As you receive this issue of ITE Journal, we will be in the final stages of preparation for the Joint ITE International and Texas District Annual Meeting and Exhibit, which is always an exciting event for ITE staff and our members. It is a time to see old friends, build new connections, experience the local flavor of a District Meeting combined with an International meeting, and showcase the best of what ITE and our profession have to offer.
We have a great technical program, a sold-out exhibit hall, a record-nine technical workshops, and a wide variety of technical tours and great social events. Our sponsors are helping us keep costs down while enhancing the quality of the meeting. We also have some new elements—an ITE STEM Activity Day for children of attendees, as well as kids from the greater Austin Community, a Student and Faculty Leadership Forum, and exhibit hall tours to help attendees sample new products and services in their areas of interest.
The theme of this year’s meeting is Transportation Transformed. From new technologies to new business models, we are seeing products and services we only imagined a few years ago come to reality. We are also learning some hard lessons about the challenges of introducing some of these new products and services. The ITE Annual Meeting and Exhibit is a place to learn about what is working and what isn’t. To touch and feel some of the new technologies and to ask hard questions about how they work, when they will be available, and the impacts they will have on our communities.
The ITE Annual Meeting and Exhibit is also a place to experience the transformation that is going on within our organization. To meet the next generation of transportation leaders—from our STEM participants, to our Traffic Bowl and NOCoE Technology Tournament student chapter members, to our 2019 LeadershipITE class to our District- Section-Chapter officers—we have a great, diverse set of young leaders.
Attendees will learn more about our leading edge initiatives—Vision Zero, Transportation and Health, Connected and Automated Vehicles, Smart Communities, and Mobility as a Service. Participants will hear about the ONE ITE transformation taking place with new and restructured Districts, many Chapters preparing to be elevated to Sections, and hundreds of affiliates transitioning to full member status.
We know all of our members can’t get to our Annual Meeting, so our goal will be to bring as much of it to you as possible. Look for our annual State of ITE report, which will be issued in conjunction with the Annual Meeting, daily ITE Spotlite issues throughout the meeting, and social media posts (follow #ITEAustin2019). Following the meeting we will be bringing you our Best of ITEAustin2019 webinar series with highlights from the technical program and full coverage of the meeting in ITE Journal. Finally, be sure to download the ITEAustin2019 mobile app at
http://bit.ly/ThingstoKnowAM19 to track what is happening at the meeting.
A LOT goes into the preparation of an ITE Annual Meeting and Exhibit. Many thanks to all the ITE staff, the Texas District Local Arrangements Committee, and the many ITE members who have contributed to this meeting. E-mail me at jpaniati@ite.org or connect with me on Twitter @JeffPaniatiITE. I look forward to seeing you in Austin!
This blog post is from the July 2019 issue of the ITE Journal.
http://www.nxtbook.com/ygsreprints/ITE/G108250_ITE_July2019/