Top Moments from the 2025 TTA State Conference and Expo

00:00 Stop Requested.

00:01 Levi McCollum: Welcome to Stop Requested, the podcast where we discuss everything Transit.

00:05 Levi McCollum: I’m your co host, Levi McCollum, director of operations at ETA Transit.

00:10 Christian Londono: And I’m your co host, Christian Londono, Senior customer Success Manager at ETA Transit.

00:20 Levi McCollum: Hey, Christian, how are you doing?

00:22 Christian Londono: Good. How you doing, Levi?

00:24 Levi McCollum: Man, I’m doing pretty well and I’m.

00:26 Levi McCollum: I really want to hear how it was over at the Texas Transit Association Conference about a week ago.

00:33 Levi McCollum: I’d like to dive into that today.

00:34 Levi McCollum: What do you think?

00:36 Christian Londono: Yeah, of course. That would be nice to speak about the conference.

00:40 Christian Londono: It was definitely a great conference.

00:43 Levi McCollum: Excellent. Well, let’s get into it.

00:45 Levi McCollum: I want to hear, you know, give me first, you know, set the stage for me.

00:48 Levi McCollum: What was the overview of the conference? I know it took place March 7th through the 12th in McAllen, but

00:56 Levi McCollum: honestly, that’s about as much as I know of the conference.

00:59 Levi McCollum: Even though I lived in Texas for a little while, I never went.

01:02 Levi McCollum: So you’re going to have to enlighten me and our listeners here.

01:06 Christian Londono: Yes, it’ll be my pleasure. So this conference, of course, is the state conference for the state of Texas, my

01:15 Christian Londono: first time attending ever. I attended a lot of state conferences in Ohio, Florida, you know, other places around the

01:24 Christian Londono: country. But the very first time going to Texas, you know, Texas is a big state.

01:29 Christian Londono: A lot of transit, a lot of big transit agencies, a lot of small rural agencies as well.

01:36 Christian Londono: I really enjoyed that this was, this, this conference took place at McAllen because I personally never been in McAllan.

01:45 Christian Londono: I, I think that, you know, it might not be, you know, one of the most known cities in, in

01:50 Christian Londono: Texas. So it was great for me because, you know, of course, the opportunity to see a new city and

01:57 Christian Londono: see how the transit system works there, I gotta say that it’s very enjoyable.

02:02 Christian Londono: Great weather. So it, it took place at the McAllen Convention center and for the most part, all the hotels

02:11 Christian Londono: were surrounding the convention center. So for a lot of people, everything was walking distance.

02:18 Christian Londono: There were tons of like, restaurants and, you know, places to go to.

02:23 Christian Londono: There was even a circus that was in the area.

02:27 Christian Londono: And I know one of the nights, a couple of the nights, I heard from people, they even got to

02:30 Christian Londono: go to the circus. So, you know, great location, great event.

02:35 Christian Londono: I have to say, you know, a couple things as I was going into this conference and I was doing

02:42 Christian Londono: some research about the Texas Transit association, one of the things that caught my attention is that they came to

02:49 Christian Londono: exist. They were organized in 1986, so that was the year I was born.

02:53 Christian Londono: Close to be 40 they’re close to before you said agency as well.

02:57 Christian Londono: So I, I was like, this is meant to be for me.

02:59 Christian Londono: I have to be a Texas transit association.

03:03 Christian Londono: And you know, one of the things for you know, transit agencies around the country, especially some of those is

03:10 Christian Londono: mid, mid size or small size agencies.

03:14 Christian Londono: You know, some of the transit professionals, they don’t get to travel to a lot of conferences throughout the year

03:21 Christian Londono: and you know, a lot of the times they go to their state transit conference.

03:27 Christian Londono: And one of the things I notice about this TTA 2025 is that it offer a trifecta.

03:36 Christian Londono: It was a transit conference, it was an expo, it was also a rodeo.

03:41 Christian Londono: So those that got to go to the entire set of events of the conference, they got to experience everything

03:48 Christian Londono: that you see typically in you know, transit conferences around the countries.

03:53 Christian Londono: It was a phenomenal conference.

03:57 Levi McCollum: Wow, that sounds like it was probably a jam packed agenda with all that going on.

04:02 Levi McCollum: The conference expo and the rodeo.

04:05 Levi McCollum: You know what really catches my ear there is the rodeo.

04:08 Levi McCollum: For some reason I’m just, I’m fond of the rodeos, you know, attending them at, at Lee Tran.

