Institute for Supply Management (ISM) and the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) announced a new kind of conference – the ISM and NBTA Summit on Travel & Meetings: Supply Management’s Critical Role – designed specifically to meet the needs of senior travel, meetings, procurement and supply management professionals with oversight responsibilities for their companies’ meetings and business travel spend. The inaugural Summit on Travel & Meetings Conference will be held January 27-28, 2009, at the Westin Charlotte, in Charlotte, NC. The conference is being held in conjunction with ProMedia.travel LLC, which will provide marketing and content development support.

The two-day conference will feature start-to-finish educational content designed by an advisory board of leading supply management professionals. The hosts are widely viewed as premier providers of travel and meetings supply management resources. ISM is the largest supply management institute in the world. NBTA is the world’s largest business travel and corporate meetings organization and the pioneer of the practice of strategic meetings management.

“As the largest category of indirect spend and generally one of the most complex to manage, travel and meetings represent the ‘next frontier’ for pioneering supply management professionals,” states ISM CEO Paul Novak, C.P.M. “To help them meet the challenge, the ISM and NBTA Summit on Travel & Meetings pulls together leading education and content providers for business travel, meetings and supply management professionals to deliver the world’s first event focused exclusively on travel and meetings spend.”

NBTA President & CEO Kevin Maguire, CCTE, remarks, “One of the most important shifts in business operations in recent years has been the trend toward a convergence of procurement, travel management and meetings management. The ISM and NBTA Summit on Travel & Meetings will explore the challenges presented by that convergence and will give attendees tools to advance their companies’ travel and meetings management capabilities.”

ProMedia.travel – an integrated media company serving the managed travel and meetings markets with a variety of services and publications, including Procurement.travel – will help design the summit’s content and will provide marketing support. ProMedia.travel CEO & President, Tim Reid, comments, “Professionals working at the intersection of meetings, travel and supply management are looking for unique educational opportunities. ProMedia.travel is pleased to support ISM and NBTA in developing the world’s first conference uniquely positioned to meet that need.”