By Erin Pipkin, APR, senior account director
I’m a road geek. Yes, it’s a moniker I claim.
I especially enjoy working with engineers and planners on our various infrastructure projects. And, although I’ve known many of my engineering clients for years, I don’t get to spend much time with them outside of meetings.
That’s one of several reasons I jumped at the chance to present with two of my clients at the American Planning Association’s (APA) national annual conference in New Orleans.
Cynthia Bowen, director of Planning and Urban Design, and Steve Fleming, vice president of Global Transportation – both of RW Armstrong – and I presented “Integrating Planning into Highway Design.” Our audience was primarily municipal planners and consultants. Our goal was to prove that engineers, planners and public outreach professionals can work together seamlessly. Our case study was the New US 31 Hamilton County.
Our presentation was well received by the planners and engineers in the audience. Our format, which was a “talk show” panel, also received compliments. Instead of relying solely on our PowerPoint to emphasize our key points, our open dialogue kept the audience engaged. Our visuals of charrettes, engineering displays and land use maps were a hit, and some attendees even took pictures of our slides.
While only 30 or so attended the session (which isn’t too bad considering it was at 5:30 p.m. in the Big Easy), the chance to mingle with planners in the exhibit hall and spend time with my clients (and friends!) from RW Armstrong made the trip well worth the planning (pun intended).
After all, there aren’t too many conferences where I can market Borshoff’s Infrastructure Practice Group and avoid being called a road geek.
Posts