04:14 Levi McCollum: I actually don’t recall attending one at Palm Tren.

04:17 Levi McCollum: I’m not sure why I didn’t.

04:19 Levi McCollum: But you know, I’ve gone to some state shows and I know how fun they can be.

04:25 Unknown: Right.

04:25 Levi McCollum: It gets everybody together. You’re laughing and talking, hanging out with colleagues, people who just love transit.

04:32 Levi McCollum: And you get to see some exceptionally skilled operators.

04:36 Unknown: Right.

04:36 Levi McCollum: I’m sure, you know, you, you probably have many of those experiences that you can share.

04:42 Christian Londono: Oh yeah, I’ve, I’ve participated in different rodeos as a judge, as helper, as promoter, even you know, one of

04:54 Christian Londono: I got to fly my drone and, and you know, shot some pictures and, and you know, video of you

05:02 Christian Londono: know, our frontline employees doing what they do best and is deliver transit and just, you know, be excellent around

05:12 Christian Londono: transit vehicles, you know, as bus operators as well as technicians and and you know, this is the beauty of

05:23 Christian Londono: it rightly, because a lot of conferences allow a space for transit professionals, a lot of those, you know, kind

05:30 Christian Londono: of like mid career, you know, maybe executive C suite professionals to go and learn about transit and be there

05:38 Christian Londono: and represent their agencies. Which is another thing that I think that is so, you know, cool about transit is

05:47 Christian Londono: that you see in all these participants of a conference taking PR on their organization like I’m representing this agency.

05:56 Christian Londono: And the rodeos give that opportunity for those frontline employees, those technicians, those bus operators that are so critical in

06:06 Christian Londono: delivering transit day after day, you know, to be there, to be highlighted and to take that pride of representing

06:14 Christian Londono: their agencies. And I think that’s one word for me that connects to rodeo.

06:20 Christian Londono: And that I would say that I heard on the conference and I saw on the conference from the state

06:26 Christian Londono: rodeo is pride. All these bus operators are so proud of representing their agency and showing their skills.

06:34 Christian Londono: Even if they got to be the podium, you know, they won or not, they got to represent, they’re among

06:39 Christian Londono: their best. Like, their agencies go through their process of selecting their best bus operators to send them out and

06:47 Christian Londono: technicians and sometimes even, you know, customer service agents to go and represent the agency and do their best work.

06:55 Christian Londono: So it’s exceptional. And even better is when you get to see them, you know, coming up to the stage

07:03 Christian Londono: and receive the, the awards and after winning is incredible.

07:08 Christian Londono: I think that a, every state should have a rodeo, every, you know, conference should try their best to try

07:16 Christian Londono: to facilitate and accommodate a rodeo to bring more of those frontline employees and have them participating and showcasing their

07:24 Christian Londono: skills.

07:25 Levi McCollum: Yeah, it’s a good way for those frontline employees to be able to shine.

07:29 Levi McCollum: Like you said, there are other events and recognitions for the C suite for your, your manager level employee, but

07:39 Levi McCollum: for the operator, this is it, you know, a little bit of friendly competition too.

07:43 Levi McCollum: It makes you try to strive for more.

07:47 Levi McCollum: So I’m a big proponent of the rodeos as well.

07:51 Levi McCollum: And I know maybe they kind of lost a little bit of their, their luster, it seemed to me, anyway,

07:58 Levi McCollum: around Covid, but I’m glad they’re, they’re back in full force.

08:01 Levi McCollum: So that was on Friday.

08:04 Unknown: Right.

08:04 Levi McCollum: So it started March 7th and you did the rodeo the, the first day.

08:10 Christian Londono: So. So 7. March 7th was actually the orientation.

08:14 Christian Londono: So for all the judges, those that volunteered to judge at the event, and then all the participants, they got

08:22 Christian Londono: to, you know, go through the training like, what are the expectations? What are the courses? What’s the.

08:27 Christian Londono: Their schedule? So they will be prepared for the actual competition, which took place on Saturday.

08:35 Christian Londono: So Saturday also started with, you know, breakfast.

08:37 Christian Londono: They, you know, walk the course, both judges and participants.

08:43 Christian Londono: So there’s clarity on, you know, the expectations and what they’re supposed to do.

08:47 Christian Londono: Because there’s complexity, right? And then the courses are made up of, you know, different, you know, sections.

08:55 Christian Londono: And then, you know, one is about braking, one is about parking, one is about turning.

09:00 Christian Londono: So they’re being assessed on different aspects of operating a vehicle.

