The Hold Room

Today in the Hold Room we get to hear all of the wonderful responses throughout Seasons 1 and 2 to “What is your favorite airport bathroom?” We learned very early on that the bathroom experience makes a big difference in the overall passenger experience of an airport. Some of the responses we heard repeatedly and some responses are unique and specific to one airport. We hope you enjoy this light-hearted and fun last episode of Season 2 of The Hold Room. The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 23 – Bathroom Compilation Transcript   [Introduction] TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura C.: This episode is part of the passenger experience series hosted by ACC's Terminal and Facilities Committee. In this series, we are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics such as the U.S. population aging and becoming more multicultural, new technologies, labor and supply chain shortages, and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us in the Hold Room.   [Interview] Laura C.: Bathroom. Restroom. Water Closet. Washroom. Loo. Lavatory. Potty. John. Whatever you call it, these facilities serve one of our most basic human needs. Perhaps it is no surprise, then, that they are integral to the airport passenger experience. In this special compilation episode, we asked all our friends who joined us on this previous season of The Hold Room one simple question: What is your favorite airport bathroom? Everyone had something to say, whether they were shouting out a specific airport’s bathrooms, or they were describing features of what their favorite bathroom would be. Listen ahead and find out if your home airport received a shoutout. Laura C.: Anita Cobb at Mead and Hunt. Laura C.: Do you have a favorite bathroom? Like, where’s your favorite airport bathroom? Anita Cobb: Oh my gosh, thank you for asking me this because now is my time to shine. My favorite bathroom in the continental United States is Dallas Fort Worth. They have the best bathrooms ever because they have tush lights. Tush lights are the smartest thing in the world! I want every business everywhere to have tush lights. It only makes sense to see that somebody's occupying a stall by a big red light so that you don't have to bend over at the waist and make your hair touch the ground just to be able to see who's in the bathroom. And I think their doors go all the way to the floor so you don't have to be weird about it too. And then I also love the fact that they have the maps, and then it shows you how many people are in the bathroom, how close is the nearest bathroom—best bathrooms ever! I love it. I cannot advocate for tush lights anymore than I can for their use at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport. I absolutely love that. Laura C.: Anthony Barnes at ADK Consulting and Executive Search. Max V.: Something that we've been asking all of our guests: what is your favorite airport bathroom and tell us why. Anthony Barnes: That's a very funny question. I actually do not have a favorite airport bathroom. I actually do not remember a lot of airport bathrooms because I'm usually running in and running out before getting on a plane. But what I find pleasure in are clean facilities, making sure that it's stocked with supplies, the hand dryer works, making sure that there's adequate space in the stalls and getting throughout the restroom. I've been to some restrooms where it's been a little small. But, you know, just making sure that it's adequate space, and then easy navigation in and out—that I'm not running into someone as they're coming out. And you know, all of that. So, easy navigation. Laura C.: Angela Berry-Roberson at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Laura C.: What is your favorite bathroom? Angela Berry-Roberson: You know, I don't remember the airport, but I know what features I like. That one with the lights so you don’t have to go all the way down, and like, oh dang, there's somebody up in there—that was ingenious! And then having stalls big enough. Some of us are not our college size anymore, and so, you know, it might get a little difficult maneuvering to try to get into the stalls with luggage or with kids. There's always that family bathroom, but still, that maneuvering of getting in and getting out. And how that stall opens—open out as opposed to open in. Small little things. I don't remember which one it was, I don't know if they had all that together, but these are pieces of what looks like an ideal bathroom. Laura C.: Courtney Pene at the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport. Laura C.: We'd like to ask you: what is your favorite airport bathroom and why? Courtney Pene: My favorite airport bathroom is the Albuquerque Sunport. I remember flying in there late one night—my husband and I were going for an adventure at the Grand Canyon—and so we flew in there and I thought, gosh, I really need to go to the bathroom. It's clean; there is really wonderful mosaic tiles in there; and we did this about ten years ago, and the fact that I can still remember that is amazing. Clean, wonderful public art—what more can you ask for, right? Laura C.: Absolutely. And you're not alone. I was just looking it up as you were talking; Alec Baldwin said the same thing. Courtney Pene: Yes! Yes! Yeah. They recently put it out on LinkedIn and I was like, I agree! It's an amazing bathroom! Laura C.: Laura Jones and Annabelle Klein representing Flight Club 502. Carrie W.: We have an episode that we eventually want to do on everybody's favorite airport bathroom. Laura Jones: You’re talking to people who don't travel commercially. Annabelle Klein: Signature Aviation's great, BNA Nashville’s airport bathroom—pretty great. Laura Jones: Okay, I can tell you a bathroom that I would want if I flew. Okay, there is a really cool place here in Louisville called 21C, and they have the best bathrooms. Annabelle Klein: They do. Laura Jones: And what you do, you go into the bathroom, and you can see through the wall, but the people can't see