Looking Forward to the Southern California Parking Resource Forum

I am excited to be attending the Southern California Parking Resource Forum in Garden Grove on August 1st.  I attended the Northern California Parking Resource Forum for the first time earlier this year and the experience exceeded my expectations.  I arrived late because I assumed it was just going to be a networking event for parking professionals and no one would notice if I arrived a few minutes late but I was mistaken and ended up awkwardly walking into a large room with about 60 or 70 people sitting quietly in a circle. Julie Dixon of Dixon Resources invited everyone to introduce themselves one by one to the group and identify the company they work for and what their biggest parking challenge is today.  After everyone had introduced themselves Julie began facilitating discussions around each of the challenges people had identified in their introductions and we all brainstormed and offered ideas to address them.  There was a great mix of participants from municipalities, universities, events facilities, operators and vendors so there was a broad spectrum of issues to discuss and so many interesting perspectives to consider. It was a parking nerd’s dream!

Julie was careful to lay the ground rules at the start of the discussion and cautioned people against making disparaging remarks about specific vendors so it created a really collaborative and respectful environment.  I have worked in the parking industry for 7 years and I talk to people about their parking operations every day but still the number of unique parking challenges out there seems to be endless.  It was so interesting to hear the varying perspectives of all the parking professionals in the room.  

From these discussions, I noticed that there is an element that is always changing and yet needs to be considered when developing parking technology for our customers that I had not personally given enough consideration to.  Namely, how much parking operations are impacted or restricted by the specific rules and regulations dictated by local laws, ordinances and company policies.  Since these vary from city to city, state to state and organization to organization it is challenging to keep our fingers on the pulse of this dynamic landscape but it may be one of the most important aspects for vendors to consider. Attending this event provides access to understanding these local nuances and I would love to see this format introduced in every state.

Dixon Resources hosts one of these events in the north and one in the south each year so if you are managing a parking operation in California, I highly recommend this event. It is free to all parking professionals and includes lunch provided by a different vendor sponsor each time. I look forward to seeing you there on August 1st.