09:04 Christian Londono: If, you know, is that driving piece.

09:06 Christian Londono: Right. For the bus operators, of course, is different for technicians and, and you know, different categories of the competition.

09:14 Christian Londono: But they start with that, making sure there’s full clarity.

09:17 Christian Londono: Because once the competition is on, there’s no do overs.

09:21 Christian Londono: Like you have to make sure you’re on, you know, your best game.

09:25 Christian Londono: And then, and then the competition of course started.

09:28 Christian Londono: They went through all that. It was intense because of the amount of participants and the weather also.

09:34 Christian Londono: You live in Texas, so. But the weather was very nice.

09:39 Christian Londono: You know, you don’t want, you know, any raining or anything that would, you know, deter people from really attending

09:45 Christian Londono: or being able to do their best participation.

09:48 Christian Londono: I understand it was a little hot, but for the most part it was a good day.

09:52 Christian Londono: It’s just that it was long because there was a whole bunch of participants.

09:57 Christian Londono: But you know, that’s also a good thing, right? Like you have a lot of participation and engagement.

10:02 Christian Londono: And then after the competition took place, then they went, you know, over the awards.

10:09 Christian Londono: So the awards were given also on Saturday.

10:13 Levi McCollum: That’s interesting. You know, the thing that came to my mind when you were describing the post competition part of

10:20 Levi McCollum: the rodeo is when I was at Litran, I wasn’t doing the judging, but I was responsible one year for

10:27 Levi McCollum: doing the tabulating, you know, taking in all the judges scorecards and putting those into Excel.

10:34 Levi McCollum: And I felt extreme pressure from not only the judges, but especially the people who are participating, like the operators.

10:42 Levi McCollum: And they’re like, is this right? You make sure that you follow this rule and you got to put here

10:47 Levi McCollum: and then calculate this, multiply that.

10:49 Levi McCollum: And I’m like, okay, okay, I think I got it.

10:53 Levi McCollum: But there was a lot of pressure to make sure that the numbers were absolutely correct.

10:59 Levi McCollum: And if they weren’t, you’re going to hear it.

11:02 Levi McCollum: So that was on Saturday. So you moved to Saturday, Saturday then for the beginning of the actual conference part.

11:10 Levi McCollum: Right?

11:12 Christian Londono: Yeah. So, so the, the conference.

11:15 Christian Londono: So the conference was for the most part first the rodeo, right.

11:18 Christian Londono: Like the Friday, Saturday, and then Sunday is kind of like when the actual sessions and, and the activity at

11:26 Christian Londono: the convention center. Right. Because all this was off site where, you know, the, the rodeo took place.

11:32 Christian Londono: But then the conference is taking place at the McAllen Convention Center.

11:36 Christian Londono: So all the activity at the convention center started on Sunday.

11:40 Levi McCollum: I see.

11:42 Christian Londono: And it started, you know, of course, registration, as it usual is for, you know, conferences, it starts almost from

11:49 Christian Londono: the beginning. People can’t come in, do their registration, get their credentials and their agenda and so on and, and,

11:57 Christian Londono: and on. Side note, because it’s part of Sunday too, right? Like that’s, that’s the day that all the people

12:02 Christian Londono: that were not coming for the rodeo but for the conference came in to register.

12:07 Christian Londono: And that’s the day, you know, we were registering as well.

12:09 Christian Londono: And, you know, it’s the time for all the vendors to move in with the buses and, you know, bringing

12:16 Christian Londono: older, you know, boots and so on.

12:19 Christian Londono: And. And everybody’s kind of like getting ready for the conference, checking in at hotels and so on.

12:24 Christian Londono: But I did want to highlight the swag TTA was given after registration.

12:32 Christian Londono: I really like it. They had this nice coin with the CEO of the conference and, you know, the logos

12:40 Christian Londono: for the state association and the organization.

12:43 Christian Londono: The level of organization from the beginning to the end and the level of detail, how they executed and everything

12:50 Christian Londono: is. Is phenomenal. I mean, I was impressed with how they carried out.

12:55 Christian Londono: This event is a massive event with a lot of participation, many agencies, and just so many different activities that

13:02 Christian Londono: are taking place. And they were on point and they deliver with quality.

13:07 Christian Londono: So I have to say, just from the registration, from the get go, we were very impressed with tta.

13:13 Christian Londono: Of course, Sunday is the official welcome reception day.

13:18 Christian Londono: So, you know, you attended conferences and, you know, they usually have like, a big event that.

