Survivor’s Guide to the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting – Version 2.0 (January 8, 2002)

By Jonathan L. Gifford (jgifford@gmu.edu)

The TRB annual meeting in January in Washington, D.C., is one of the largest assemblages of transportation people of the year. It has 8000+ attendees, 400+ sessions, scores of committee meetings, hospitality suites, university alumni and friends receptions, and well as a host of ancillary meetings that are scheduled around it. Through careful time management, the interested student can make excellent contacts, learn a lot about the transportation business, as well as eat and drink well at little or no expense.

Here are a few pointers:

· The program is organized into 5 sessions per day, 8 – 9:45, 10:15 – noon; 1:30 – 3:15, 3:45 – 5:30, and 7:30 – 9:15. The bulk of the activity is Monday – Wednesday, with a little leftover on Thursday.

· The program is split between three large hotels, the Omni Shoreham, the Marriott Wardman Park (formerly a Sheraton), and the Washington Hilton. The Shoreham and Wardman Park are next to the Calvert/Woodley Park metro stop on the Red Line, and the Hilton is 2 long blocks up Connecticut from the Dupont Circle metro stop on the Red Line. There’s lot of good info about the meeting at TRB’s website, www.trb.org.

· TRB tries to group like-minded activities at each of the 3 hotels to minimize the amount of running back and forth required. “Soft” stuff like planning, transit and the environment is at the Hilton, and aviation and marine/freight are at the Shoreham, and pavement busting and hard stuff are at the Marriott.

· There are three types of significant programmed activities:

o Paper sessions: These are sessions of papers submitted the previous summer and reviewed by committees. Papers may be thrown “over the transom” and organized into somewhat coherent sessions, or sessions may be organized around a committee’s call for papers, in which case they may be more thematically coherent. They are recognizable by the paper number written next to each participant (e.g., 02-0249). These papers are on the CD ROM, but it can be interesting to see them presented.

o Panel sessions: These are sessions organized around a theme by a committee. There are no papers, and they are not any longer recorded on cassette. So if you miss these, there is no archival record of what went on the session. These are organized in the late summer and tend to be more topical on issues of current interest. This year will have a lot on transportation security.

o Committee meetings: TRB has a huge number of committees and subcommittees, one (or more) for virtually every conceivable subject. These are good places to meet people interested in particular subjects and excellent networking opportunities. They’re listed in the back of the program, once by subject matter (groups, divisions, etc.) and once by schedule. Committees have “members,” who generally do the work of the committee like review papers and organize sessions, and “friends,” who come to meetings but aren’t expected to do a lot of work. The number of members is limited, and membership is fairly selective, although it depends a bit on the committee. Some committees have subcommittees with separately scheduled meetings. If you’re interested in the subject matter, volunteers are generally welcome for projects and tasks. Take business cards, and if you’re interested in finding people interested in particular topics, use your chance at the beginning of the meeting during “self introductions” to say a sentence or two about it. People tend to be very helpful.

· Social functions. Like most conferences, much of the real action is in the hallways and suites. Many organizations have hospitality suites, and lots of organizations hold receptions or parties.

o Hospitality suites. The concierge in the hotels will have a list of the hospitality suites and events, and will let you look at it, but usually not take it with you. The major hospitality suites are in the “center tower” at the Marriott, up the elevators on the upper floors. Subtlety and restraint are the watchwords here. Some suites welcome visitors and have lots of good hot food and free flowing wine, beer and drinks. Others are much less active and are more for those specifically invited. The purpose of these suites is typically to market products, so if you go in, play along and introduce yourself, ask about the products or services of the sponsoring organization, and play it by ear. Don’t eat or drink an unseemly amount, and if you get a vibe that you shouldn’t be there, you probably should move on.

o Receptions. There are also lots of receptions hosted by universities and institutes, some with open bar and some with no-host bar. These are typically by invitation only, although sometimes not. If you see one and you have a plausible connection to the host, you’ll probably be welcome, but don’t be a pain.

So have a good time. TRB can be exhausting, but it’s a great place to meet people and make connections, network for jobs and business opportunities, and to meet nice people. If you stay involved in transportation during your career, you might find yourself going back year after year and making it an important part of your professional life.

Note: This guide is arbitrary and subjective and does not represent the official views of anyone. Comments and suggestions are welcome. The most recent version will be posted (eventually) on my website at http://mason.gmu.edu/~jgifford.