missions

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The GEOINT Symposium--the nation's largest intelligence event of the year--will take place April 14-17, 2014, at the Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Fla. The annual GEOINT Symposium, hosted by the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF), attracts thousands of attendees from government, military, industry, and academia worldwide.

This year, the GEOINT Symposium promises another agenda packed with high-profile keynote speakers, insightful panel discussions, engaging training offerings, and a world-class exhibit hall.  In addition to the more than 250 exhibiting organizations offering 100,000 square feet of technologies, services and solutions, GEOINT 2013* will provide 30 hours of training and education sessions, four panel sessions on key community topics, and 11 keynote speakers including directors of intelligence agencies and combatant commanders.

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Study: Meetings Generated $770 Billion in Economic Impact in 2012

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Originally posted on SuccessfulMeetings.com by Matt Alderton

In 2012, 1.83 million meetings were held in the United States, up from approximately 1.8 million in 2009, according to the Convention Industry Council (CIC), which today published an update to its 2009 study, The Economic Significance of Meetings to the U.S. Economy.

"More meetings bring more jobs," CIC CEO Karen Kotowski said in a statement. "Meetings increased employment at a time when many industries didn't have the same opportunity. In 2012, meetings employed nearly 1.8 million people. That translates to 8.3 percent more jobs created by meetings in 2012 than in 2009, nearly double the average employment growth rate during that time."

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No Matter the Reason, Event Cancellations Are Bad News for Everyone

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Between an incredibly harsh winter (by most  standards), budget pressures, and the government shut down, the government event industry has seen more than its fair share of event cancellations over the past 12 months. A number of reports have come out detailing the impact of dwindling face-to-face networking on both event planners, attendees, and the economy in general.

First, to put the event industry in context, a report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers looked to define the "economic significance of meetings to the U.S. economy." The report found that overall the meetings industry was growing in response to increased demand. In 2012, there were nearly 225 million participants at meetings. That's approximately 20 million more than 2009. These meetings and attendee spending contributed $115 billion to the U.S. GDP and $28 billion to federal, state and local taxes. With that context, it is clear that meetings have an impact on the overall economy. If the rate of in-person events drops, even in just one sector like government, there will be an economic impact.

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