13:24 Christian Londono: That, you know, welcomes everybody, and there’s, of course, all the officials that are coming in.

13:30 Christian Londono: Typically you have your local transit agency executive director making some remarks.

13:36 Christian Londono: You have maybe the mayor of the city speaking.

13:40 Christian Londono: And, you know, in the case of McAllen, I think that we also had the executive director of the convention

13:47 Christian Londono: center. But all these folks coming in and welcoming all the attendees to the conference.

13:53 Christian Londono: And this happened at the Oval park, which is right in front of the convention center.

13:59 Christian Londono: And it’s a beautiful, you know, facility, like the infrastructure of that entire area.

14:05 Christian Londono: It’s. It was very nice, very pleasing.

14:08 Christian Londono: You know, you have a. That Oval park had a big pond and, you know, people could rent, like, some

14:15 Christian Londono: of those swans, Egon, and you pedal.

14:18 Christian Londono: And a lot of people were doing that in the water.

14:20 Christian Londono: Beautiful sunset. Of course, this reception was like at 6pm so, you know, beautiful sunset, you have live music.

14:28 Christian Londono: One of the vendors sponsored the reception.

14:31 Christian Londono: So, you know, there were also an open bar.

14:33 Christian Londono: But it was awesome to start, you know, getting there and seeing some familiar faces.

14:40 Christian Londono: So when you get to conferences, you start, you know, saying hi to people you haven’t seen in a while

14:44 Christian Londono: sometimes, you know, since the same conference the year before, and you start, you know, catching up with people, and

14:50 Christian Londono: then you start, you know, networking and meeting new people.

14:52 Christian Londono: But that. That welcome reception was very well planned.

14:56 Christian Londono: It was very enjoyable and a Good way to kick off the conference.

15:01 Levi McCollum: And it sounds like it. That ofal park, that’s outdoors.

15:05 Levi McCollum: Yes, there was a lake there, so.

15:07 Levi McCollum: Okay.

15:08 Unknown: All right. Wow, that.

15:09 Levi McCollum: That must have been absolutely beautiful then.

15:12 Christian Londono: Yeah, they had a, you know, it’s, it’s, you know, border town.

15:16 Christian Londono: This. There was a lot of, you know, Mexican decorations.

15:20 Christian Londono: And, you know, it’s just, it was a great environment.

15:23 Christian Londono: I think everybody was having a great time.

15:26 Christian Londono: And Metro McAllan brought out one of their buses.

15:30 Christian Londono: I think what’s funny is that, you know, like the, the kind of like that little pond that was there

15:35 Christian Londono: had this trees around it that change colors.

15:40 Christian Londono: And then Metro McAllan brought their Christmas bus.

15:45 Christian Londono: It was like, you know, a Metro McAllan bus that had like a Christmas trees on.

15:49 Christian Londono: A Christmas tree on it. So it was that Christmas, but it was, you know, a beautiful addition to the

15:56 Christian Londono: scenery of the welcome reception. I took a picture next to it, of course, but yeah, very well planned.

16:03 Christian Londono: A great way to kick off the conference.

16:05 Levi McCollum: Yeah, I love those transnational cities, you know, the ones that are right there on the border.

16:10 Levi McCollum: I’ve been to El Paso, it’s been a few years, but never to McAllen.

16:15 Levi McCollum: And they’re different, they have a different vibe to them.

16:18 Levi McCollum: They are unique cities in the United States.

16:22 Levi McCollum: So it’s cool that it was hosted there.

16:24 Levi McCollum: You know, maybe over some of the bigger and more well known cities.

16:28 Levi McCollum: It’s nice to get a little spotlight on some of the smaller properties, right?

16:34 Christian Londono: Oh, yeah, definitely. Yes. And, and that’s the thing that, that’s the beauty of these conferences, right, because they, they

16:42 Christian Londono: go to different cities and they want to give each one of the members the opportunity to highlight their system

16:50 Christian Londono: and, and welcome water transit agencies.

16:52 Christian Londono: And, you know, these conferences also bring a lot of, you know, positive economical impact, right, to those cities.

16:59 Christian Londono: You have a lot of people traveling, a lot of people spending money as, as they’re on site, they’re staying

17:05 Christian Londono: on hotels and, and potentially even visiting back to those cities.

17:11 Christian Londono: So, you know, it’s. It was definitely great that they chose McAllen for this conference.

17:17 Levi McCollum: All right, so tell me about Monday.

17:19 Levi McCollum: What happened Monday?