you. So you can see all the people walking by, and you know, there's like a mirror. Annabelle Klein: One-way. Laura Jones: It's a mirror. So everybody's, like, scratching their nose and pulling their ears and doing stuff with their hair. And you're in the bathroom and you're watching these people… Annabelle Klein: …come up to the mirror and check out their makeup. Laura Jones: and they do not realize, because it's like—maybe it's only in the women's bathroom, maybe the men's bathroom doesn't have it. But I haven't been to the men's bathroom, but maybe we should try. But when you go, you—the people do not know that you can see them from inside the bathroom. And I like that bathroom. I would put a bathroom like that in the airport. Annabelle Klein: We'll get one like that at Flight Club. Laura C.: Daniel Barton at InterVISTAS. Anita C.: So, Daniel. Favorite bathroom. Gotta know. What's your favorite airport bathroom? Daniel Barton: Well, I'll go with one that I experienced just two days ago. Denver expanded both their B and their C concourses relatively recently, and I happened to be on the C concourse. Just a fantastic bathroom, I tell you what. Big gateway into the bathroom, and then really wide open spaces, and then behind the sinks was a giant window while looking out onto the airfield. I was there with my two boys, my two sons, and we were washing our hands and turned around, and they did not want to leave the bathroom. They wanted to watch the aircraft on the apron. So, two thumbs up for the bathrooms at Denver. Carrie W.: I've been in those bathrooms, and it's crazy because you see this big window in the bathroom, and you're like “Oh! What's doing there?” Laura C: Carrie Shaeffer at Swinerton. Max V.: So Carrie, could you tell us what your favorite airport bathroom is and why? Carrie Shaeffer: My favorite bathroom at airports are the bathrooms in Austin, Texas, because the murals that enter the bathrooms are just beautiful, and I like to just stand there and stare at them as long as I don't start to look creepy looking into the bathroom. But I think they're gorgeous. And functionally, they're very easy to find. As I said before, we like to be able to see where the closest bathroom is from anywhere. So I think that has both those things. It has beauty, and it has functionality going for it. So I pick Austin, Texas. Laura C.: Hersh Parekh at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Laura C.: Oh, are we still doing the favorite bathroom, or do we have enough for that? Unless Hersh, you wanna mention, do you have a favorite airport bathroom? Hersh Parekh: I don't have a favorite bathroom, but what I will say is we took a lot of time to ensure that our bathrooms got a total renovation as well, because oftentimes what you see in customer surveys is their worst experience in an airport often time relates to the bathroom. So now, that was such an important part of redeveloping LaGuardia was making sure that we broke that perception. In the stalls you have doors that are sort of slanted a little bit so that as you're trying to close it, you're not hitting yourself on the door. There's like the hooks to, like, hang your luggage or your carry-on or whatever. The faucets are handless. Ledges above the sinks as well. And on those ledges, we have beautiful orchids that don't require a lot of water, don't require a lot of natural light, and they can still grow and look beautiful, and add that extra touch to the restrooms. So again, really looking at how to really make the customer experience, even in the bathrooms, as strong and as positive as it could be. The bathrooms really are getting recognition on their own. There was a survey done a year or two a

Today in the Hold Room we are talking to Michael Lindsey and Brandon Thrasher of HLB about equity in lighting and what an impact lighting can have on the passenger experience. What we learn is that it’s not just the lighting itself that can influence a person’s emotions in a space, but its impacts on the surrounding spaces, backgrounds, textures, and the interplay of natural lighting and electric/artificial lighting. Please join is to hear more about what considerations and questions are important throughout the design process to maximize the passenger experience and provide equity in lighting.The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 22 – Michael Lindsey and Brandon Thrasher Transcript [Introduction] TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura Canham: This episode is part of the passenger experience headers hosted by ACC's Terminal and Facilities Committee in this series. We are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics such as the US population, aging and becoming more multicultural, new technologies, labor, and supply chain. Shortages and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us in the Hold Room.   [Interview] Carrie Wojcik: Welcome back to the Hold Room, everyone. We're really excited to have Michael Lindsey and Brandon Thrasher with us from HLB. I think it would be really great to kick off this interview by having you both introduce yourself. Michael Lindsey: Appreciate that. I'll jump in first. So again, my name is Michael Lindsey and I'm an associate principal with HLB lighting design. I actually began my journey in the lighting design field about 17 years ago as an intern for our Los Angeles office and I was lucky enough to join the staff full time and haven't looked back since. In 2016, I returned home to Colorado. It's where I grew up and originally from and spearheaded the opening of our Denver office. So, it was a geographic expansion for our firm and it started with just me and one other individual. And I think now we're at about 18 individuals here in the office. So, something I'm really proud about and, you know, really the beauty of what our industry of lighting design and our firm offer is this variety of project type and market sector. So, in my 17 years now in the industry I've really worked on every different type of project out there, whether it's a small