Networking, Innovation, and Recognition at 2024 FPTA Annual Conference

Stop requested.

Welcome to Stop Requested, a podcast where we discuss everything transit. My name is Christian Londono. I’m the Senior Customer Success Manager at ETA Transit.

Hello, and I’m Levi McCollum, the co -host and product manager at ETA Transit.

Good afternoon, Levi. It’s been quite busy season for conferences lately. Just thinking about the last few conferences, ETA Transit was attending. There’s some state conferences, there’s some national conferences.

And it seems that is a great opportunity for a lot of the transit folks in the industry, either transit professionals or vendors to come together and, you know, kind of like exchange ideas. What do you think about this?

Yeah, you’re right. It has been a busy conference season. I know you’ve been to many more than I have. My first one, this go -around was FPTA, just earlier this week, where you and I were there, along with Jose, our producer.

And we got to meet with a lot of folks that I hadn’t seen in some time. It was also nice to be able to take them to dinner and introduce them to each other. I really find that the camaraderie at those events, it makes it all worthwhile.

Maybe the day before or a couple of days before, I’m like, oh yeah, there’s that thing coming up. And you got to get in the mood for being in a conference and talking to people for 10 hours in a day, which as an introvert is kind of difficult for me.

But once I get there, I just get in the thick of it. And the atmosphere is so electric, even at a smaller estate show. You’re around a bunch of transit nerds, and you’re talking about the thing that you love.

It’s really great. What did you think of it?

I think that is about widening your perspective, right? I feel that in between conferences, your focus in your position in transit, whatever it is, if you’re a planner, if you’re in operations, if you’re a vendor working at whatever capacity, your day -to -day is about your job in transit.

But when you get to the conferences and you’re spending time with other people in the industry, it feels that every single conversation, every interaction is that opportunity to learn about their perspective and kind of widen your knowledge about transit, not just from the sessions where you can learn about different topics in transit, but just by the conversations, like you mentioned, you have all these different conversations with folks in the industry,

and you’re always finding and learning something new. So it’s certainly a good thing for transit professionals to be attending to these conferences, to make it a regular practice every year to attend conferences as schedule permits and different policies in government for attending conferences.

But during this time of the year, there’s certainly a lot of conferences taking place. You did mention early this year, ETA was participating in different places around the country. So I had the privilege to go to the Maryland State Conference, and this week, the FPTA Florida Public Transportation Association Conference, and next week, ETA will be attending the number one conference or the most popular conference from APTA,

which is a transform that is taking place in Anaheim. So a lot of conferences taking place. Sometimes they’re a little concurring, especially the state ones, but it seems that this is the season, and that’s what’s taking place there.

And what I want to discuss with you today, Levi, is a little bit the opportunities within the conferences. So networking. We talk about networking being very important across industries in general. I think regardless which industry you work in, you have to network, you have to broaden your connections and learn from others.

So what was your experience networking at this conference, Levi?

Yeah, well, there were a few highlights for me. One was talking to the folks at Station 4. Station 4, for those of you who don’t know, is a company that specializes in communications, specifically with website communications for transit agencies.

And I find this area to be extremely fascinating, partly because I’m a transit wonk and also into web development. But these folks highlighted something for me that I knew it was a concern, but maybe didn’t dive in completely and wasn’t completely sold at how much of a concern this was.

So transit agencies around the country are using WordPress to build their site. Or maybe they’ve piggybacked onto a city or a county CMS or web development system, and they don’t even get to choose their particular vendor or their platform.

But I know, for example, there are a few, like, let’s say, Palm Tran, where you and I used to work, Christian, that uses WordPress. Or they may use some of the other vendors out there that provide a sort of one -stop shop type solution for website development.

And often, they are using these pre -made templates and using plug -ins that end up having a lot of vulnerabilities. The folks at station four highlighted for me that that is one option, but you really leave yourself open to cybersecurity threats.