17:20 Christian Londono: So Monday is, you know, everybody officially back to work, right? It’s the, the official first day of the conference

17:27 Christian Londono: and the sessions and for everybody that is attending, you know, conference are, are fun and, you know, they’re a

17:34 Christian Londono: great learning experience, but it’s work, right? And I, I think that a lot of these conferences, you know, they

17:40 Christian Londono: spot on, start on Monday, first thing in the morning, because everybody’s supposed to go out there to make the

17:46 Christian Londono: most out of the conference. And that’s something that was, you know, emphasize throughout the conference and especially during the

17:55 Christian Londono: welcome and opening session. So that morning you have different folks speaking.

18:00 Christian Londono: Among those was the president of the of TTA,

18:08 Christian Londono: Ms. Serena Stevenson. She is the president for TTA, but she’s also the general manager for Waco Transit Agency.

18:20 Christian Londono: So she gave, you know, very powerful remarks.

18:24 Christian Londono: And among those was make sure that you are taking something from this association back to your agency.

18:32 Christian Londono: You know, like make sure, you know, for this conference from being here, you’re making the most of it.

18:37 Christian Londono: And you know, we’re all coming to work, right? We’re all coming to learn and to make the most out

18:41 Christian Londono: of the event. So that, that was, you know, very powerful.

18:45 Christian Londono: And also during that welcome reception they had speaker that was speaking about leadership that was very, I was very

18:54 Christian Londono: impressed with is Dr. Kevin Elko.

18:57 Christian Londono: She’s a, he’s a performance consultant, speaker and also best selling author.

19:03 Christian Londono: And you know, he was just recently actually working for the Eagles for the Super Bowl.

19:10 Christian Londono: And you know, as you know, the Eagles won the super bowl.

19:13 Christian Londono: And if I’m not mistaken, I mean, I hope I didn’t get it wrong, but I think he was wearing

19:19 Christian Londono: his super bowl ring like he was part of, of you know, that endeavor and as he was kind of

19:26 Christian Londono: like motivating the team. Yeah, he was, he was flashing the ring and, and of course, you know, oh yeah,

19:33 Christian Londono: I, I, I, I don’t know a lot about football.

19:36 Christian Londono: He was making a lot of remarks that the locals were understanding and they were, you know, laughing about.

19:41 Christian Londono: But he has several rings because you know, this speaker, he’s worked with a lot of sports teams, but particularly

19:50 Christian Londono: in football, helping them believe in that they can achieve more, they can do more and also to develop the

20:00 Christian Londono: leadership skills. He was all about leadership.

20:03 Christian Londono: It was, his old speech was about, you know, reflection on leadership.

20:08 Christian Londono: Especially all those folks in the room, a lot of them, you know, they’re at positions of leadership at transit

20:14 Christian Londono: agencies in the state of Texas.

20:16 Christian Londono: And you know, the importance of being a leader and what it means to, you know, actually have that, that

20:23 Christian Londono: capacity to drive all those folks that work for you or with you to achieve more, to do more.

20:30 Christian Londono: And in this, you know, moment that we are in our transit industry, how important it is to display leadership

20:40 Christian Londono: and to develop our leadership skills.

20:42 Christian Londono: So I just gotta say that, you know, I had a lot of takeaways.

20:46 Christian Londono: I really, you know, enjoyed all the things that he said.

20:51 Christian Londono: And you know, he said Right now, you know, we have to be, you know, when we’re looking at funding,

20:57 Christian Londono: agencies are, you know, sometimes being challenged with funding.

21:01 Christian Londono: And, you know, the way that you, you know, get more funding is not by complaining about, you know, the

21:09 Christian Londono: things that you’re not able to do, but actually to talk to them about the things that you could do,

21:14 Christian Londono: and that’s how you’re able to grow.

21:17 Christian Londono: It’s not about complaining. He said, if you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them.

21:22 Christian Londono: So you don’t, you don’t sell your limitations, you know, like, oh, we don’t have this.

21:26 Christian Londono: Oh, but, you know, we’re not able to do this.

21:28 Christian Londono: You have to be selling what you could do.

21:31 Christian Londono: It’s like, if we get this funding and we were able to do all these things, you know, how great

21:36 Christian Londono: would it be? So that’s what’s going to get you to get funding is you have to work on your

21:41 Christian Londono: strengths and your capacities, not in your limitations.

21:45 Christian Londono: So that was very powerful because I do see sometimes we even our own personal lives, right? Like, it’s.

