Catch Me If You Can at NGMA Training Conference
What a difference a year makes! When the grants community gathered at last year’s National Grants Management Association’s (NGMA) Annual Grants Training Conference, the main topic of discussion was the coming 2024 revisions to the uniform guidance and the newly developed Federal Program Inventory. The funding and oversight of federal grants, at the time, was still nowhere near front-page news. As we prepare to meet at this year’s conference this Wednesday through Friday, it’s a whole new ballgame! Issues about funding — and not funding — federal programs are among the top headlines essentially on a daily basis. The grants community is being challenged like never before.
It will be interesting to gauge the general overall mood of this year’s conference. It’s one thing to try to adjust to newly revised grant requirements stemming from the 2024 revisions to the uniform guidance, but it’s another challenge altogether when your grant programs are in danger of being cut by a new presidential administration with its own priorities to “cut federal government waste and abuse.”
There is a lot to learn at this year’s conference. Thompson Grants will be one of the exhibitors, and we welcome anyone and everyone to stop by our table for a chat! Let us know what concerns are on your mind, and what information you would like us to share.
We do find it interesting that this year’s plenary session speaker is something of the complete opposite of last year’s plenary speaker. Last year, Ken Dieffenbach, who has led numerous federal efforts to prevent fraud, provided an informative, if not somewhat humorous, overview of various instances of grant fraud, how these were identified and how they were prosecuted. In essence, we heard from the “enforcer.”
This year, the plenary speaker is Frank Abagnale, whose claim to fame was allegedly committing numerous instances of workplace fraud, forgery and embezzlement before finally being caught and brought to justice. His story was the inspiration behind the movie “Catch Me If You Can” with Leonardo DiCaprio playing the role of Abagnale. In essence, this year we’ll hear from the (former) “perpetrator.” Let it be said, however, that Abagnale has used his experience to become a secure document consultant in fraud prevention for many years.
This bodes to be one of the most interesting NGMA conferences we’ve ever attended. We look forward to seeing you there!
Join us for our following Thompson Grants event:
2025 Thompson Grants Workshop: Indirect Costs | March 25, 2025 | Virtual Event
