The 2012 APTA Annual Meeting in Seattle is only 20 days away! Plan to join your colleagues in Seattle for a full schedule of educational sessions, networking opportunities, and technical tours.

The Oct. 1 Opening General Session will showcase the insights of Alan S. Boyd, the first secretary of U.S. DOT. Boyd served under President Lyndon B. Johnson from the establishment of the department in 1967 until 1969. He will talk about his efforts in setting up a new Cabinet department and his views on the public transportation industry today.

During Boyd’s tenure, DOT’s purview came to include the new Urban Mass Transportation Administration (now FTA), Federal Railroad Administration, and Federal Highway Administration, and the renamed Federal Aviation Administration. He also helped to establish the National Transportation Safety Board.

Annual Meeting attendees will hear from FTA Administrator Peter M. Rogoff at two sessions. In addition to his remarks at the Opening General Session, he will join FTA Deputy Administrator Therese McMillan for an Oct. 2 General Forum, “Federal Transit Administration Priorities and Update.”  This program will cover challenges facing the agency and industry, as well as offer a perspective on the implementation of the public transit provisions of Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century.

Other prominent speakers on the Annual Meeting schedule include Martha Choe, chief administrative officer, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who will address the Oct. 3 APTA/WTS breakfast session, “Powerful Women: Reflections of Power, Leadership, and Effecting Change”; Brian Ferris, Ph.D., a software engineer with Google Transit in Zurich, Switzerland, part of the Tuesday morning Host Session, “Customer Information Technology Round Table”; and two representatives of Microsoft: DeLee Shoemaker, senior director, state government affairs, at the Monday morning Host Forum, “Partnership Strategy Moves Puget Sound Region Toward its Vision,” and T.J. DiCaprio, senior director, carbon and energy, worldwide environmental sustainability, at “What Leadership in Sustainability Means to the Transit Industry” on Tuesday morning.

Register now to attend the APTA Annual Meeting! Find information here.