21:52 Christian Londono: Is that what we’re focusing on instead of what we could do if we were to do our best effort?

21:58 Christian Londono: So very powerful. I mean, among, you know, he had a lot of other sayings, and I was writing down,

22:04 Christian Londono: and I actually recorded a piece of his speech because it really moved me.

22:08 Christian Londono: And I, you know, I’m hoping that I’ll be applying in my professional life some of the things that I

22:14 Christian Londono: learned. But also I can see the power that it had in all the Transit association and all the participants

22:21 Christian Londono: that were listening to that message.

22:22 Christian Londono: And what a way to start the conference, right? Like your prep, you know, you’re, you’re, you’re ready to go

22:28 Christian Londono: out and learn, you know, from the incredible sessions they had and then also learn from the different vendors, the

22:35 Christian Londono: offerings, and take that back to your agency and think about, you know, how, you know, you’re going to make

22:42 Christian Londono: your agency better. So that was very empowering.

22:46 Levi McCollum: Going back to what you were saying there, Christian, if I, if I may just quickly, you know, you said

22:52 Levi McCollum: that quote from him, which I think is really strong.

22:55 Levi McCollum: You know, if you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them.

22:59 Levi McCollum: How do you think that that would apply to transit agencies in today’s world? You know, we may hear the

23:05 Levi McCollum: complaints of, I don’t have that funding.

23:08 Levi McCollum: If I had it, then I’d be able to do X, Y and Z.

23:11 Levi McCollum: But what’s the alternative there for, you know, our listeners who might think like, you know, that might Be a

23:17 Levi McCollum: great quote, but what would I do with it? Do you have any advice for them?

23:22 Christian Londono: Yes, I would say, I mean, the reflection there is not about.

23:31 Christian Londono: It’s how you’re presenting it, right? Like if you’re kind of like presenting it as a deficiency, as a problem

23:36 Christian Londono: and like we’re, you know, like, oh, our system, it’s not, you know, too frequent.

23:42 Christian Londono: Like, you know, we, we run, you know, 60 minute headways and it’s not very optimal and then therefore there’s

23:48 Christian Londono: no ridership. And it will be great if we will get more money, but you know, we barely have money

23:52 Christian Londono: to run this. Right. It’s kind of like you’re focusing on all the bad things that are connected to that

23:58 Christian Londono: reality. And if you’re trying to get more funding, you have to present the opportunities.

24:04 Christian Londono: So you have to talk about, you know, the access to jobs, the economic growth.

24:08 Christian Londono: You have to talk about, you know, a.

24:11 Christian Londono: The transit agency that we want to be is an agency that can go to, from 60 to 30 minutes,

24:18 Christian Londono: 20 minutes headways. And what this is going to do is that, you know, for this, routes that are in

24:23 Christian Londono: this corridors, we’re going to be able to access this many more jobs.

24:26 Christian Londono: And this is the potential, you know, translation of economical growth for our community.

24:30 Christian Londono: And the investment that we’re looking for and we’re actively searching for different streams of revenue to make this happen

24:39 Christian Londono: is this much. This is the, the, the you know, approximate investment that we’re looking for to be able to

24:44 Christian Londono: deliver all these things. So it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s being able to see it differently.

24:49 Christian Londono: Seeing, seeing the opportunities that we have today in transit and then being able to convey them as such.

24:55 Christian Londono: Right. Because if the federal government is looking to make sure that investments all throughout, in government, they make sense

25:03 Christian Londono: and they have a good ROI for the taxpayers.

25:07 Christian Londono: So the best way of showing is presenting it as such and the best way of getting it more investment

25:13 Christian Londono: is to present opportunities that you’ll be a fool not to invest because you’ll be missing out on this return.

25:25 Levi McCollum: Yeah, I like that. That makes a lot of sense.

25:27 Levi McCollum: And I think there is something to trying to see the positive side.

25:32 Levi McCollum: Even when things might not be that great or yes, they could be better.

25:37 Levi McCollum: There is a way to spin it so that mentally it’s not such a hurdle.

25:41 Unknown: Right.

25:42 Levi McCollum: It’s an obstacle, but it’s one that you can overcome.

25:45 Levi McCollum: And it sounds like that was a lot of the, the message that the, the speaker gave on Monday.

25:52 Levi McCollum: So moving on from, from Monday it sounds like that was action packed.

25:57 Levi McCollum: Tell me about Tuesday. You went into Tuesday and you know, you’re back at it, back at the grind.

