In many parts of North America and Europe, the custom of “spring cleaning” is an annual ritual. March is the month most often associated with this because in many regions the climate is starting to get warmer, and as we emerge from winter there is a renewed sense of cleansing. I recently read an article suggesting that this cleansing could be physical, spiritual, and even metaphorical. For me, I see spring cleaning as an opportunity for us to shake off the winter doldrums, and finally take all those New Year’s resolutions that are still on paper from January seriously!
One resolution you can all brush up on is to keep current on or even expand your knowledge in our industry. Make plans to take a training course or pursue a professional certification. Map out which conferences or workshops you might attend this year. Expand your horizons on a new topic. And hey, what a great opportunity that ITE is also offering—once again—with our Spring Virtual Conference this month! Taking place on March 25 and 26, the annual conference is an easy way to check some key items off your to-do list! Get those PDHs and CMs early in the year, get updated on a topic you’ve been meaning to learn more about, or engage with your peers on a particularly challenging issue. If you haven’t yet registered, go right now to www.itespringconference.org and don’t miss out on this annual event!
This year we have a pretty incredible lineup of sessions, put together almost entirely by our Technical Councils and Committees volunteers. We’re tackling important issues like TSMO for extreme weather and harnessing data analytics for safer and more resilient transportation. We’re exploring strategics for safety camera systems and implementing the National V2X Deployment Plan. And we’re not shying away from challenging but critical topics like integrating safety into university engineering programs or rethinking the roadway functional classification system.
We also have two dynamic keynote speakers bookending the conference, with David Harkey (IIHS) providing his wisdom on safety, and Kristin White (Google) exploring how data can impact safety and resilience. David and Kristin are both enormously knowledgeable about these topics and are fun to listen to—because they deliver their thoughts with such passion!
The sessions alone are reason enough to participate, but the other thing I like about our Spring Conference is its convenience. I mean c’mon, what’s not to like? It’s virtual—no travel challenges. It’s flexible—spread across two days to lessen the impact on your calendar, AND sessions are recorded so registrants can listen to them if they miss one. It’s reasonably priced—great deals for public agencies, and overall reasonable price points for even the one-person consulting businesses to afford. And, it’s interactive—we improve each year by moving beyond the traditional “panel speeches followed by Q&A” and introducing innovative session formats to promote engagement.
And my favorite thing about the Spring Virtual Conference: It’s relevant. Planning only a month or two in advance allows for topics and information to be timely. That’s harder to do for large conferences and in-person gatherings, but much easier in a compact two-day virtual format. So once again I’ll say—if you haven’t yet registered, go right now to www.itespringconference.org and don’t miss out. It’s going to be great!