SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. – During the eighth annual and first-ever virtual National Defense Transportation Association-U.S. Transportation Command Fall Meeting, Oct. 5-8, 2020, attendees can participate in 80 Transportation Academy interactive courses, covering a wide range of logistics and other relevant topics.
Instructional focus areas include Acquisition and Finance; Combatant Commands and Security Cooperation; Department of Defense/Commercial Logistics; Information Technology, Cyber, and Analytics; Interactive Workshops/Training; Leadership and Human Resources; Legislation and Policy; Surface Deployment and Distribution Command workshops; and two new subjects, Blockchain Technology, and Resilience, Innovation, and Disruptors.
Initiated in 2014, this year’s Transportation Academy consists of 12 one hour in-length sessions, transpiring over the event’s first three days. Between six to eight separate classes will be virtually taught within each 60-minute block of instruction.
For each course, chat rooms will be established and comments monitored, as well as participants’ questions will be gathered for presenter and/or designated team office response. In addition, paid Fall Meeting 2020 registration ($200 for DOD/U.S. government participants) allows attendees to view or rewatch all recorded Academy classes (and also the General Sessions, which includes three roundtables and five keynotes) through Jan. 8, 2021.
“Transportation Academy, which has evolved into hosting over 100 instructors and close to 2,000 attendees in a variety of topic tracks of critical interest to government and commercial logisticians and transporters, will be delivered virtually for the first time, October 5 to 8, 2020,” said Irvin Varkonyi, coordinator, Transportation Academy, and president, Supply Chain Operations Preparedness Education, Washington, D.C. NDTA and USTRANSCOM have collaboratively – and seamlessly – adapted the traditional face-to-face format into upwards of 80 virtual sessions to be provided by instructors across the globe in real time interaction with attendees.”
Titles of the four new Blockchain Technology courses are “Blockchain 101 – What It Is and Why It’s Important to Your Business Processes;” “Blockchain – A Technical Deep Dive;” “Blockchain Interactive Training;” and “Blockchain and the Express Industry.” The initial three will be instructed by Hudson Sutherland, director, and Venkat Kodumudi, director, Blockchain and robotic process automation practices, CGI United States, Washington, D.C. Dale Chrystie, business fellow and Blockchain specialist, FedEx, Memphis, Tennessee, will teach the remaining class.
Like Chrystie, Bruce Busler, director, Joint Distribution Process Analysis Center, USTRANSCOM, has served as a previous Transportation Academy instructor. Although instructing a course “Data Analytics,” during the virtual Fall Meeting 2020, he noted all 80 classes will be of value to attendees, and active participation is built into the technology to offer an interactive experience as in previous Transportation Academies.
“The virtual sessions planned for the Fall Meeting 2020 offer the same rich benefits of information exchange and dialogue, but you have to actively engage to make the most of this new venue,” Busler stated.
Some other guest Transportation Academy instructors and their respective courses include Greg Schlegel, founder, Supply Chain Risk Management Consortium, Lehigh, Pennsylvania, “Supply Chain Risk and Resiliency: The New Normal with the Three Rs – Respond, Recover, and Renew;” U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Heidi Hoyle, commanding general, Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, “Evolving for Tomorrow: The Role of Deterrence (roundtable);” and Yariv Bash, chief executive officer and co-founder, Flytrex, Tel Aviv, Israel, “How COVID-19 Accelerated the Adoption of Drones into On-Demand Delivery.”
For a $35 administrative fee, NDTA-USTRANSCOM Virtual Fall Meeting 2020 participants will be eligible to earn 2.1 hours of continuing education units from McKendree University, Lebanon, Illinois, for attending Transportation Academy course and General Sessions.
More information on Transportation Academy can be found at
https://www.ndtahq.com/events/fall-meeting/transportation-academy-fall-meeting/.
And to learn more about the NDTA-USTRANSCOM Virtual Fall Meeting 2020, visit https://www.ndtahq.com/events/fall-meeting/.
“The circumstances dictating the change to a virtual Fall Meeting, being the COVID-19 pandemic, has also impacted the content of Transportation Academy. Two new focus areas for 2020 include
Blockchain technology and Resilience, Innovation, and Disruptors,” Varkonyi said. “The latter will address multiple perspectives on the challenge faced by industry to survive, respond, and thrive in order to fulfill USTRANSCOM’s mission to support the logistics components of national security. The former updates last year’s Blockchain classes, as this technology evolves to strengthen the ability of organizations to optimize and safeguard global supply chain management.”
USTRANSCOM exists as a warfighting combatant command to project and sustain military power at a time and place of the nation’s choosing. Powered by dedicated men and women, we underwrite the lethality of the Joint Force, we advance American interests around the globe, and we provide
our nation's leaders with strategic flexibility to select from multiple options, while creating multiple dilemmas for our adversaries.
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