26:04 Levi McCollum: I’m sure you’re at the booth.

26:05 Levi McCollum: What was that like?

26:08 Christian Londono: Yes, actually let me highlight a couple of things more for Monday and Tuesday.

26:14 Christian Londono: So. So Monday also had the awards luncheon and you know, of course during those that recognize different transit professionals

26:23 Christian Londono: and also transit agencies, you know, like the, you know, the best transit agency for the year and and so

26:30 Christian Londono: on. So it was very nice to see the agencies cheering up for each other, coming up, receiving their awards.

26:37 Christian Londono: You know, some of the big agencies, some of the smaller agencies also getting recognized.

26:41 Christian Londono: I particularly really enjoyed they recognize for customer service.

26:51 Christian Londono: Customer service agent from Cap Metro.

26:54 Christian Londono: You know, I started my career as a reservationist, you know, pretty much our customer service agent for part transit.

27:01 Christian Londono: And you know, it was, it was nice, you know, to go through that session and then the next thing

27:08 Christian Londono: on Monday that I wanted to highlight is when the expo started that, that was Monday, 3:45pm the export started.

27:16 Christian Londono: That was pretty much like the end of the day.

27:18 Christian Londono: The last event was the Expo and everybody came in, there was a nice ribbon cutting and the participation was

27:26 Christian Londono: great. I mean particularly at the ETA Transit booth, we had a lot of people coming, coming over and visiting

27:33 Christian Londono: and wanting to learn from ETA Transit.

27:36 Christian Londono: And you know, for me particularly, I have, you know, some friends, some connections in Texas, not a lot, but

27:44 Christian Londono: after that first day I think I met everybody at all the different transit agencies in Texas.

27:50 Christian Londono: So it was very enjoyable. You know, that night there was nothing planned except Latinos in Transit, which we as

27:59 Christian Londono: ETA Transit were members of. I got to meet the executive director of Latinos in Transit.

28:08 Christian Londono: Christina. Yes. First time I met her in person, A a lot of attendance.

28:17 Christian Londono: You know, Texans are part of Latinos in Transit, I have to tell you, you know, we have a big

28:23 Christian Londono: room, you know, ballroom that Latinos in Transit reserve for, you know, this networking event, I would say half of

28:30 Christian Londono: the conference it was there and attended it.

28:33 Christian Londono: So it was nice. As a new member of Latinos in Transit myself, you know, I got the.

28:38 Christian Londono: To meet a lot of fellow members and be even more encouraged to be part of their conference that is

28:44 Christian Londono: coming up in September. So I think I’m planning on attending and, and that would be my first one.

28:50 Christian Londono: But that was definitely a highlight of the day and Tuesday, so Tuesday is pretty much, or was the last

29:00 Christian Londono: day of the conference, the last big official day.

29:03 Christian Londono: There were, you know, some events happening on Wednesday and pretty much is the Day, everybody’s coming back home.

29:09 Christian Londono: But Tuesday, you know, we started with some good general sessions.

29:15 Christian Londono: A, you know, folks, you know, had the opportunity to go to leadership sessions to talk about planning, to talk

29:21 Christian Londono: about zero emissions. And after that, at 10:15am actually, TTA had a mini golf classic.

29:31 Christian Londono: And what that was is that A9 vendors in the expo hall got, you know, a mini golf kind of

29:40 Christian Londono: putting hole. So we got one.

29:42 Christian Londono: I think we. We had hole number three at ETA Transit.

29:46 Christian Londono: And it was really cool because he got people to have fun, but at the same rate, you know, engage

29:53 Christian Londono: with vendors and learn from their offerings and the new technology that is out there.

29:58 Christian Londono: And it’s a good way of meeting people because, you know, you’re having fun, you’re having a laugh.

30:03 Christian Londono: Some people are really good at golf.

30:06 Christian Londono: You probably notice, Levi, a lot of the conferences sometimes have a golfing event because a lot of transit professionals

30:13 Christian Londono: golf and, you know, a lot of transit executives, they’re really great golfers, or at least enjoy participating of golfing

30:21 Christian Londono: events. But then there’s some that are not.

30:24 Christian Londono: And you see, you were able to see all that in this mini golf classic, you know, very enjoyable.

30:31 Christian Londono: We had a lot of fun with.

30:32 Unknown: A lot of folks to stop by.

30:34 Christian Londono: And try, you know, to get a.

30:37 Unknown: Whole one in our hole, but definitely a great one.

