GBTA Announces New Global Meetings Taskforce

New Taskforce Aims to Take Meetings to the Next Level and Enhance the Discipline

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 11, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA)—the voice of the business travel industry -- today announced the creation of a new taskforce with a commitment to enhancing meetings strategy in global education, accelerated thought leadership, industry collaboration, and best practices. The taskforce will further bring the discipline of strategic meetings management into the forefront of the business travel industry as an important aspect of progressive travel management and will propel the progress and definition of global strategic meetings management.  The Global Meetings taskforce will be led by Linda McNairy, Vice President, Strategic Partner Management, StarCite.

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"Meetings management is always a big focus for GBTA and through this taskforce we are striving to take this essential piece of the travel management practice even further. Our goal is to have a global impact on everyone involved in meetings management, from planning and executing to  managing the overall meetings strategy within an organization," said Michael W. McCormick, Executive Director and COO, GBTA. "The taskforce will focus on providing the best tools, resources, and education in order to make each gathering strategic and successful. Strategic meetings management originated with GBTA and through this taskforce, we know the best is yet to come."

The new taskforce will be comprised of industry visionaries and practitioners including thought leaders of the former Groups and Meetings Committee. It will build upon the body of work created by GBTA including the recently launched SMM Maturity Index. The taskforce will outline a new strategic vision for Global SMM to launch in early 2012.  

About the Global Business Travel Association
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) is the world's premier business travel and meetings organization. Collectively, GBTA's 5,000-plus members manage over $340 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually. GBTA provides its network of 17,000 business and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers, with networking events, news, education & professional development, research, and advocacy. For more information, visit gbta.org

SOURCE Global Business Travel Association