And as we all know, it is becoming much more important lately with the number of attacks, all the information on the dark web. I mean, heck, even just a couple weeks ago, I was a victim of cybersecurity targeting.

So it really should be top of mind for transit agencies. And I think because it doesn’t seem like it’s going to impact us or the agency thinks it’s not going to impact them, we kind of push that down.

We don’t bring it to the surface and say, hey, maybe we need a more secure solution. Maybe we need something that has all the security bells and whistles in addition to being a website made for public transportation and for trip planning, right?

You can be a good web developer, but that doesn’t mean that you’re going to be able to make a website that is both secure and functional for a transit agency. That conversation alone was worth my whole day there because I really enjoyed it and getting to talk to those experts, you see from a different angle, right?

I think what you said earlier is spot on. You’re widening your breadth of transit knowledge. And that happens by listening to other people and seeing what their perspective is and meshing that with what your knowledge of the transit agency is or the transit industry is.

And I enjoyed that conversation. I was part of that conversation with you and you’re spot on. I mean, that that whole conversation about cyber security. It was a great reflection. Also about the threats for public agencies in general, but specifically transportation.

They’re in the top list of agencies or organizations that hackers are constantly targeting. You know, to penetrate their network and a but on that sense. Also, I’ve noticed the ones that that really care about that or they’re really looking at is is the IT folks at each one of the transit agencies and you know at app detect.

There were some sessions on cyber security and it is a topic that is being discussed. But you know, a lot of the folks are not necessarily within that space. It sometimes is not something that they’re prioritizing or thinking of, but I’m also thinking about the also seeing that is growing in popularity, the whole topic of cyber security.

So in general, for me that working at the conference, it was really good enriching as always. Not only having those conversations where you learn something about the industry and you meet somebody new, but also catching up with former colleagues and friends that you made in the industry.

I know for me it’s been over a decade and I’ve gone to many of these conferences in different places around the country and several times in the state of Florida. And then every time that I return, I see more and more familiar faces.

So it’s good to catch up with them as well and know what’s going on with a, you know, everyone, everybody’s career and path in the transit industry, right? The other thing when we were at the Expo that I think is something that is part of the conference experience at this type of events is the Expo.

A lot of these events comes with an Expo where you have all kinds of vendors in the transit industry. And the transit industry, it’s really, you know, it’s an ecosystem, right? They’re made up of different vendors, different agencies, different providers, private, public.

And it’s so important when we have the opportunity to participate on these expos to learn about other products and the technology, right? Like we talk about the innovation and who’s bringing something new.

Every time that you go, well, for ETA transit, as you know, we were presenting a new product that we recently launched, but it’s an opportunity for a lot of agencies to see those products as well. So anything that caught your eye, Levi, or any other vendor that you saw or caught up with while you were there at the conference, stay tuned for that.

Thank you.

Yeah, there were a few. The one that sticks out to me as soon as you asked that question was via transportation. Those are our friends who we’ve now developed a pretty deep and impactful relationship with across several transit properties.

And I’m biased too because every time I go by their booth, they give me some cool swag. I don’t know if you remember Christian, but when we went to Pittsburgh, we got some nice pins. I got a ball. A transit nerd hat, a dad hat.

So I feel like that fits me for some reason. So the swag game on point for via transportation for sure. But even catching up with some of those folks and meeting new ones at via, you learn about other projects that may be worn on your radar or you learn of some bit of insight that perhaps you didn’t have before and you can prepare a better proposal as a vendor, having that additional information that you learn talking face to face.

There really is no supplement for being able to talk to someone one -on -one, look them in the eye, shake some hands. It does matter when you’re trying to develop deep personal connections with people.

So yeah, I think the via one sticks out, but of course there are more. And we have our friendly competitions, our friendly competitors so to speak with, we see a veil there, we see Killian from equines there and it’s great to see them too.

I think there’s enough room in the transit industry for all of us, but I really appreciate those conversations that we have with even the quote unquote competitors. Killian’s a great guy, super knowledgeable.