30:41 Unknown: And after that, the expo ended a little bit after 2pm there were some breakout sessions for the rest of

30:48 Unknown: the day.

30:49 Christian Londono: Uh, but the highlight was the big.

30:52 Unknown: Night out, the closing event for the conference.

30:56 Unknown: It was at the Quenta Mazatlan, which was kind of like a botanical garden.

31:03 Unknown: You know, offside. There were, you know, shadows taking everybody there.

31:06 Unknown: But it was very interesting because during the opening session, some of the things they highlighted is that McAllen is

31:15 Unknown: known for butterflies and also a.

31:19 Unknown: For bird watching enthusiasts, those that like to go and.

31:23 Unknown: Yeah, oh, yeah. And I didn’t know that.

31:25 Unknown: I was also surprised. But this venue particularly is where a.

31:30 Christian Londono: Lot of people go, you know, because.

31:31 Unknown: There’S a lot of trees and you get to see the birds and, you know, there’s a bunch of butterflies.

31:36 Unknown: So it was, it was a very nice venue.

31:39 Unknown: And just like the welcome reception, it was, you know, very well attended.

31:44 Unknown: They had live music, you know, delicious food, and just very well prepared.

31:50 Unknown: Like, every single event, the way it was held, it’s tremendous.

31:54 Unknown: I, you know, again, I attended a lot of state conferences, and I know they all do a great job

31:59 Unknown: all together, but I was very impressed with tta.

32:02 Unknown: I definitely want to have the opportunity to come back.

32:05 Unknown: Everybody you know, enjoyed it. Everybody learned, took something with them.

32:10 Unknown: The engagement and the expo, I think there was a great success there, particularly for us at ETA Transit.

32:16 Unknown: We had a lot of fun, we made a lot of friends, we met a lot of different transit agencies

32:21 Unknown: and we had the opportunity to talk about our offerings, particularly Tally.

32:26 Unknown: We talk about Tally. A lot of people had questions about Tally because, as you know, Levi, 2025 is a

32:32 Unknown: APC.

32:33 Christian Londono: Oh yeah.

32:34 Unknown: APC certification recertification year. So a lot of agencies were interested.

32:39 Unknown: They said, hey, we got APCs, but we have not done anything with them.

32:43 Unknown: So, you know, how about we get them certified and, and start, you know, using them officially.

32:49 Unknown: So all together, an amazing conference on Wednesday.

32:53 Unknown: The last day, as I mentioned, people are traveling back.

32:57 Unknown: There was some Texas.seri annual transit operators business meetings.

33:03 Unknown: So there were some kind of like.

33:06 Christian Londono: DOT meetings that were happening on Wednesday.

33:09 Christian Londono: But that was for the most part the wrap for the conference.

33:12 Christian Londono: As I said, a trifecta. You had the conference, the Expo and the rodeo.

33:19 Christian Londono: Great conference. And, and I just want to, you know, congratulate, you know, all the folks that facilitated the conference.

33:26 Christian Londono: The hosting agency, you know, yourself, Levi, you’ve been part of a hosting agency for an age conference.

33:34 Christian Londono: And yes, the coordination, the preparation is.

33:38 Levi McCollum: A lot of work.

33:39 Christian Londono: Extensive. It’s a lot of work.

33:40 Christian Londono: And everything was on point at Texas TTA 2025.

33:46 Christian Londono: So it was a great conference altogether.

33:50 Levi McCollum: It sounds amazing. And I’m really kind of jealous now that I’m.

33:54 Levi McCollum: I missed out on heading to McAllen.

33:56 Levi McCollum: Not only because there’s the, you know, the, the Transit conference and Expo and Rodeo and all these, these things

34:02 Levi McCollum: that I truly enjoy, but also the birding.

34:05 Levi McCollum: I had no idea. So I’ve got to make a trip out to McAllen now to, to go bird watching.

34:11 Christian Londono: Oh, yeah. And I will go with you.

34:13 Christian Londono: It’s definitely a place that. Where I want to go back.

34:16 Levi McCollum: Let’s do it. Yeah, absolutely. We got to plan that trip.

34:20 Levi McCollum: All right, well, this has been a really good stop.

34:22 Levi McCollum: Requested episode. Christian, thanks for sharing all those details about the Texas Transit association conference and Expo and Rodeo and

34:30 Levi McCollum: whatever else bird watching that there was going on there.

34:34 Levi McCollum: It’s been a good conversation and thank you so much for tuning in and we’ll catch you next Monday.

34:44 Christian Londono: Thank you for listening.