2008 was a Year of Opportunity
2009 will be a Year of Challenges

Letter from the President
Marc Stec, President SGTP 

Last year, 2008, was a year of change and opportunity for SGTP and its members. It was the first full year for Rick Singer, who became Executive Director for SGTP, and Kim Cassandra, who joined us as our Associate Director of Operations. Under the guidance of the board of directors and our staff, we are refocusing our mission and the processes of SGTP.

We continue to refine our approach to our Annual Conference (AnCon) and Educational Conference (EdCon) so that they are more meaningful to all attendees and to make them more interactive with education, dialogue, and networking between the government members and industry. This past AnCon 2009 offered numerous opportunities for education, networking and professional development to our members. We welcome comments, suggestions and even constructive criticism for improving these conferences. We do take suggestions seriously and toward that end we are looking at new conference locations within the DC metropolitan area and near a Metro stop.

In today’s economy, there is growing interest in the Government market and how to obtain a portion of this business, but with lower budgets and less staff in many instances.  We continue to look for ways for SGTP to assist our members in understanding this market and what it can offer them and to advocate additional opportunities for all market segments.

There is also growing interest in our Certified Government Travel Professional (CGTP) course as we have had 10 graduates with an additional 30 students currently enrolled in CGTP. There is a renewed focus within the Government on the training of its travel professionals. CGTP provides an excellent opportunity to learn for government personnel overseeing travel as well as those interested in doing business with the government.  It offers participants an opportunity to gain invaluable knowledge of the Government’s travel programs, its business processes and rules under which industry vendors operate. It is our hope that a better understanding of the industry will lead to better travel processes, programs and relationships.

We also look forward to enhancing our committees and their communications. We hope to help travel industry vendors either resolve issues within our industry where appropriate or recommend solutions and alternative approaches to our government partners to ensure effective and workable travel management. You will see further development of programming between industry and the various State Government Travel Programs, DOD Travel, and GSA Civilian Travel for many agencies. On behalf of SGTP, I invite your participation in and support of these efforts.

In summary we are here to educate, offer opportunities to network and better understand and know the key decision makers in government travel and allow you the opportunities to get involved and increase your sales utilizing the Best Practices within the $15 Billion Annual Government Travel Marketplace.

Sincerely,

Marc Stec
President