I have been working with Astrid on the seminars for the PIE Show this coming July in Dallas and stepping back and looking at what is coming together one can see nothing less than a fantastic group of presentations over the three days.
We decided this year that rather than a special ‘keynote’ speaker, we would invite leaders from our industry to tell their stories, remind us of from where we came, and give an actual parking pro’s view as to where we are going as a revitalized industry. We have reached out to Barbara Chance, Roamy Valera, Brandy Stanley, Mark Pratt, and of course you couldn’t keep me off a panel with such a group. We will be kept in some sort of line by Kevin Uhlenhaker.
In addition we will have representatives from the “Original Nine” advertisers in Parking Today who will take you through the history of parking technology, and just where it is going. These two panels are a “don’t miss” for attendees at PIE 2021.
We are honored to have a team from DFW Airport and SPPlus holding forth on using time series analysis and machine learning to anticipate customer needs. If you run an airport, a city, a college campus, hospital, or other major parking operation, this is the place to see what technology can mean to your future.
What about Covid. We don’t want to belabor the point, but let’s face it, it has had an effect on consumer behavior. There’s a complete seminar showing the numbers, and the way parking consumers may have changed during the past year.
Plus, a former head of parking for a major university joins a current university parking administrator discussing the differences between annual permit parking and hourly parking on campus. “We have always done it this way” may not be the solution, and may be costing you money.
Parking Famous Julie Dixon leads four discussions focused on cities as they claw their way out of the pandemic. These include four Chiefs of Police who will discuss the pluses and minuses of technology in parking enforcement, A California City that went from Free Parking to paid and made it stick, a medium size Texas city described its successful parking program, and an expert from the City of Beverly Hills speaking on the social and technical issues of parking and the parker.
If its tech you want, then attend sessions on EV Charging, PCI Compliance, LPR, RFID, and Big data – they will all be there. Plus garage maintenance and an absolutely unmissable session describing a sealant that you will believe is magic.
All of this will be culminated with sessions on customer service led by a couple of industry leaders who have made this their watchword and a discussion of humanization of parking – tech is great, but let’s not forget the customers.
There are more sessions in the wings. Check out www.pieshow.parkingtoday.com for the most current list, including schedules and speakers.
PIE 2021 is the place to kick off the restart of the parking business. See you in Dallas, July 18-21.
JVH
