Seize the Moment at IBTTA’s Summit on Finance, Policy and VMT

With a new national infrastructure plan possibly taking shape in Washington, DC, it’s hard to imagine a more opportune moment for IBTTA to host its annual finance and policy conference.

When you register for this year’s Summit on Finance, Policy and VMT, April 23-25, 2017 in Jersey City, NJ, you open the door to the information, analysis, and peer-to-peer networking that will put your organization at the center of the country’s hottest infrastructure financing trends.

“President Trump has vowed to make infrastructure investment a priority, potentially relying heavily on P3 delivery and other private financing methods to an extent not previously seen in the United States in recent years,” the Summit program states. “How ready are we to meet this shift? What areas will be most challenged, and what are the potential pitfalls?”

The Summit is your opportunity to contemplate the implications of these shifts on our ability to provide greater mobility and ensure that funding is more in balance with infrastructure needs.

A Brave New World of Transportation Finance

The Summit kicks off with a panel that explores the long-standing challenges and “big changes” shaping transportation funding and policy. Even as over-reliance on gas tax revenues placing the whole system at risk, U.S. highways stand on the cusp of a “brave new world” that points toward a century of “collaborative and self-supporting” revenue generation.

Transformations rarely look neat, simple, or certain when you’re in the eye of the storm. This session will start out by embracing an era of “increasing uncertainty in transportation funding and policy,” the Summit program notes. But IBTTA events are all about offering solutions—and with industry veterans onstage and your colleagues’ expertise in the room, you can expect to walk away with insights and solutions that you can begin implementing as soon as you get home.

New Technologies in an Age of Disruption

The mix of opportunity, excitement, and edgy uncertainty in transportation finance is driven in large part by technologies that were scarcely on the radar five years ago.

Astonishing but true: If you look back to 2012, services like Uber and Lyft were just getting off the ground, autonomous vehicles were seen as a distant hope, and the notion of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) had yet to be defined. Now, those options are disrupting how people communicate and move around, as well as the expectations they have for timeliness and quality of services.

Deploying the right technology to meet and exceed customers’ expectations is nothing new for tolling agencies or the private vendors that serve them. But keeping up with that technology is the first step—which makes this year’s summit a must-attend event.

Innovation Behind the Curtain

The vast majority of toll customers have no reason to think about the routinely brilliant, behind-the-scenes innovation that keeps a tolled facility in peak operating condition. But whether they know it or not, the safe, reliable ride they expect from their friendly, neighborhood toll road depends on finance and procurement officials who stay on top of the latest tools of the trade.

Innovation. Disruption. Big changes ahead. The next year could bring the system transformations that tolling agencies have been building and advocating for decades. The Summit on Finance, Policy and VMT is the place to be to make sure your organization is ready to seize the opportunity.

Seize the moment! Register today for IBTTA’s Summit on Finance, Policy, VMT, April 23-25, 2017 in Jersey City, NJ.