Conference Gives Buses Needed Emphasis

Good for WMATA for putting together the upcoming The 2006 Regional Bus Conference - Charting a Common Route (Download regional_bus_conferencefinal.pdf) on November 30. The conference, which is being held in Bethesda, is an opportunity for transit and transportation professionals from throughout the region to get together to share and learn. Given the fragmented nature of the region's transit service (list of transit services), this kind of thing should happen more often.

The speaker/moderator list is a Who's Who of local transit experts and politicos such as Gordon Linton, Chris Zimmerman, Gladys Mack, Michelle Pourciau, and Kathy Ichter. Working with the WMATA and local professionals these leaders hope to come away from the day with regional action plans in four topic areas that ultimately will, according to the program, lead to a "seamless beginning-to-end bus trip that's easy, affordable and comfortable." The topic areas include traffic management, fare policy, bus stops and service integration.

All of the bus systems will be bringing their latest buses for a showcase and The Mobile Commuter Store will be there too. The highlight of the conference looks to be a lunch-time keynote speech about Providing Outstanding Customer Service by Craig Keish, Marketing Manager for Southwest Airlines.

While this looks like a very well designed conference, it would have been nice if there were a section dedicated to Customer Service and Information. For example, perhaps a discussion about timetables, maps and how to ride info and looking for better and more varied ways of presenting and getting this kind of information to customers and potential customers. Anything we can do to demystify the bus would be helpful. If these and other topics aren't discussed, perhaps they can be part of the next event.

Here's wishing everyone good luck on a successful conference!

Comments

[Richard Layman]

I also wish that there would be a section on marketing. Had I gotten it together earlier, I would have tried to get on the program, at least for a 10 minute powerpoint... see this blog entry e.g., http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/2006/11/more-on-bus-marketing-in-pittsburgh.html.

Maybe next year. I hope to buttonhole enough people so that the marketing piece starts percolating in more people's minds. (I will be at the conf.)