The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) and its Transportation Officials Division are using digital technologies to bring a first-class, virtual education and exhibition experience to the desktops of tens of thousands city and county government officials who annually manage $50 billion in transportation infrastructure capital investments, maintenance, engineering and traffic services, and snow removal.
Scheduled for September 18-20, LoTrans 2012, the Local Transportation Asset Management Virtual Conference & Innovation Showcase, will also feature "Best Practices in Work Zone Safety."
For more than 30 years, ARTBA's TOD held an annual "Local Transportation Issues Conference," which attracted 500+ delegates up until the early 1990s. Budget and travel restrictions, however, made it no longer sustainable.
ARTBA is resurrecting that conference with LoTrans 2012, which is being organized by the TOD leadership and National Local Technical Assistance Program Association (NLTAPA). The difference is local agency executives will be able to attend the virtual conference for free. They will also have the opportunity to visit in real time with companies exhibiting products and services that can help deliver safer and more efficient transportation services to taxpayers.
"Think of LoTrans as webinars on steroids," says 2012 ARTBA Chairman Paul Yarossi, president of HNTB Holdings. "With tight budgets, it's very hard for most public officials to travel today. We are breaking down this barrier by going to them with a world-class, virtual conference and trade show they can attend for free from their office computer or laptop."
ARTBA's partner for the event is 6Connex, which has a cutting-edge platform that seamlessly brings together — in real time, over ultra-high speed feeds — state-of-the-art computer animation and framing, live, streaming and download video and digital content technologies, and interactive "chat room" networking.
The conference has several primary tracks, including one asset management, and another on work zone safety best practices, which is being hosted ARTBA Foundation-owned National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse.
To learn more about the program and how virtual events work, visit the LoTrans website.