And every time I see him, I think like, wow, you guys just won this, you just won that, you know, kudos to you.

There’s a lot of agencies around the country and a lot of projects to spearhead in collaboration with agencies. So 100%, it’s important that there’s different vendors and we’re all going to participate at different levels in different communities and hopefully we can help advance that mission of each one of these agencies.

So as a vendor, you’re coming in and you’re trying to connect with agencies or potential customers and the agencies are coming and learning as much as they can from vendors and also network with one another.

But one of the other reasons agencies attend these conferences, it’s almost every single conference has a portion of the program that is specifically for awards and for recognition. And you know how important that is Levi for agencies to get recognition for the work and what is behind awards.

Like why awards are such an important part of a conference? What do you think about that?

Yeah, I think the awards are important and maybe that’s just because I like being recognized for the things that I do, you know, maybe this is an indictment on me, but I like trying to compete in a friendly way with other people.

I feel like the competition kind of brings out the best, right? And transit agencies gear up for it. They say, hey, what do we do in this last 8, 10, 12 months that we can submit to F P T A, you know, we feel like this was a rock star project or this particular ad campaign just knocked it out of the park and they put their best foot forward and trying to spearhead a marketing campaign.

For example, I know you’re very familiar with this at over at Palm Tram when you were leading these types of projects. There is some pride, right, that goes into not only executing it for the agency, but then also getting the award from a third party, a governing body or an association like F P T A or APTA where people said, hey, you did a good job, you know, keep up the good work.

I think that brings up morale internally at the organization and it makes you do better work from both ends, right? If I wasn’t the one receiving the award, man, I want to make sure I get the award next year.

If I didn’t get the award this year, I’m going to try to win that award next year. I’m going to put in even more effort to try to get the award. So I feel like it does bring about the best in us when we keep it friendly, right?

And these are about being friendly. No one is trying to steal each other’s clients here. Transit agency A is usually not interacting with transit agency B on a daily basis. You know, I know there are some cities in which that overlap does occur and there may be some competition, but I think it’s still friendly competition and you’re just trying to do the best for the folks who are using your transit system day in day out.

What do you think of the awards? Do you think that they’re a positive or a negative?

No, 100% are positive. I mean, any recognition is positive in my perspective. I think that, first of all, the work that professionals or employees in general within the transit industry, I think that is not recognized enough.

And a lot of the times, the communities or the elected officials that each one of these agencies and employees work for, they just don’t recognize how difficult it is to be in transit and to be able to be successful at operating in a very dynamic and hard to control environment with a lot of ever -changing factors and still being successful.

So I think that recognition is very important. The second piece is best practices. And I don’t know if you alluded to that piece or not, but being able to see why some of the agencies get recognition.

Sometimes it could be the best marketing campaign. Sometimes it could be a ridership initiative or clean emissions, green initiative they just put in place. So all these things allow agencies to see best practices and say, hey, maybe we can connect with agency and learn from them so we can achieve our ridership growth or our zero emissions initiative.

So that’s very important as well. Also, in a words, I just wanted to make a comment. I got just recently confirmation from a former colleague, but a former executive director, a palm turn, Mr. Clinton B.

Forbes, got recognized during FPTA and he was added to the FPTA Hall of Fame during this conference in recognition to all his contribution to the transit industry and specifically to the transportation industry in the state of Florida.

As you might remember, he served as the chair of the FPTA. So it’s 100% well deserved. That was another very important award that was delivered during this conference. I’m very happy to share that with you if you were not aware about that.

Yeah, well, thanks for sharing that. And, you know, while a sad topic to discuss, I want to make sure that we’re, we’re highlighting one of the best professionals to ever grace public transportation in Clinton v.

Forbes. So it is well deserved. You’re absolutely right. He was a mentor for you. You know, I only worked with him for a couple years, but certainly in that time, a mentor for me, and we miss him dearly.

