CAMBRIDGE, Md. -- Leadership and vision are the essential ingredients for federal agencies as they move into the future, according to two speakers who opened the Interagency Resources Management Conference here April 13.

Norman Mineta, a former Transportation Department secretary, said in a keynote address that the next year will bring a great deal of chaos as experienced people leave the government, Bush administration appointees step down, and the next president brings in his or her own choices.

Career civil servants must hold things together, he said. "Federal agencies are going to need leaders to hold the ship of state together," he said. "You have a tremendous responsibility."

The IRMCO audience was comprised primarily of government employees and contractors.

David Bibb, deputy administrator at the General Services Administration, noted the difficulty of trying to make long-term information technology plans when the future of technology is a rapidly changing, ever-evolving puzzle.

"One of the major problems we have is we can't -- or don't -- imagine what things are going to be like," he said.

IRMCO is a GSA conference.