GSA Continues Belt-Tightening, Cancels Two More Conferences

Citing declining demand due to budget cuts, the General Services Administration on Monday announced that it was suspending two annual interagency federal conferences, the Fed Forum and the SmartPay events.

Both conferences “serve as valuable forums for charge card management and fleet and personal property professionals governmentwide,” a GSA spokeswoman said. “However, in the current fiscal climate, agencies and businesses alike have been forced to make tough spending cuts. After carefully reviewing the projected spending and attendance for this year’s conferences, GSA will suspend both in an effort to use our resources more responsibly and to deliver better value and savings for our government partners, our vendors, and the American people.”

The FedForum was scheduled for July 16 -18, 2013, in New Orleans; the SmartPay event was scheduled for Aug. 6-8. in Chicago.

In February, GSA suspended its signature Training Conference and Expo, which had been scheduled for May 14-16 in Orlando, Fla. Last year’s scandal surrounding lavish spending at a 2010 Las Vegas training conference by some within GSA prompted Congress and the White House to crack down on conferences.

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