Value in Travel - The West Virginia Aviation Conference

Yeager Airport along with the West Virginia Aeronautics Commission sponsors and organizes the annual West Virginia Aviation Conference. This year’s event was held at the beautiful Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV on August 8 through the 10th. This was the most successful conference we have held and we have received many positive comments.

We attracted national speakers to the conference, including, Kate Lang, the FAA Deputy Administrator, Mike Boyd, President of The Boyd Group, Henry Ogrodzinski, President of the National Association of Aviation Officials, Joe Esposito, Director of Schedule Planning for Delta Air Lines, Lisa Piccione, VP of Government Affairs for National Business Aviation Association, as well as Congressman Nick Joe Rahall, and Governor Joe Manchin and Senator Rockefeller addressed the conference via video because of his need to be in Washington. Each person provided a unique perspective on various hot topic issues in aviation. The conference all so provided sessions on current legal issues, trends in engineering practices and a very informative session on airport emergency response systems.

Attendees from airports in West Virginia, engineering firms, and suppliers, pilots, authority board members, congressional staff members, air traffic controllers, and state officials all were able to learn from the presenters and interact with others from the West Virginia Aviation community. I was told many years ago that when attending a conference that many times the best information is picked up in the hallway or at a reception when talking with a colleague. That was very good advice and very true.

My main point in this post is just not to brag a little about what a great conference the West Virginia Aviation Conference is and to encourage others to attend this wonderful event that is the best value of any conference, but to encourage business related travel in general. In tough economic times, many entities cut travel and training budgets first. In my opinion that is short sighted and pennywise but pound foolish. Business grow when their most valuable resources, their employees, are equipped with fresh ideas and approaches to the business and can implement innovative ideas that will grow the business, and or produce real cost savings that make the business more productive.