Railway Track & Structures - September 2008 - (Page 80)

CHICAGO PERSPECTIVE On the road again F or just about all the decades that I’ve been in the railroad industry, September has been convention month. Sometimes the meetings slip into August or October, and some have moved to spring for various reasons, but September remains the month for railroaders and industry vendors to gather to pick up on the latest practices at the conferences and latest products and technologies at the trade shows. If all the footsteps I’ve taken on trade show floors could somehow be lined up in a straight line, I’d be well on the way to the moon right now. I’ve shaken millions of hands and had thousands of conversations on show floors and hospitality suites and greeted too many old and new friends to count. I’m usually one exhausted salesman after most of the meetings I attend. This year will be no exception. I’ll be on the floor and out and about at the REMSA show and AREMA conference in Salt Lake City toward the end of this month. Shortly after that, I’ll be visiting with the transit folks at APTA’s annual gathering, this year in San Diego in early October. I’m completely sold on the value of conventions and trade shows, and anyone who knows me has absolutely no doubt of this. But this is the 21st Century and trade shows and conventions are a very old, very low-tech marketing tool. Do they really fit in with the high-flying way people do business today? Or are they dinosaurs lumbering along on the the way to extinction? In my view, anything that’s survived this far must have lots of good things going for it. Sending people to meetings is expensive. I’ve met some very savvy business people in this industry who thought it was worth the money to send people to these meetings. These are people who never spend a dime without considering what kind of return they are getting on their investment. I know I’ll never equal their business acumen, but I can at least agree with them on the subject of trade shows. We all have our roles to play in making sure conventions and trade shows continue to be not just relevant, but vital parts of the industry. On the conference side, better speakers, better presentations and more-relevant knowledge are the order of the day. I recall all too clearly trying to stay awake through an hour of almost-impossibleto-read hand-drawn overhead slides on some esoteric topic, always presented by a speaker in a monotone voice, and usually the first presentation after lunch. Fortunately for all of us, those days are behind us, but we can’t be satisfied with what we have now. We have to constantly improve what’s on the conference papers schedules if we want to keep people coming back year after year. We enjoy hearing the latest in research, but it’s the more mundane topics that really give attendees something to take back. If attendees learn how to do things better and take that knowledge back to their railroads, that’s something tangible their supervisors, all the way up to chief engineers, can point to to justify the expense of sending their people to the conferences. These gatherings offer a chance to meet suppliers and fellow railroaders face-to-face, to talk at the booths, on the golf courses, in the hospitality suites, in the hotel lobby and on and on. With the huge Class 1 properties, there are engineering types working thousands of miles apart who might never have a chance to meet outside of these gatherings. And it’s extremely valuable to railroaders to meet their colleagues at the other railroads. For example, a derailment near an intersection between two roads could bring more cooperation if the two roadmasters had shared a conversation somewhere at one of the industry conferences or trade shows. Let me emphasize one point as strongly as I possibly can: These gatherings and shows will never realize their potential if railroads—Class 1, shortlines, transits, etc.—don’t send their people. To me, skimping on the number of people sent is false economy, at best. With all those new people coming into the industry, it’s more important than ever to send as many people as possible to industry gatherings and trade shows. Now let’s get out to Salt Lake City and San Diego. I’ll see you on the show floor. George S. Sokulski Associate Publisher 80 Railway Track & Structures September 2008 www.rtands.com http://www.rtands.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Railway Track & Structures - September 2008

Railway Track & Structures - September 2008 Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D Larry Etherton Rounds Out Successful Term as President of AREMA Remote Bridges Present Challenges New Mexico Rail Runner Express Making Tracks for Santa Fe Products and Literature People Calendar Sales Representatives Advertisers Index Website Directory Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

Railway Track & Structures - September 2008

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