and intimate kind of 600 square foot elevator lobby or a million square foot aviation terminal. As it relates to the goals that I have within industry, really top of mind to me is education. Education about what it is that we do as a lighting design professional. Ahead of my time were really true pioneers in our industry who helped establish the foundation of our profession. And I'm lucky enough to be standing here today because of that. But the reality is that our work isn't done myself and my other industry colleagues are always looking to educate and let people know what it is we do and the value we bring to the environment. We are always striving to have lighting design with a seat at the table a little bit about me, I'll hand it over to you, Brandon. Brandon Thrasher: Yeah. Thanks, Michael. I'm Brandon Thrasher. I'm a senior principal with HLB and I'm the managing principal of our San Francisco office. My journey kicked off a little bit differently. I started off in theatrical lighting design and I really dove into crafting designs for live events and museum work when I first started. But life takes its twists and I gradually got pulled into the architectural aspect of the field and I've really been hooked ever since. I also had a stent at Henderson Engineers and during my time there I took on the role of the Director for their architectural lighting group. It was kind of interesting to me because I didn't come from an engineering background. My background was in theater, but that experience really did open up my eyes to the engineering side of things and it's just kind of fun how life mixes things up a little bit. My goals are really to create cool lighting designs and really to have the team work together to make sure that our designs really align perfectly with the whole architectural aesthetic. And I really love to use light as a medium to give spaces feelings that you just won't forget. I think that my theater background is a big part of why I'm so passionate about that and creating those one-of-a-kind experiences for those spaces. Max Vale: Awesome. Well, thank you both very much. Let's pick up on a couple of things that each of you said and these are this is kind of the same question directed at both of you. Michael, you talked about how lighting elevates the environment that folks find themselves in. And Brandon, you talked about how lighting can give space feelings. Could both of you expound upon what that means and how those things are achieved through lighting? Brandon: Lighting plays such a big part of the feelings that you have when you walk into a space. I think it's really a subconscious element that people don't always notice. But when you're in a space that has great lighting, you can really feel the energy or feel whatever emotion that is really associated with that that creates that atmosphere. And I always like to think that good lighting is something that you don't really perceive, but you usually perceive bad lighting. So, we want to try and give spaces a good feeling through lighting and my design process is always about what is the feeling that the space is going to have and how can we create that feeling through lighting in conjunction with the rest of the architecture, but really being able to highlight that throughout the space. And creating that journey, because sometimes we want to take people through different feelings as they go through the space and so really creating those different areas for people to either relax or dining or whatever the case may be. Michael: And I think to build on you had mentioned, I tend to use the word elevate a lot because lighting design is something that theoretically anyone can do. Obviously, we believe strongly and those who've experienced those with education to really execute that. And I think the proof is in that experience, once you've been a part of it. Certainly so much of what we do, there are requirements of light levels and energy code and those things that need to be met, but they can be met in a whole variety of ways, and oftentimes people have the misconception that a strict energy code, a strict budget, means that you can't be creative and you can't elevate design. And that's really not true. We pride ourselves as design professionals to really step up to the challenges. And how do we create something special? How do we create something that's memorable while working within those various constraints? And so, for me, each project is unique and different and how we elevate it will always vary depending on all the different factors that go into design. But it is always possible and having that seat at the table being a part of those conversations collectively we can do really great things with our design partners on behalf of ownership groups. Carrie: That is awesome. I think that having a theater background is really an interesting touch that you get to add to the projects that you're involved with, Brandon. One thing that really caught my attention is you were both talking about connection points. Elevating the experience. Creating emotion and Michael brought in the topic of talking with stakeholders. What that's going to look like while dealing with the practical side of things. I would be interested in knowing how that process goes. What are the types of goals or emotions or experiences your clients are wanting to create and how are they going through that process with lighting and working with your team? Michael: I'll start with that it really is dependent on the project type. There are some projects, in particular those that are much more exterior driven or perhaps a little bit more monumental things like bridges, building facades, things that frankly have a very outward neighbor focused condition. In those instances, we are responding to the surrounding community and it's something that you could be standing on your back porch overlooking this beautiful lake and then all of a sudden this bridge comes in and you're trying to light it. Well, those stakeholders. Have a really strong voice, as they