At the end of this month, key players from within the travel industry will gather in Atlanta to participate in the U.S. Travel Association’s Travelcom’09.

The conference will celebrate Southwest Airlines’ founder and chairman emeritus, Herb Kelleher, who will receive the Steve Fossett Innovation Award.

Noted industry analyst Henry Harteveldt will give a keynote speech on “The State of the Industry 360—There Is No Room for Maybe in These Uncertain Times” where he will focus on the latest 2009 Technographics data from Forrester Research.

The industry’s two newly appointed leaders, Barney Harford (president and CEO, Orbitz Worldwide) and Hugh Jones (president and CEO, Travelocity Global), will discuss challenges for the industry from an executive viewpoint.

Kevin Fliess, TravelMuse CEO, will particpate in a panel alongside Sam Shank (CEO, Dealbase.com), Gregg Brockway (CEO,TripIt) and Yen Lee (president, UpTake). They will be discussing “The New Digital Opportunities That Make Sense in a Challenging Business Environment” moderated by Vela McClam Mitchell (president and CEO, Market Designs, LLC).

It looks set to be an extremely informative conference amoung the industry’s leaders. There is still time to register for the conference, and you may even want to take advantage of the multi-staff discount, where you can buy three registrations for the price of two!

In the meantime, TravelMuse has been nominated for the TravelCom Innovator of the Year Award, sponsored by Kayak, which will be awarded at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta. We’d love your vote—simply click here and vote for TravelMuse before March 23!