PolicyLink, spoke at the 2012 Summit.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
Good conferences are like good cities: the most interesting things usually happen between schedules and around edges. For a transportation conference here in Portland, that probably goes double.
The two-day Oregon Active Transportation Summit, which starts one week from Monday, is filling out its schedule and the official agenda has some must-see keynotes and lots of breakout sessions that will be informative and inspirational (if past year’s are any indication). But there are two events not on the agenda that you should definitely plan to attend.
Learn more about them below the jump…
- Portland Transportation Director Leah Treat will headline a City Club luncheon on Tuesday. Open to the public (with $23 admission, which includes lunch) it’ll be one of her first public appearances to discuss local transportation policy at length.
- The conference’s full panel listing is now available, with smart folks from across the state and a few (like Transportation for America Director James Corless) from outside. It’s nice to note that organizers at the Bicycle Transportation Alliance has put together a guest list that will let the majority of panels pass the Bechdel test: a little more than half the panels will include more than one woman. (That’s something the League of American Bicyclists didn’t manage at this year’s national summit.)
- This looks like some especially fun extracurricular spillover: a Pecha Kucha rapid-fire slideshow event (20 slides for 20 seconds each) about transportation, in the back of the Lotus Cafe on Monday, April 21. It’s part of an afterparty that’s also open to the public. Ideas, which are often humorous, are due Monday April 14.
The event itself is all day at the Sentinel Hotel (the former Governor Hotel) at 614 SW 11th on April 21-22. Monday will be plenaries and breakout sessions; Tuesday will be professional trainings and mobile workshops. The cost is $85, which includes one continental breakfast and one plated lunch, with some scholarships available.
Thanks for reading.
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It’s worth noting that the Monday night event is a Pecha Kucha and a party. Come for the thinks, stay for the drinks.
This is a great opportunity to crash OATS if you’re not attending the official event.