should, in what we're doing, and so it's really important for us early and often to engage them in the conversation. Everybody has an opinion and those voices should be heard. So even in a private office condition or in the aviation world in which you're interacting with a port that's kind of representing their employees and staffing as well as passengers, we need to hear from them. No one knows their building, their staff, their community better than those that are living in it. Certainly, as design professionals, we try to ingrain ourselves in that as much as possible. But the real first step is that listening and so certainly we pride ourselves and getting involved early, coming to those conversations with the sense of curiosity and desire to learn. And from those conversations, then evolve into how do we support those things that are really positive for them that are really working well already? How do we continue to build on that? And then what are those pain points that we hear about and how might we resolve. And it's never a linear process without a doubt you're going back and forth, and it's not just a one-time conversation, something that you need to continue to revisit throughout the design of a project that we find in that conversation. The end result is then really something that's well received and people are really the most exci

Today in the Hold Room Laura and Carrie talk with Director of Transit at Dimensional Innovations Paul Martin. Dimensional Innovations specializes in creating immersive experiences and tackling facility specific problems. Laura and Carrie dive deep on the simulation flight Dimensional Innovations provides for MCI – Kansas City International Airport to accommodate first time passengers and those who have a fear of flying. Please join us to learn more about simulations and experiences that provide “Positive Distractions” for passengers.  TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura Canham: This episode is part of the Passenger Experience series hosted by ACC’s Terminal and Facilities Committee. In this series, we are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics (such as the U.S. population aging and becoming more multi-cultural), new technologies, labor, and supply chain shortages, and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us in the Hold Room! [Intro Music End] Carrie: Thanks for joining us back again in The Hold Room. We're really excited to have with us today Paul Martin. Paul is with Dimensional Innovations, and, Paul, we would really like for you to just start off this interview by introducing yourself. Paul: Thanks for having me. We're really excited to take part in this broader discussion. We're [Dimensional Innovations (or DI)] a 30-year-old firm, very well established in many other markets. Aviation is actually something of a recent focus for us [DI]. My name is Paul Martin and I am the Director of Transit. The Transit Practice within Dimensional Innovations. Traditionally, that has meant more like bus shelters, kind of a land-based transit. DI as a company, our mission, as we say, it's to liberate people from mediocre experiences. Our main focus has been professional sports, but everything’s about an experience, right? So, if you're going to an arena or stadium, you know, maybe we've [DI] done the Hall of Fame or the fan experience. For corporations, it might be a welcome center, where we're telling your [the corporation’s] story. We [DI] do a lot of work in the cultural space. When we look at the aviation space, it's very much a natural fit. We [DI] have been making a concerted effort over the last year. It really helps that here in Kansas City we have a brand-new terminal, single terminal, that is just absolutely fantastic. So, we have quite a bit of work in that and that was kind of a springboard to get us [DI] interested in this [aviation] as a market. Laura: Let's dive a little bit deeper into something. Can you discuss a challenge or solution relating to aviation related topics or passenger experience? Paul: Sure, and for us [DI], it is all about that experience, and MCI (Kansas City International Airport) is the perfect example. Personally, I'm sure some of your listeners had to go through Kansas City or may be based here. You know, we went through Kansas City you've got this new airport that SOM designed, just brilliant, and DI was really fortunate to play a pretty significant role in this passenger experience, and it takes a lot of different forms. Right from the start, you enter into the single terminal. At the ticket counter, it's very standard, you've got the big LED wall behind you, that [the LED wall] was one of our [DI’s] scopes. And you know, in the background, what's happening in terms of managing the graphics, the content we have developed, our [DI’s] own content management system that was really developed working directly with the airport.  I was touring it [MCI Airport] with Justin Myers Deputy Director out there. At one point he just pulled it [graphic controls] up on his phone and said, “Hey, watch this!” – and he could change the background, the content, because we [DI] had built that application up for him including working with the various airlines on the content itself. Really, it's all about future capabilities, flexibility, you know, we've got about 300 feet of screen back there, and we [DI] built in the capability to do a complete takeover, do animations, anything they may want to do in the future, making sure that the back end can handle that. That's [interactive graphic displays] largely invisible to the customer. It just looks nice. Working with the architect and the design team. If you're going between concourses, worked with The City [Kansas City] and the Airport Authority on some storytelling. They [the Airport Authority] knew when they created this new facility that they wanted to retain some history, tell the story of aviation in Kansas City. Built out a series of kiosks that have information boards and then also embedded video, you know, so the whole experience is