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EXPO 2014 is coming Oct. 12-15 in Houston!
APTA holds the International Public Transportation EXPO every three years in conjunction with the Annual Meeting. The  EXPO is public transportation’s premier showcase featuring the industry’s latest equipment, products, and services, welcoming more than 15,000 public transportation professionals from around the world.
This year’s EXPO at Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center covers about 280,000 net square feet of space over two floors. More than 800 exhibitors have already registered, of which 92 to date are participating in EXPO for the first time.
Jeff Wharton, chair of the EXPO Advisory Committee and president, IMPulse NC LLC, noted that this year’s event builds on APTA’s previous EXPOs to offer expanded educational and networking opportunities on numerous topics.
While the main exhibit and presentation area is on the first floor of the convention center, Wharton said, EXPO participants will discover more specialized event areas on the third floor. The Mobility Management for Livable and Sustainable Communities Zone will present innovative, green solutions for transit-oriented development. Nearby are the APTA Center and a pavilion showcasing members of the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials and promoting Disadvantaged Business Enterprises.
“I think the showcases will generate a lot of interest we haven’t seen before from community planners and developers,” Wharton said. “We’re looking beyond the traditional APTA membership to see if we can get exhibitors and potentially, new members for APTA in this area. We’re positioning public transit as part of the larger community.”
Both EXPO floors will also highlight educational opportunities: Learning Zones will display innovative products, and the International Showcase will feature presentations from global organizations on future transportation projects and briefings from Foreign Commercial Service offices on in-country transportation business initiatives and forthcoming projects.
International Flair
Wharton said the EXPO Advisory Committee is building on the successes of EXPO 2008 in San Diego and EXPO 2011 in New Orleans. “We’ve found that this sort of program has been well received, particularly the international presentations. We’re hoping to attract attendees from more than 70 countries.”
APTA is working closely with Foreign Commercial Service employees in U.S. embassies abroad to help promote EXPO 2014, facilitate the participation of international trade missions and attendees, and recruit delegations to attend from several countries, including Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, France, Israel, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Panama, Turkey, and Uruguay.
EXPO 2014 also will offer special services for international visitors to meet with U.S. export partners, such as an onsite international visitors center offering private meeting rooms, Internet access, phone and fax lines, and translation services (by advance request only). Also, the show’s international flyer is available for download here as a PDF file in English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Why Attend?
Why should public transportation professionals attend EXPO?
“EXPO is all about serving the public transit community by presenting multiple options for mobility,” Wharton said. “By far it’s the greatest venue for businesses to showcase products and services to both existing and new customers. There’s no greater place to find a concentration of customer potential than at the EXPO we’re going to hold in Houston.”
He recognized the city and, especially, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County for “rolling out the red carpet, getting the city ready for us.”
To register for the EXPO, click here.
Highlights and Events of the 2014 Annual Meeting
Concurrent with the EXPO, APTA will host the 2014 APTA Annual Meeting, an opportunity for public transportation professionals to enhance their knowledge, network, and exchange information on best practices, research, and new trends in public transit. The theme of this year’s meeting is “America’s Future Is Riding on Public Transportation.”
The meeting, hosted by the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (Houston Metro), will be held at the Hilton Americas, which is directly connected by covered walkways to the convention center.
“The Annual Meeting is a great opportunity to expand your network,” said APTA Chair Peter Varga. “With more than 15,000 industry professionals expected to attend, this is an outstanding occasion to learn from your peers, expand your personal networks, and learn more about issues facing the industry. I would encourage public transportation professionals at all levels of their organizations to take advantage of this chance.”
The Annual Meeting offers general sessions with speakers, a report on what’s going on at DOT, presentation of the APTA Awards, AdWheel Grand Awards, the APTA/WTS Breakfast, and technical tours presented by Houston Metro.
Recipients of American Public Transportation Foundation scholarships will be honored at an Oct. 13 reception. Tickets cost $100 and will be available onsite.
In addition, the meeting provides concurrent educational sessions each day. TransITech sessions covering all aspects of public transit technology are being offered throughout the meeting and seven specialized sessions will be presented through the Procurement & Materials Management Learning Center.
Workforce Development
APTA will be hosting workforce development-related conference sessions, workshops, and related committee presentations within the context of the Annual Meeting & EXPO.
In addition, members of the Leadership APTA Class of 2014 will deliver highlights of their capstone leadership projects at various committee meetings and as part of their graduation program.
APTA is also expanding its next-generation workforce outreach through youth and student initiatives, reaching out to community colleges, technical institutes, and universities to invite their students to attend the Annual Meeting and EXPO and become involved in other activities.
For example, during the meeting APTA plans to host student-focused workshops led by industry experts to address key issues facing the industry, as well as careers and educational opportunities. Interactive presentations will allow higher education students to showcase research and career fields they are currently pursuing. APTA will also encourage networking opportunities with EXPO attendees. In addition, APTA is reaching out to middle and high schools that feature technical and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs to take part in specially designed youth sessions.
In conjunction with the Annual Meeting & EXPO, APTA will hold its Bus Technical Maintenance & Clean Technology Workshop. This year’s workshop focuses on new technology and best practices in maintenance and procurement for public transit bus maintenance, procurement, and materials management professionals. Sessions are open to EXPO attendees at no extra cost.
Find more information, including hotel rates, here. Please note that the only way to make hotel reservations is through links or listed information on that page. APTA has no affiliation with other third-party hotel room brokers soliciting Annual Meeting & EXPO attendees.
Also on the schedule is the FTA Buy America Transit Supply Chain Connectivity Forum, an all-day event Oct. 15 presented by the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of the National Institute of Standards & Technology. The purpose of this forum is to facilitate connections between U.S. manufacturers operating in transit industries and other relevant industries with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to help create a broader, more robust domestic transit supply base. It is open to representatives of government agencies at the local and national levels, transit OEMs, and manufacturing companies of all sizes.
Photos courtesy of the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau |
