By scott Bogren
EXPO 2019: More than Just Idle Chatter
About this time every year, many writers, bloggers and members of the media take a moment to assess the best – and worst – of the previous year, as well as offer their predictions for the coming year. Check your favorite social media feed if you don’t believe me. It’s as much a part of the season as Auld Lang Syne.
Here at CTAA we’ve decided to forego crafting any of these lists, choosing instead to spend a great deal of time at the end of the year looking at what our members most need to succeed in 2019. And we’ve decided to take what we learned and make it the focus of our training workshops at the Community Transportation EXPO this May in Palm Springs, Calif. You heard it right: we’re fundamentally changing the way we deliver our EXPO training workshops to ensure that all CTAA members and EXPO attendees have access to the most indispensable skills, techniques, technology and ideas.
Here are the four topic areas around which we’ve decided to focus EXPO’s two-hour training workshops (click here to see our EXPO workshop matrix):
- Innovation: In this subject area, participants will delve into shared mobility, data and data analytics, and emerging vehicle technologies. Our training in these areas will focus on practical, useful application of these concepts and not abstract innovation discussions. You’ll learn what works and how to apply it in your community.
- Operations: This topic area will highlight service design (and redesigns), asset management and system safety. Respected transit leaders will discuss these topics from fundamentals to implementation.
- Investment: With a spotlight on federal investment, state and local transit funding, and private-sector partnerships, this topic area will teach skills designed to both better understand and grow funding streams at the federal, state, and local level.
- People Power: Public and community transit is – and always has been – a people business. Attendees in this topic area will learn new and tested HR tactics, marketing and communications skills and the latest accessibility techniques that go far beyond the ADA.
What’s more, we’re offering emerging, intermediate, and advanced looks at each of these topic areas, to ensure the level of training we offer mirrors the experience and demands of each EXPO training workshop attendee. We’ve never offered anything like this before in more than 30 years of the CTAA EXPO!
Finally, we’ll be giving our conference attendees the opportunity to set CTAA’s agenda in each of these vital topics with a series of Road Map sessions offering interactivity and a chance to share your knowledge and experience with Association leadership. We need to hear from you!
As you can plainly see, we’re not just talking about change or listing what we believe will be the most important topics for 2019. We’re delivering a fully re-designed EXPO training workshop experience for our members and conference attendees designed to ensure they leave Palm Springs with the knowledge and skills to begin improving transit and mobility in their communities immediately.
Already, we can’t wait for May!
Here’s wishing you all a prosperous and safe 2019.
The Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) and its members believe that mobility is a basic human right. From work and education to life-sustaining health care and human services programs to shopping and visiting with family and friends, mobility directly impacts quality of life.