APTA will offer a wide variety of concurrent educational sessions during the 2011 Annual Meeting and EXPO in New Orleans. What follows is a preliminary overview of the learning opportunities being provided for public transportation professionals.

Recasting the Business Case for Transit. Public transit agency representatives and other key stakeholders and advocates will describe how they are reframing the case for return on investment in public transportation.

Executive Suite: Ensuring Leadership Continuity by Building Future Talent. This interactive executive roundtable session focuses on the vision, strategies, and programs from top-level and rising transit executives and programs representing North America and Europe, leading to the creation of structured programs that identify and develop pathways and options for future leaders.

From Acceptable to Accessible: Serving the Public Transportation Needs of Older Adults and People with Disabilities. Demand is growing for the independence and mobility provided by public transportation—but financial resources are tight and agencies must do more with what’s available. This session will discuss key issues and exchange best practices for delivering services that may exceed legal requirements as well as passenger expectations.

The Billion-Dollar Question: How to Develop Sustainable, Secure Funding Sources for High-Speed Rail (HSR). Experts debate the federal funding role for HSR in the future. On the one hand, conventional mechanisms such as federal taxes and a reallocation of existing funds could provide the needed revenue; on the other, the federal government night take a back seat and let local, state, and private sources provide most funding for HSR.

Cyber Security—Should Transit Care? Cyber security has received much media attention recently as more and more organizations have fallen victim to hackers and those who want to do harm to public transportation systems. This session will present the facts about risk exposure and how APTA’s Cyber Security Standards initiatives can help transit personnel mitigate risks.

When Disaster Hits—How Do We Manage, How Can We Carry On? Is your transit system ready to handle a major emergency? Are you confident in your level of preparedness to handle a catastrophe? Be sure to attend this session so you can become better prepared!

Technology Planning for Vital Operational Systems. Public transit agencies are using increasingly complex technologies that provide more and more features to their riders. These systems have different failure mechanisms, require new engineering methods, and demand updated talents from maintenance staff. This session shows how different organizations are integrating technology into their vital/operational system lifecycle planning to achieve not only greater safety but also greater operational reliability.

Pursuit of Quality Service and a Quality Transit Agency. How can a public transit system maintain quality service when budgets are under stress? Join us for this timely session to learn quality concepts that organizations can use!

Customer Service Implications of Transit Wi-Fi and Other National Broadband Initiatives. Wi-Fi is one of the top customer requested transit service amenities, and those projects are generally handled by marketing rather than technology personnel. This session will advise marketing and customer service professionals on how transit agencies have accomplished these projects without getting bogged down in technical terminology.

Where Does the Money Come From? As fuel prices rise and government and industry at all levels struggle in the current economic climate, many public transit properties see their ridership grow but remain in a survival mode for their operation. Now is the time for innovative thinking to maximize existing revenue and develop new revenue sources.

From Town Hall to Twitter: A New Era for Customer Communications. Transit agency chief executives can play an effective role in communicating to the customer as well as obtaining and responding to feedback. For example, how do they interact with their communities? What forums, forms, and frequency are proving most effective? What does being responsive involve, and how can public transit agencies make the most of (good) ideas they receive?

The American Streetcar: Emerging Starter Lines and Proven Systems. The number of U.S. streetcar and urban circulator projects in planning and design is the highest in years. For the first time ever, the federal government is playing a significant role in the funding of local streetcar investments. This session brings together representatives from several existing systems to share "lessons learned" on successful streetcar implementation and operation.

Procurement Perspectives: Public and Private Sector Issues in Contracting Out. Contracting out transit services involves a wide range of important issues and this session will focus on some of the key ones related to the industry’s procurement practices. Public and private sector speakers will consider subjects such as risk allocation, bonding, low bid vs. best value, and unrealistic bids, all in the context of a transit services procurement. These presentations will show the benefits of increased partnership efforts.