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Bus Conference to Feature Networking, Keynote Speaker

APTA invites its business members attending the APTA Bus & Paratransit Conference in Long Beach, CA, to participate in a networking breakfast Monday, May 7.

“These highly successful breakfasts bring together business members to talk about business opportunities that they might work on together,” said Huelon Harrison, chair of the Business Member Small Business Committee. “The breakfasts, held at both the bus and rail conferences, have produced a number of successful new partnerships—partnerships which would not have been established if it were not for the contacts that get made at these networking events.”

Business members who register for the event by April 16 will be listed in a brochure, which will be sent out in advance of the meeting. Harrison explained: “To let folks know who will be at the breakfast and to help them make their networking plans before the conference, we created a brochure last year. Members found the information about the type of work that each company does to be very helpful.”

Public agency procurement officials are also invited to come to the breakfast and bring lists of their upcoming procurement opportunities.

A similar event will be held Monday, June 4, in Dallas as part of the APTA Rail Conference.

Information on the bus business networking breakfast and the registration form is available on the APTA website.

Patterson to Keynote Session
Also, John Patterson, author of Wired and Dangerous: How Your Customers Have Changed and What to Do About It, will keynote a general session at the APTA Bus & Paratransit Conference.

Patterson’s presentation will focus on the ways in which today’s customers are not what they were. Customers today are picky, demanding value; fickle, quicker to leave if their needs are not met; vocal, assertively telling all; and expect personalized service. They can choose among an enormous variety of services and products with unprecedented access to information and reviews, thanks to the reach of the Internet.

How can public transportation providers remain on the good side of these empowered customers? They must rethink their strategies and tactics to ones that will change today’s “customer as king” into tomorrow’s “customer as partner.” This requires reinventing experiences that create customer ease and delight, resulting in loyalty or “stickiness.”

More information about the conference, including registration details, is available here.

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