It’s been almost two years since excessive spending at the 2010 General Services Administration’s Western Regions Conference hit the headlines, but the fallout continues as GSA announced last week that it would not hold its 2014 Training and Expo event. The decision was based on the current tight fiscal climate, low attendance projections, and continued budget reductions, according to the GSA. The organization canceled the GSA Training and Expo 2013 for similar reasons.
While GSA plans to fill its 2014 training needs through online and virtual training, along with closer-to-home in-classroom training, it is not ruling out the possibility of reviving the Training and Expo event for 2015. According to a statement, “GSA remains committed to addressing the need for training and will identify the most effective way to offer Expo 2015 to deliver better value and savings for our government partners, our vendors, and the American people.”
The GSA’s SmartPay Training Forum, another casualty of tight budgets in 2013, will be held this year, though not as a physical event. Instead, it will be held this spring or summer as a virtual event. The online event, according to the SmartPay site, “will provide the opportunity to attend over 100 training courses, earn CLP credit, and interact with the contractor banks, GSA, and other attendees.”
