NAHTM 2015 Justify Attending

Attendance Justification Toolkit
Many travel and training budgets have been slashed and some organizations continue to limit
expenditures related to training and development. Regardless of the merits of our conference, you’ll
probably need to justify the expense and time commitment so here are some things you might want to
consider:

Focus on what you will specifically bring back to your facility as return for the investment.

Offer to prepare and deliver a short presentation and Q&A session for your colleagues to share
what you learned during the NAHTM 2015 Annual Conference. That way others will get the
benefits of your attendance.

Share the speaker handouts with your colleagues. As an attendee, you have unlimited access to
presenter materials.

If you are working to obtain or maintain the CHT credential, remind your supervisor that this is a
great way to get certified and is much less expensive than registering for separate CHT
conferences. It also requires less of your time away from the office (and home!).

Be ready with a plan that shows who will cover for you while you are attending the conference.

Offer to share a room to reduce hotel expenses by finding a roommate.
How to Justify Conference Attendance
As a manager, how do you propose any allocation of resources in your organization? You need to
understand two components to make decisions:
1. Expense (the “investment”)
2. Return on Investment (ROI)
This following provides some easy-to-use tools to help you calculate the investment and identify your
return.
Understanding and Determining Your Conference Expenses
Conference expenses are affected by a number of factors. Before you can even begin to justify
conference expenses, you need to calculate what those expenses are. To do so, use the Expense
Worksheet on the next page to develop an estimate for attending the conference.
Once you determine expenses you can prepare to make a case for the return on the investment.
Expense Worksheet – Calculate Your Participation Costs
Expense Area
Guideline
Cost
Conference
Registration
Regular Registration
ends August 1
Member Regular Registration - $600
 Regular Registration: Payment postmarked by August 1, 2015
Member On-Site Registration - $800
 On-Site Registration : Payment postmarked after August 1, 2015
Non-Member Regular Registration – $ 800
 Regular Registration: Payment postmarked by August 1, 2015
Non-Member On-Site Regular Registration - $1000
 Regular Registration: Payment postmarked by August 1, 2015
$
Flight
Visit a Web travel site such as Orbitz, etc. to get an estimate
$
Lodging
The special NAHTM rate is $149 single or double. Save by sharing your
room with a colleague. Rate is exclusive of sales and occupancy taxes.
$
Transportation: Airport The Marriott Sugar Land recommends the Super Shuttle, $34 per person
$
to Hotel
each way from Houston Hobby Airport and $51 per person each way from
Houston George Bush International Airport.
Transportation: Hotel
to Airport
The Marriott Sugar Land recommends the Super Shuttle, $34 per person
$
each way from Houston Hobby Airport and $51 per person each way from
Houston George Bush International Airport.
Mileage
Reimbursement
Driving to the conference or to the airport for your flight? Use MapQuest
to calculate distances, then multiply miles by .57.5 cents/mile (IRS
standard 2015 rate).
Meals
$
Meals offered at the NAHTM meeting includes:
- Welcome Reception with heavy hors-d'oeuvre (Wednesday)
- Industry Symposia Breakfast (Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday)
- Industry Symposia Lunch (Thursday, Saturday)
$
- Exhibitor’s Marketplace, Poster Presentations & Opening Reception
with Lunch (Friday)
- NAHTM Gala Awards & Recognition Banquet (Saturday)
Enter what you think you need otherwise for meals in the cell to the right.
Subtotal $
Total number of employees going*
Total $
Understanding the Benefits
Let’s face it: many benefits from conference attendance are hard to quantify. For example, experts
agree that the top benefit of conference attendance is networking value. Where else can you find so
many contacts facing the same issues as your organization? Are there solutions you’re not aware of?
Although networking is undoubtedly the most important aspect of a conference, it is also the toughest
for which to quantify any value.
On the other hand, if an employee came to you and said, “I want you to fund me for $2,000 and I don’t
know what it’ll do for you,” then you would likely scoff at the offer.
When you propose your attendance at the NAHTM conference for supervisor approval, don’t focus on
how much you want to go; focus on what you will specifically bring back to your organization as payback
for the investment.
Some specific details you’ll need to identify include:

Session content. What sessions have particular relevance to your organization’s work?
Specifically identify:
o
o
o
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3

Supplier contacts. What confirmed exhibitors taking part in the Exhibitors Marketplace showcase
the tools you use or are evaluating for potential future use? Is this an opportunity during which
you’ll be able to compare competing tools? Additionally are any of the complimentary IndustrySponsored Symposia sessions in which supplier products and services showcased any that you
are considering or that you may feel may be of interest at your facility?

