The Experience: A Message From ARTBA Chairman Paul Yarossi

For more than three decades, the Transportation Officials Division (TOD) of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) annually organized and held a “Local Transportation Issues Conference.” The event often drew more than 500 county and municipal transportation leaders from across the U.S. together for several days of educational programs and professional networking. Ever tighter budget and travel restrictions, however, brought a close to this popular event in the mid-1990’s.

Fast-forward. In September 2012, the education and networking world for local transportation officials is going to change again. Big time. It is going to rocket into the 21st century!

On September 18-20, ARTBA’s TOD, in partnership with 6Connex, the world’s most advanced “virtual experience platform” provider, will open the internet doors to LōTrans™ 2012, the first-ever “Local Transportation Management Virtual Conference & Innovation Showcase.”

LōTrans™ will also feature “Best Practices in Work Zone Safety,” hosted by the ARTBA Foundation-managed National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse. The facility has more than 10,000 subscribers and handles more than 200,000 information requests annually. The “best practice” sessions are geared for contractors, public officials and safety professionals.

Using cutting edge, yet proven user-friendly digital technologies, LōTrans™ 2012 will bring a world-class, real-time conference and exhibition experience TO THE DESKTOPS of the tens of thousands of dedicated men and women in city and county government who annually manage nearly $50 billion in transportation infrastructure capital investments, maintenance, traffic services and snow removal, and engineering and right-of-way.

Here’s the real bonus. Participating in LōTrans™ 2012 will not cost them, or their agency, any money. No registration fees. No travel authorizations by city councils needed. No airfare, train, hotel or meal expenses. No nights away from friends and family. No, we’re eliminating all of them! Any transportation official—anywhere in the world—with an internet-equipped computer or laptop will be able to fully participate in LōTrans™ 2012—simply by logging in!

You’ve participated in low-tech, internet “webinars”? Think of LōTrans™ 2012 as webinars on steroids! The 6Connex platform 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.

Imagine sitting at your desk at 9:00 a.m. (EST) and bringing up the LōTrans™ 2012 internet site on your computer. Take a minute to log-in and—suddenly—you (your avatar) are literally standing in a major conference site checking the day’s schedule.

The U.S. secretary of transportation, or other notable, is giving the opening session keynote address at 9:15 a.m., so you hustle over to the virtual auditorium through the doors straight ahead. At 10:00 a.m., after the keynote address, you decide to check out the “Innovation Showcase” exhibit hall to see what’s new in confined space construction equipment. Wow! CAT has a big exhibit!

You choose from the exhibit’s several video “screens” to learn about a new technology. You want more information, so you download a CAT brochure into your conference “brief case” to look at later. A question still bothering you? A real, live CAT technical expert (sitting at her computer in Peoria, Illinois) is in the “chat room.” Set-up an appointment with the CAT representative serving your county for the following week? Easy!

Real-life staff meeting at 10:30 a.m.? No problem. Just log out of LōTrans™ 2012. You can log in again later.

Pretty incredible isn’t it? Visit these brief 6Connex YouTube videos at www.artba.org/virtualinfo to get a better feel for where the conference world is going and what LōTrans™ 2012 will be like.

The LōTrans™ 2012 “Innovation Showcase” will bring world-class companies with products and services that can help deliver safer and more efficient transportation services to taxpayers – together with public agency decision-makers.”

The LōTrans™ 2012 agenda is being assembled by local transportation officials to meet the needs of local transportation officials. Our primary is to serve the public-interest by providing a meaningful, first-class education and networking experience for the largest audience of local transportation officials ever gathered in one place, at one time… virtually!

Join us on September 18-20.