I got the privilege to work with him the entire eight years. He worked as the executive director and supported him during his time as chair and I’m aware of his contributions. He was a very driven professional and certainly a well -deserved recognition after all his contributions.

Again, conference brings a lot of positives for the agencies. It’s something that I personally recommend every transit professional to put them in their calendar for every year. There’s a lot of conferences and I would say that you have to be purposeful when you’re choosing which one you’re attending.

Sometimes if you’re a planner you’re looking at the planning conferences or the ones that are talking about a topic or a project that you’re involved with. So it’s important to take a look at that and make sure you align with that conference as best as possible.

And the last thing to close this conversation that I want to ask to you, Levi, is you and I, we were previously in the agency side working for a transit agency and then now we’re working for a private company on the vendor side.

So going to these conferences as a representative from an agency and now coming as a vendor, what do you see as the difference, the positive, negative, anything that comes to your mind when you think about those two comparisons.

Thank you.

Well, I mean there are differences for sure. You can’t overlook those. I think one positive is that I’m there to represent a particular product, and man, I don’t like that. Honestly, I don’t even know.

Let me back up there. I was going to say a negative, and I didn’t want to leave with a negative.

Well, I was thinking that that maybe you could have dropped it out. Yeah, let’s wrap it up.

Let me, I thought we weren’t going to go that route and see you kind of got me off guard.

Yeah, let’s save that one for the next one. Let’s save it. So, shoot, then, then how do we wrap it up? Now, I forgot what I said. I mean, we talk about the words and then we close on the words. I think that I was talking about the importance of aligning, aligning yourself with the conference.

So I guess that before the question, maybe Jose, if you could like slice it right before I go into asking about this contrast. But I think that we could just close with anything related to that. So I’m going to ask you, Levi, the question is going to be about how do you choose the conferences that you participate at during the year?

And then just you just say your opinion on those that you think that are always good. And then we conclude the episode. Okay, got it. Okay, so I’ll go on and ask a question in three seconds. So certainly aligning yourself with the conference you’re attending and making sure you’re picking something that is matching your current needs, whatever those are at that point in your career is very important.

And on that note, Levi, let me ask a question. How do you choose which conferences you participate on each year?

there are many to choose from, so it does make it tough. I would say if I had to create some sort of algorithm for choosing which ones that I wanted to go to, I would try to get an APTA show in there.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be transformed. It doesn’t have to be the biggest one, but one of the other ones, an APTA tech or, you know, a legislative, one of the APTA conferences a year, I think is a best practice for a growing transit professional.

And if you have the budget, I would also say, go to your state show, you know, go to that state conference, or if you don’t have a state conference because your state might not have a lot of transit agencies, if there’s a regional one that you can go to, I would at least try to knock those two off each year if I had the budget for it.

What do you think?

I think that certainly a state conference and one national conferences, at least those two, for at least managers and some of those executives, that’s, in my opinion, a minimum. Of course, vendors try to be at each one of them because different folks attend for different reasons at different trade shows and vendors should be a constant as much as possible throughout conferences.

So when folks attend one and not the other one, they don’t miss an opportunity to connect to that one vendor. But for the professionals at the agencies, I would say once a state show, one national conference, for sure, if you could do more, that would be great.

And at the same rate, if you can consider allowing more of your folks to attend to these conferences, I know there’s budgetary constraints and there’s also other restrictions that are in place, but make sure that we’re maximizing our opportunities the most we can because these are also professional development opportunities.

I’ve seen in this 10 years that I’ve been in this industry attending these conferences, grow my professional career through it and taking some benefit of attending to each one of these conferences.

Yeah, well, as you and I both know, going to conferences is really important and I hope that the listeners out there think the same. If not, let us know. Let us know why you think that maybe conferences could do better or maybe there are areas to improve.

We’re all ears. We’d like to hear your feedback. This was a great episode, Christian. It was a pleasure, as always, to talk to you and we’ll catch you next time.