Conference Information	Program Sessions	Conference/Hotel Fact Sheet
Speaker Biographical Information	Registration is closed	Registration Confirmation

After 17 successful years of sponsoring the Western Regional Training Conference, ASAP is making changes - we are proud to unveil our new National Training Conference! The first-ever ASAP National Training Conference (NTC) will be held in Lake Buena Vista, Florida at the Royal Plaza Hotel on March 4-6, 2008.

The Educational Program: The NTC offers 40 educational sessions over three FULL days. Each day has plenary and tracks of four or more concurrent sessions. Sessions begin at 8:00 am and go until late afternoon The format is an informal "give and take" atmosphere while covering timely issues. The first day offers comprehensive overviews of the FOIA and Privacy Act. These sessions provide the basics for newcomers or provide a great refresher course for others. Advanced sessions are also offered the first day for the more experienced professional. Discussion leaders and panelists will provide input and participants are invited to ask questions spontaneously. The format features sessions throughout to enable attendees flexibility in meeting their training and educational needs by allowing the participants to concentrate on the specific issues they face daily. It also accommodates smaller audiences at each particular session, facilitating the detailed discussion level for which ASAP conferences are best-known. This program is submitted for Privacy CPE credits.

Who Should Attend: Anyone who works with the release of government information or is interested in obtaining government information: including attorneys; paralegals; contractors; regulated business and industry; FOIA officers; disclosure officers; Privacy Act system managers; federal investigators; records managers; program managers; security officers; personnel officers; contract officers; media; journalists; interested private citizens; etc.

Why the Change in Venue? ASAP has been tracking the attendance demographics for our Western Regional Training Conferences. The early years proved that the conference attracted mostly attendees from the western part of the country, although there have always been some "Easterners" in attendance. The more recent trends show that many more Easterners are now in attendance for a number of reasons. With the relaxation of airline stayover requirements and the fact that distance rarely is a factor for airline costs anymore, people are not as hampered by the airline costs or requirements.

Further, ASAP needed to expand its site options. ASAP is very limited in its choices for sites and hotels, primarily due to four factors: 1) the need for the government per diem rate, 2) the number of hotel sleeping rooms at the per diem rate, 3) the sleeping room to meeting room ratio at hotels, and 4) the size and number of hotel meeting rooms available. As such, ASAP needs to meet in larger venues and usually government per diem business is not the first choice of business for these venues. In fact, ASAP had little response to our Request for Meeting Proposals. We have considered convention centers as well, but find that they are cost prohibitive.

Why the Orlando Area? For the 2008 conference, ASAP had two choices, Orlando or Denver. Of the hotels available, only two could fit our space requirements and date needs. The Royal Plaza in Lake Buena Vista (Orlando) offered March dates, but could not provide dates in the Spring. The March dates also allowed ASAP to hold the conference Tuesday-Thursday, which in turn allows attendees to travel on the weekday. This is a highly unusual meeting and sleeping room arrival pattern for hotels to offer. It was appealing to take advantage of this meeting pattern. The Denver hotel only offered dates in May, but they backed up to the Memorial Day holiday weekend and flight availability was a major concern. The per diem costs were also higher for Denver. When comparing the actual meeting costs (meeting rooms, audio visual, food and beverage) the meeting cost would be substantially higher in Denver and require ASAP to raise the registration fees considerably. Also, the Denver hotel could not guarantee a sufficient number of hotel rooms and we were concerned that many people might have to stay at another Denver hotel. So, taking these factors into consideration along with the fact that Orlando has direct flights with various carriers at reasonable rates, the ASAP Board of Directors determined that Orlando was the more reasonable choice.

Agency Piggyback Meetings. A great side benefit to the ASAP conference is that a few agencies are piggybacking meetings. By expanding the conference site rotation, more agencies may want to consider this idea. A wider rotation also helps bring in new attendees in need of FOIA and Privacy training.

What about the Boondoggle Effect? The Board of Directors took into consideration the boondoggle perception of meeting in the Orlando area. We know from meeting in Las Vegas three times, our educational sessions are well attended throughout the entire day and throughout the entire conference. We expect an Orlando destination to be no different. In fact, we take great pride in our conference quality and the dedication of our conference attendees.

About the American Society of Access Professionals. The American Society of Access Professionals (ASAP) is an independent, educational, nonprofit association founded by concerned federal government employees and private citizens working in information access fields primarily through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act. ASAP was founded as a professional forum dedicated to bringing government FOIA and Privacy Act personnel in touch with the requester community. This requester community includes private citizens, law firms, businesses, media and nonprofit organizations, all who have a vested interest in the FOIA and Privacy Act. All ASAP programs draw upon the highest caliber of government FOIA and Privacy instructors and speakers together with known experts in the public requester field to teach and discuss common problems in an environment where each side voices its concern in open dialogue. Department of Justice attorneys and leading agency FOIA and Privacy Act personnel are always on the speakers and teaching platform. Both sides attain tremendous insight and education as each learns from the perspective of the other.