about “Through the Ages,” what aviation has meant to Kansas City. There was a big push to bring out local flavor. Sot, just these little hidden gems kind of sprinkled throughout that give a better experience to the customers. Laura: Oh, that's neat. I remember going through Kansas City, but I have a vague recollection of leaving security to go meet with somebody and then having to go back to security to get in. Is it like a long, elongated terminal, I think, right? Paul:  Well, the old one, yeah, it was a horseshoe. There were three different terminals, and it was designed in the in the early 70s. There was circle parking. The whole idea was you could drive your car and park and in 5 minutes be at your gate. And it [the old design] did work that way Pre-9/11, but once you throw security into it, it's completely dispersed. So, you have so many gates there's no central location where you can handle that [security]. Physically, as a facility, it could not accommodate that. Laura: So how did you accommodate them? It sounds like a big challenge as part of the project. How were you working through that? Paul: We built a completely new terminal, so we demolished it. Laura: Nice. Paul: It was the only solution, honestly. So, from an architecture perspective, the old terminal was completely unworkable. There was a renovation, probably 12, maybe 15 years ago, doing work in the concourses, upgrading some facilities a bit with some better finishes in a way. In fact, some of the terrazzo floor that was put into the old terminal during the renovation was salvaged and used into the new one [new terminal]. It was a really nice touch. Laura: That's awesome. So as part of this project, I'm sure one of our [ACC, The Hold Room] key initiatives is talking more about diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA), and so, I was curious how that played into the design of the new terminal and what kind of things that you implemented or thought of and incorporated as part of this? Paul: Absolutely central, there was a mandate established by the city [Kansas City] that said we will be the most inclusive airport in the country, if not the world. So, right from the start, this was established before there was a design. So, everything on the design side was meant to cater to that. In terms of our [DI’s] involvement, we [DI] were really fortunate there was a thought about, “OK, how do you accommodate passengers that have anxiety about flying, first time flyers, maybe, people with dementia, or on the spectrum, anybody that, you know, has this anxiety or fear [of flying]. The thought was to create a simulation room, you know, really simulate the entire experience. And that [simulation experience] starts with getting a ticket, boarding a plane, going through a simulated flight. So, this [simulation project] is a really exciting opportunity for us [DI], because that's very much what we do and we can infuse technology and it is truly about the experience. This is super fun working directly with the Airport Authority. You know, there are a lot of constraints obviously, just physically, what does this mean, in terms of what are you physically putting into the space. So, this is, if on the secure side of the terminal, it's something [the simulation experience] that you have to reserve just as a general public passenger. You can't just walk into this [the simulation]. It's very targeted to specific audiences. There's specific outreach for that. The way that we went about it is that “OK, we want to literally be having, you know, have the have the most literal experience you can.” That meant actually purchasing a chunk of a Fuselage Airbus A321. So, in our [DI’s] shop, we have that chunk of the plane, proceeded to do the entire build out. As an experience, you would make a reservation [for the simulation]. Somebody from the airport will greet you in the security line, walk you through security, go into this specific simulation room. We took an actual ticket kiosk. You punch in your code, and it- [the kiosk] spits out physical ticket. You then go to a scanner on the wall, scan your ticket, it shows your name, and get a green light and the door opens and you walk through. In reality, it's [simulation jet bridge] just a hallway, but with graphics, we have simulated that passage through the jet bridge to where you are boarding on the jet. Something that we identified, and I will say this, you know, there's a lot of research that goes into this, not just working with Airport Authority, but with healthcare professionals. As well in terms of thinking about what are things that can assist a situation like this. So, something was that was identified, was typically when you're taking that step onto the plane itself from the jet bridge, there's a little gap. You know, everybody sees it [the gap between the jet bride and plane], and most people don't think anything about it, but for some people, that's very problematic. So, we actually did simulate that gap. So, you're stepping onto the plane now and you are in a real pl

Hello from the American Association of Airport Executives conference in Denver, Colorado. Janelle Aslam conducted live interviews at the conference in June 2023 and we are excited to hear from Tommy Bibb, Aviation Consultant and prior AVP Operations and Maintenance at Nashville Airport Authority; Marco Toscano, Director of Customer Experience at Denver International Airport; and Joseph Kennedy, Business Development Manager at Smiths Detection.The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 20 – Tommy Bibb, Marco Toscano, and Joseph Kenney Transcript [Introduction] TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura Canham: Hello from the American Association of Airport Executives conference in Denver, Colorado. Janelle Aslam conducted live interviews at the conference in June 2023 and we are excited to hear from Tommy Bibb, Aviation Consultant and prior AVP Operations and Maintenance at Nashville Airport Authority; Marco Toscano, Director of Customer Experience at Denver International Airport; and Joseph Kennedy, Business Development Manager at Smiths Detection.   [Interview] Janelle Aslam: Hi Tom. So nice to have you here on The Hold Room podcast. You are an industry veteran. I'd love to know about your background 1st and then also your perspective on customer experience and what we can do to improve it. Tommy (Tom) Bibb: Thanks, Janelle. It's a pleasure to be with you. Background, I spent just over 32 years with the airport in Nashville. And had a variety of departments and functions under my purview over that time. Operations and maintenance certainly were a big part of that 22 of those 32 years. But passenger experience is critical. You know, we were an airport in active growth mode and you're an airport first, a construction site 2nd and maintaining that positive experience is critical. We had a lot of opportunities to work on that both in the building, in front of the building, and the behind the building and by that I mean terminal, landside, and airside. So we tried to work on that every day actually. Janelle: That’s great. Can you tell me about one of the examples you think is really like best in class in terms of something you implemented to improve passenger experience? Tom: Yeah, I'll take a what's probably an easy one. And that's restroom modernization of restrooms, making them more comfortable and more bright. Easy in and out, not congested. Trying to get in and out of the facilities, just bringing up refresh with new fixtures, more modern three in one sinks with soap, water drying capabilities. But restrooms are a big factor in the passenger experience. Restrooms and parking will get you in trouble quickly. We put a lot of emphasis on restrooms, parking accessibility, walking distance and things like that, but those are a couple of easy examples on the things that we focused on to try to not only maintain but greatly improve the passenger experience. Janelle: Great. So how did you actually listen to your customers? How did you gather feedback from them to make sure that you were moving the needle and improving that experience for them? Tom: Like most airports, you know, do surveys and things like that. But we paid really close attention to our website and comments that came in and we kind of had a policy: three business days to get a response unless it was something really significant. And then you still get a response and. Follow up with a more detailed answer if that's what was called for. But got a lot of feedback that way. Being in the capital and a lot of state legislature there, we got a lot of feedback from the community and just through informal channels we always took that stuff very seriously and took it to heart and tried to take it and use it and, and make things better. Janelle: Excellent. Can you talk to me a little bit about diversity, equity, and inclusion and how that implemented into your past experience? Tom: The airport should reflect the community that it resides in. Everybody has a little bit different opinion of what the positive passenger experience should be. So, we did a lot of work outreach with various organizations and things of that nature to understand what various groups to make sure that those needs were being met and one that I'm particularly proud of, maybe more than anything in my entire career there, was/fell into the world of ADA with adult changing tables in some of our family restrooms because it opens up the door for so many more people to travel. That prior to that air travel would have been off the table simply not an option. And it was so well received when we did that on the personal level that was something I felt really, really good about. Janelle: Nice. That's awesome. How did you communicate these change efforts to? Tom: You know, a lot of outreach on social media. We had a staff that took care of that for us and pushed those messages out. We actually had a lighting system on one of our new garages and we could do the lights to reflect certain things. Maybe if it was the Heart Association week or breast Cancer week or whatever it happened to be. But we use social media a lot and we use some of the amenities we had built into our new facilities to help push those messages. We did some sign language. At times we have live music in building and we would have somebody come and sign the words along with the music. And that was kind of neat because that really improve that experience for people that had that impairment. Janelle: That's great. Tom: So, we tried social media. A lot of things, just some of the in-house amenities that we have we could take advantage of it. Janelle: Guys, what about employment? Did you do anything from a DEI element to make sure that your employment also modeled the residential structure? Tom: Yeah, we did a good job. Basically, it's kind of started with the leadership team to make sure the leadership team again reflected the community and being sensitive to how we approached different groups and create opportunities for success not only for the person but for the organization as well. And I can see that although I've retired from the airport. You can see that throughout the organization it's a very diverse leadership team and then all the way through the organization as a whole. Janelle: So, as we end this interview and I'm really appreciative of all of your insights here, but I would love to know as you look to the future, what are you most excited about in terms of the new developments to really improve customer experience? Tom: Some of the things I think are really moving the needle on passenger experience are better concessions and things of that nature. Gate delivery on concessions at some of the larger airports because we tend to get through security and we go from point A to point B, we get to our gate and a lot of times we walk by things because we just want to get where we know we need to be. But good concessions and having the concessions reflect national options as well as local music and entertainment in the buildings. You see that a lot now. That was all over our facility