Learning Labs / Breakout Sessions. Which sessions do you think can teach you a skill and/or help
your team overcome current or future challenges? Look at the Learning Labs to be offered at the
meeting and be prepared to explain to your supervisor why you feel your participation could
benefit your facility.
Quantifying the Benefits
Although you might understand the benefits of NAHTM 2015 Annual Conference that interest you, your
manager may not. Therefore, to be most effective in justifying the conference, you need to clearly
articulate the connection between your organization’s knowledge requirements and the conference
program. DO NOT assume that your manager will be able to automatically make those distinctions.
To support this process, use the following worksheet to help you focus on the benefits. Use whatever
makes sense for your particular facility and omit the rest.
Benefits Worksheet
Benefits to Your
Organization
Specify your Needs and list the Education Sessions that Meet those Needs
Networking Benefits
This conference will allow [specific team members] to network with other
Patient Transportation professionals and key suppliers in the industry. We will
be able to take the pulse of what is happening related to tools, technologies,
and processes, and hear ideas we weren’t even aware of.
Teambuilding (if
sending a big part of
your group)
This conference will help build our team, providing a forum for team members
to discuss tools, technologies, and processes and how we might apply them in
our hospital to improve our information products, workflow, and processes.
Current Tools
Future Tools
Exploration
Current Technologies
Future Technologies
Exploration
Current Processes
Future Processes
Exploration
Suppliers with Tools &
Technologies You Are
Exploring
Visit our web site to see the list of confirmed exhibitors (available in June,
2015). List here those whose products and services you’d like to learn more
about.
It’s all in the Selling
After you have identified the specific knowledge benefits, you’ve provided both the expenses and
benefits your manager needs to decide the value of your proposition.
Sales people work the same way. They don’t let customers infer the value of what they are selling; they
make that leap for them.
Sell your conference proposition!
Letter to Manager
< Date >
Dear < supervisor’s name >,
I would like to attend 2015 Annual Conference and Exposition of the National Association of Healthcare
Transport Management. This meeting is the premiere educational activity in Patient Transportation
Services. It will be held October 7 – October 11, 2015 in Sugar Land, TX. This conference will enable me
to attend a wide array of education sessions that are directly applicable to my work and will allow me to
network with a variety of experts and colleagues from across the country. Many of the presentations
deliver information on how to < list benefits to your responsibilities >. I am seeking sponsorship for the
registration fee, travel expenses to the conference, and living expenses during the conference. A
detailed cost breakdown is listed below.
After reviewing the conference brochure, I have identified a number of education sessions which will
allow me to gain knowledge and understanding about how we can improve our processes here at
<facility name>. The presentations are facilitated by both industry experts and Patient Transportation
colleagues who have faced similar challenges. I chose each of these presentations because they are
directly related to an issue we are dealing with currently. Getting the information in a seminar format
will greatly reduce the research time and costs we would incur in researching the topics independently.
Incidentally, I have only listed some of the sessions that I will attend. Including them all would make this
memo much too long.
< You will need to insert the Breakout Sessions that most apply to your responsibilities or to topics
you have identified as challenges in your facility. >
The full price conference fee is <$xxxx>, but is slightly reduced by registering is received by August 1,
2015.
< You will need to insert your travel cost numbers in here >
Here is the breakdown of conference costs:
Roundtrip Airfare: <$xxxx>
Transportation: <$xxxx>
Hotel: <$xxxx>
Meals: <$xxxx>
Conference Fee: <$xxxx>
The total costs associated with attending this conference are: <$xxxx>.
The opportunity for me to develop better contacts and gain knowledge in specific areas makes my
attendance at NAHTM’s conference a wise investment, which will yield rich dividends for < name of your
organization >.
Sincerely,
< your name here >