Communication and Change Management Summit -- We Are All Communicators

Today, communication and adapting to change are essential to staying on top. If you are looking for the tools, tactics, ideas, and professional network to navigate the complex landscape we work in, IBTTA’s Communication and Change Management Summit, July 28-30 in Seattle, is where you need to be.

The summit takes place in a community that lives and breathes change, the city that recently opened one of the world’s biggest bored tunnels to replace an aging unsafe, downtown viaduct. The program includes a tour of the Washington State DOT’s newly-opened SR-99 Tunnel, traffic management center and GOOD TO GO! customer service center (you’ll want to sign up early to get your seat on the bus). Also, you’ll get to attend a general session on how WSDOT communicated across decades, agencies, and community interests to complete the Alaskan Highway Viaduct Replacement.

But that’s just one part of the three day summit. As you would expect, toll agency leaders, systems operators, engineers, and human resource and communication professionals are among the most active and creative in the IBTTA community. The program addresses some of the toughest challenges and most interesting opportunities we face as an industry with speakers who serve in the trenches.

Getting the Story Told

“Faster than a tweet. More powerful than a roadway complaint. Able to leap legislative requests in a single bound.” That’s IBTTA’s description for the opening general session with four senior industry leaders/communicators on Monday, July 29. It’s probably also a pretty good description of the magic you have to deliver in your own job on the average morning.

The opening panel in Seattle starts out from the premise that “everyone is a communicator, from the customer service representative to the chief engineer or executive director/CEO.” That philosophy is baked into the summit program, offering two tracks; a Change Management Track and a Communication Track.  Sessions include: Connecting with Elected Officials, delivering cool online video for big projects on small budgets, Contracting for Success, Understanding the People Side of Organizational Change and Technology in Transition, to name only a few.

The Communication Track also includes a “Communication Therapy” interactive session where participants will get to share and compare notes on the challenges they face in common and learn ideas from colleagues who’ve already “been there, done that.”

The summit also features the return of IBTTA’s popular participant roundtables, with eleven interactive sessions on messaging partnerships, marketing ROI, communicating with media, research, grassroot customer outreach, branding, sponsorships and more.

Changing by the Day

The Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement is an epic change management saga all on its own. But the summit program goes farther, recognizing that every organization needs the right mix of people, technology, and strategy to make change an opportunity, rather than a risk.

The most commonly cited influencer in determining the success or failure of change initiatives are the people involved. Transportation, tolling and mobility organizations such as the Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission, Kansas Turnpike Authority, Central Florida Expressway Authority and California’s Transportation Corridor Agencies have all had in-depth experience with the human side of organizational transformation. They’ll be joined by two expert consultants to talk about how to develop a plan for organizational change, then communicate it in a way that builds buy-in and enthusiasm for the journey ahead.

And, if that isn’t enough for you, plan now to attend a three-hour intensive pre-summit Lean Six Sigma White Belt Course. This course will cover both the process and service sides of tolling. Participants will become familiar with the core concepts and critical success factors for achieving breakthrough results using Lean Six Sigma, with several tolling case studies being shared.

Learn more here and register today to attend IBTTA’s Communication and Change Management Summit, July 28-30, 2019 in Seattle.