and you see it in many places. I think there's just a lot more awareness. People are in the terminal longer now than they used to be good. Good parking facilities where there's walking distances or short transportation. There's a number of things, I think airports, are doing a lot better. You know it's kind of a drop off to take off mentality. Parking all the way to your gate and making that experience everything it can be all the way through. Janelle: Excellent. Well, Tom, I look forward to hearing more insights from you in the future. Thank you so much for your time. Tom: Well, you're welcome. Thank you. Janelle: Marco, I am so happy that you're here to talk with us at the Hold Room. So, tell me a little bit about what you do at Denver. Marco Toscano: Thank you for having me. Yeah. I’m the director of customer experience. So, within my realm of responsibilities are voice of the customer, customer research data, customer metrics, documentation, as well as looking over the customer journey map and how our customers interact with our report and their entire journey from Pena Blvd. all the way over to their flight. And what does that mean of them? Trying to create a good experience for them as they go through the process. Janelle: Wow, that's amazing. So how often do you actually connect with your passengers to really get the voice of what they're looking for from an experience standpoint? Marco: We capture customer voice through several different ways. We actually provide all social media comments about the airport. All of that is filtered and aggregated through our customer relations center. So, every comment, every post is categorized by subject matter, whether it's an inquiry complement, complaint, and then we actually categorize that further by the subject of what the customer was talking about. And then we capture verbatim as well, but then that gets put into a system where we can analyze the data at the end of the day and look at what are the top complaints for the day, for the week, for the month. How can we make those better? How can we do for identifying trends that we're seeing based off of customer voice you can try to get ahead of those in the future. Not only social media, we also have a call center. The same thing happens if you were to call in. Or chat with us through our website. As well as we have surveys, we partner with ACI and AAAE to the RSQ survey. So, we have several different ways to try to capture what customers are experiencing. Janelle: That's great. And what do you see in terms of the latest trends of what your passengers are asking you for? Marco: We're seeing a trend that has certainly started in COVID, but it's one of the trends was customers a

What does a Chair/Vice Chair for the 2024 Symposium do? Come and find out from Carrie Shaeffer, Chris Spaulding, and Asia Johnson. In addition to the logistics behind how a conference is organized, learn more about the two plenary sessions of the 2024 Symposium including Artificial Intelligence and Vertical Takeoff and Landing at airports and how they relate to two upcoming Olympics!The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 19 – Carrie Shaeffer, Chris Spaulding, and Asia Johnson Transcript [Introduction] TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura Canham: This episode is part of the passenger experience headers hosted by ACC's Terminal and Facilities Committee in this series. We are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics such as the U.S. population, aging and becoming more multicultural, new technologies, labor, and supply chain. Shortages and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us in the Hold Room.   [Interview] Carrie Wojcik: Well, thank you everyone for joining us again in the Hold Room. I'm Carrie, Mike Ambrosio: Hi, I'm Mike. Carrie W: And we are joined by different individuals from ACC who will be involved with hosting the plenary sessions. So, I have Carrie Shaeffer from Swinnerton, Chris Spaulding from Jacobson Daniels as well as Asia Johnson from Jacobsen Daniel. So, thank you so much for joining us today. If each of you could just quickly say your name, your role, and introduce yourself so our listeners know who you are. Carrie Shaeffer: Yeah, hi. Thanks for having us. I'm Carrie Shaeffer with Swinnerton and I am chairing the planning committee for the upcoming Symposium. Super excited to be with you all today. Chris Spaulding: My name is Chris Spaulding as Carrie mentioned. Thank you for having me as well. I serve as the vice chair for the Symposium Planning Committee and work as a senior consultant for Jacobsen Daniels based in Chicago. Go Cubs. Asia Johnson: I'm Asia, I'm with Jacobsen Daniels and I am supporting Chris in his role as Vice chair, and so I'm the vice chair YP. Carrie W: Awesome. Thanks everyone. Mike: If you don't mind. Could you kind of tell us a little bit more about what your sessions are about and what you're excited about them? Carrie S: Yeah, I'd be glad to start with that. Thanks, Mike. This is Carrie Shaeffer again. So, as the kind of the chair and vice chair, one of the biggest roles and exciting roles of helping the planning committee bring the Symposium together is that we had a bringing together the plenary sessions for day one and day two. So, the one that I am pulling together right now, it’s pretty cool. It was inspired by one of the submissions of the 230 submissions we got for topics for the upcoming Symposium and we are looking at some applications of the for the Paris Olympics and then looking forward visioning for the LAX Olympics at 2028. We're to hear from both of those planning groups on some emerging technologies that they are using and for managing the incredibly complex logistics of all of those people: Athletes, judges here and people coming to watch and VIP's and just multiple airports in the area and then multiple venues. So, I'm really excited to hear from both of those and compare and contrast what the, what they're thinking about, how they going to solve those big puzzles. Mike: Yeah, very