With the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 95th Annual Meeting behind us, it’s time to focus on the future a little bit.
The Annual Meeting always leaves a strong feeling – besides bewilderment, particularly if it’s your first time. For me this feeling is a sense of urgency. This comes from a sense that the state of knowledge in our field is advancing rapidly and that there are too many innovations to take stock of and implement in the time I have available between Annual Meetings. Nevertheless, I also find an underlying optimism in thinking that if we (continue to) share our experiences and advances, we can bring the state of the practice forward.
But let me get back to the sense of urgency for a moment. Our next international conference, which has been named “WCPAM2017” (World Conference on Pavement and Asset Management 2017), will take place in June of next year. And working the calendar back to the present, there is but a short window of time in which to prepare abstracts to submit for consideration. The deadline – March 13, 2016 – is only about five weeks away.
One of the unique features of this conference is that it represents the coming together of two groups that work on pavement and asset management but which do not normally have many chances to carry on a fluid conversation about advances in our field: The European Pavement and Asset Management (EPAM) group and the international community that gathers around the TRB North American and international activities.
So I urge all of you – all of us – to consider sharing innovations, approaches to solving pavement management problems, in short, to seriously think about submitting an abstract to WCPAM2017. The opportunity for exchange is unparalleled and each group will benefit from learning about activities of the other.
Instructions and conference information are all available at http://www.wcpam2017.com.
Look forward to your participation!
Sincerely
Ed
Edgardo D. Block
Chair, TRB Standing Committee on Pavement Management Systems (AFD10)
Two Post Scripts:
First, if the above is not sufficient incentive to submit an abstract, please consider the conference venue as an opportunity to do all the knowledge exchange in a one-of-a-kind location. Look at the Conference -> Venue tab on the conference web site to see. Or simply search for “Baveno, Italy” on any image site on the internet.
Second, this unique gathering of pavement and asset management professionals presents a unique opportunity for exhibitors. There is information at www.wcpam2017.com on how to participate as an exhibitor as well.