Welcome to Denver: A city of growth, innovation and independence
Jason Myers of the E-470 Public Highway Authority, Frank McCartney of Parsons Brinckerhoff, and Kathryn O’Connor of the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority are Co-Chief Meeting Organizers for IBTTA’s 84th Annual Meeting and Exhibition, September 11-14, 2016 in Denver. In this interview with Tolling Points, they connect the Annual Meeting program to the trends that are reshaping tolling and transportation.
What do you see as the most important industry trends over the last year?
Jason: Collaboration among toll agencies, departments of transportation, concessionaires, and toll integrators, and upcoming changes in technology.
Frank: Customer service and security, the growth of price managed lanes to accommodate congestion relief, and the flood of new data from connected vehicles that will help us improve the customer experience while they’re on the road.
Kathryn: Security and information technology for infrastructure and data, better collaboration on the national, regional, and state levels, balancing revenues, costs, technologies, and work force, and learning from each other’s successes and challenges.
How do each of the conference tracks pick up on those trends?
Jason: Excellence in transportation depends on collaboration, and collaboration depends on people and partnerships. This is evident in the larger interoperability standard that the entire North American tolling community has been working towards, but it’s just as apparent down at the state and agency level. As technologies progress, everyone is learning, sharing, and analyzing what will benefit their organizations and the system as a whole.
Frank: This annual meeting is content-rich!
One of the breakout sessions in the People track deals with putting Big Data to work. We’ll look at how we use data to be more predictive about congestion issues, without losing sight of the fundamental duty to protect privacy and manage security when we hold more customer data. Toll roads have been immune to data breaches so far, but we’re on the radar. We have to maintain our record for data safety, and we can only do that by understanding the technology and being constantly vigilant.
We’ll hear from partners and stakeholders from outside the tolling industry—from an investment advisor’s perspective on priced managed lanes, to a public official who’s still not quite sold on tolling as a part of the highway funding toolbox. And we’ll look at a fascinating trend in the United States and Canada, where states and provinces are picking up the tab for new highway innovations and adopting technologies faster than we’ve been used to with traditional federal responsibility.
This is also the annual meeting where we’ll be turning the page on interoperability, by looking at how the trend is playing out around the world—from the United States and Mexico to South Africa, Dublin, and Eastern Europe. And you won’t want to miss the Leadership Academy session, when a half-dozen or more of our recent alumni look at the future of state partnerships and tolling leadership.
The conference subtitle captures Coach and IBTTA President Buddy Croft’s theme for the year: People, Partnerships, and Progress. How will the Annual Meeting advance each of these essential elements?
Kathryn: This annual meeting is all about how our industry can progress together as a team. We need and want to be innovative. We know that depends on partnerships. That basic principle applies to everything we do, from project finance to privacy protection to integrating the latest technologies.
Jason: The Annual Meeting advances Coach Buddy’s theme for the year by bringing together a robust set of sessions, featuring speakers who are doing great things right now. We have so many entities that are actively involved in improving their processes and their service to the public. The partnerships that enable us to share those ideas and best practices eventually lead to progress to all.
The Annual Meeting is one of the main opportunities each year for IBTTA to gather as a global community. How will the networking and informal conversations during the conference help advance the industry?
Frank: As always, the trade show will be a great place to meet with our industry’s most innovative vendors and learn more about what they have to offer. And the Monday night reception will be something special. In Austin a couple of years ago, we opened up Rainey Street for participants. This year, we’ll be doing something very similar in Denver’s LoDo [Lower Downtown] District. Some of our Platinum sponsors have taken over a row of restaurants and bars, so that participants can circulate informally from one venue to another. It’ll be a great chance to see old colleagues, meet new friends, and get the flavor of the city of Denver and the state of Colorado.
Kathryn: Especially when you come from a small agency, there’s always so much to learn from other people’s experiences, positive or negative. Our industry is always changing, and the opportunity to network with a group of people with such a vast amount of knowledge in this industry is invaluable. The ideas and concepts we pick up from informal conversations can definitely change the way an organization operates.
What else can participants expect to see, hear, and learn in Denver that will make their conference experience especially worthwhile?
Jason: Denver is an amazing example of the growth and transformation of a large city that is adapting to new technologies and customer expectations. It’s happening across the country and around the world, as we all come to grips with different projects, challenges, and complexities. And it all comes back to people, partnerships, and progress.
Frank: Talk about a Petri dish or an incubator! Colorado has done it all. They’ve been on the leading edge of so many things. The E-470 Public Highway Authority was one of the first agencies to embrace all-electronic tolling. The Colorado DOT is taking a very strong role with price managed lanes, congestion relief, and multimodal solutions that are really essential in a growing economy. Northwest Parkway is a 75-mile per hour toll road that seamlessly connects with E-470 at north I-25 and U.S. 36. If you haven’t been to Denver for a while, you’ll see that the state bird is now a construction crane. Everything is under construction there.
Register today to attend IBTTA’s 84th Annual Meeting and Exhibition, September 11-14, 2016 in Denver.