NAFA’s 3rd Annual International Fleet Academy Delivers Game-Changing Experience

Left to right: Joe LaRosa, Director, Global Fleet Administration for Merck, Sharp and Dohme, Inc. and NAFA’s International Vice President; Ermanno Molinari, General Secretary and Treasurer for AIAGA; NAFA Executive Director Phil Russo, CAE; and Giovanni Tortorici, President of AIAGA.

Minutes after the closing of NAFA’s 3rd Annual International Fleet Academy (IFA), the rave reviews began pouring in from attendees, faculty, and members of the media. Held October 21-23 at Loews Ventana Canyon in Tucson, AZ, the IFA offered global fleet managers the ability to network and learn from the experiences of those who manage fleets around the world; and attendees clearly relished the opportunity to do so.

"NAFA's IFA exceeded every expectation from all perspectives," said NAFA’s Executive Director Phillip E. Russo, CAE. "Most importantly, the fleet managers in attendance told me they were absolutely blown away by the learning environment, the subject matter experts, and the sharing that took place. To a person, they said they came expecting to learn, but they left with more than just knowledge. They left with real-life solutions, ideas that really work, and contacts that will prove invaluable. The key to our success was that the majority of our sessions were led by fleet managers themselves, providing real-life scenarios and solutions. I couldn't be more pleased. NAFA truly delivered a game-changing experience."

"My expectations were far exceeded," said Joanna Bowen, Director, Global Travel, Meetings and Fleet Administration for Bristol-Myers Squibb. "I enjoyed the presentations and discussions as everything was spot on."

NAFA’s International Fleet Academy was created to demystify global fleet management with experts and panel discussions that provided valuable cost-savings strategies, offered strategic overviews of the differences among countries and cultures, informed attendees of the right questions to ask for the RFI-RFQ process, and presented valuable lessons on how to decrease corporate liability by avoiding international insurance pitfalls.

"Attendee fleet managers/administrators as well as vendors were engaged the entire time," said Joe LaRosa, Director, Global Fleet Administration for Merck, Sharp and Dohme, Inc. and NAFA’s International Vice President. "Even on breaks, many people didn't even leave the room and went to other tables to ask questions, make comments etc – [it was] truly a learning and sharing experience... Almost everyone exchanged their business cards and hopefully the learning and education will continue."

Janice Sutton, Editor-at-Large for Fleet Management Weekly agrees. "The IFA was absolutely outstanding," said Sutton. "The level of interaction in that room was truly impressive; networking at its finest. The enthusiasm for participating was palpable."

That enthusiasm and participation largely stemmed from the intimacy of the conference. "From the start, we intentionally kept IFA at an intimate level, restricting attendance to no more than 40 people total," explained Russo. "We also wanted to ensure that the majority of the audience was fleet managers, so they could network and learn from each other, as the real practitioners of global fleet management. We accomplished both goals, with a sold-out conference, of which more than half were fleet managers."

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