APTA’s 2011 Annual Meeting and EXPO, Oct. 2-5 in New Orleans, is an outstanding opportunity for APTA’s business members to meet potential customers and show off their latest products and services to the industry. It also allows business members to network with each other and explore potential partnering and new business-to business-relationships.

“With all the key companies doing business in the transit industry under one roof, it’s the best opportunity you will ever find to identify new business partners and sub-suppliers,” said Michael Melaniphy, chair of the APTA EXPO committee—and APTA president-elect.

"And to facilitate those business-to-business conversations,” he added, “we’re reserving time on Tuesday afternoon at EXPO for exhibitors to get to know each other. It is a unique opportunity for business members to talk business with each other.”

To that end, access to the EXPO floor from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Oct. 4 will be limited to exhibitors.

Charles R. Wochele, chair of APTA’s Business Member Board of Governors, said: “Business-to-business networking has been an important new initiative for APTA’s business members in the last two years. Highly successful networking breakfasts have been held at APTA’s bus and rail conferences, bringing large companies together with smaller companies and DBEs [Disadvantaged Business Enterprises] to talk about doing business. More than 300 companies have participated in these events, and the networking at EXPO will bring even more companies into these discussions.”