interesting. You know, it's something that you don't necessarily think about and think of the Olympics and it's just cool to see how our industry is starting to tackle those challenges. Carrie S: Absolutely. It was inspired by the group that is, they're going to do certain pilot program of using VTOL in the Paris area to solve some of their logistics issues, so I'm looking forward to it. Chris: Yeah, being part of the LAX land program, a lot of that was a part of preparing for the Olympics. So right now, you know, having that underway with the APM fully developed and operational, what are the next steps are they, are they going to take from like a technology standpoint. So, this will be a very synergetic conversation to see different viewpoints on how the attack this problem and look at opportunities to invest in aviation for these world events. Yeah. And so we have another plenary session and I think on a similar plane we want to drive in the topic of innovation into the program, especially on the big stage. And so, one of the topics was the topic of AI and I think that's something we are all talking about outside of aviation as well. Been around us for maybe the last five years, but I think particularly we've seen the ball rolling a lot. I'll plug for the innovation tracks session. They're going to be focusing on a topic of AI and how it's gonna impact design and construction and how we perform and deliver a product or help plan airports, you know, for our clients. So, for the plenary, we wanted to take it to another level and focus on the high encompassing view of AI. And it's exciting to think about, like, how it's going to impact operations at airports, particularly for passenger experience. So how is AI going to impact the passenger when they leave their house all the way to when they go through the check-in process and get to the gate though a lot of us are hearing conversations about it at other events and I think Symposium we want to bring it to the table at a kind of a one-on-one perspective because a lot of us still need to learn what is going to happen, what are the policies that are going to be shaped to help make this a feasible tool for all of us to use at the airports. How is that going to be implemented in biometrics and whatnot? So, looking at it from the policy standpoint, rule making, but also from the operations perspective and want to be able to bring a consultant on board as well to talk about what the future might look like with that. Because I think at the end of the day, it's going to be inevitable. Kind of like the advent of the Internet. People are always a little skeptical about new technologies, and I think the symposium is always a great forum to continue talking about it and build on top of what can we do to make sure we're staying on top of the trends that are going on right now. Carrie S: I agree Chris. It can be such a broad topic and also such a molecular level topic that I'm looking forward to what you all are going to hone in on and, like you said, for the passenger experience and really affects our industry. And then I also appreciate how the bigger plenary session is going to feed into some very specific, even more technical sessions in the tracks. Chris: Yeah, I would say that is our theme this year there. There's always kind of a central theme at the Symposium every year. You know some years we focus a little bit more on diversity and inclusion and we certainly do have some sessions that touch on that topic. But also you know sustainability and how are we going green at airports. But I've seen technology and innovation to rise to the top. In fact, this year is the first year we have our own standalone innovation track. We used to have mini tracks in the past symposiums, so I think that's going to be something we'll see continue moving forward because that is such a large component of what we discuss and. What we like to collaborate about at this conference with each other. So that's an exciting change for the Symposium program for 2024 event. But overall I, I'd say, you know, attendees come to this conference for the technical program. So I like going to this event just because you get to meet such a vast array of diverse people. Within aviation, consulting from architects to planners to construction managers, and you get to pick your own journey with these concurrent sessions, but also network with people who just have such a different take on what they do in the industry, which I find always really fascinating about why I chose to get an aviation right because there's so much more to aviation than just being an airport operations or being a pilot, even though those are really great careers. You know, consulting is such a great way to really innovate and change within those environments. It's also one of those events that's really fun almost to the point where like, it's exhausting [laughter]. Always something going on. You know it's a three-day event, but ACC and AAAE do such a great job of enabling companies to put together receptions and host things outside of the program as well. So this upcoming years event is located in Salt Lake City. Carrie W: A lot of nice views, right? Chris: A lot of great mountains, yeah. Mike: Close to skiing before and after. Carrie W: And probably a very new airport terminal. Yeah. Salt Lake City had a lot of work done. Carrie S: Yes, they've been turning over pieces in the last couple of years. It's a great airport. So, I'm I'm sure that Salt Lake City is really proud to be hosting and to have all of us all those many points of view that Chris was talking about from our industry coming straight into their airport kind of get inspiration to kick. Carrie W: So of our group, you're representing the YP's, so I'm curious from your perspective as a young professional, what are you excited for these sessions and what are you looking to learn as well? Asia: The session in particularly the one I've been helping with Chris, develop the AI session. Because AI is such a hot topic right now and it. So vast as well, I'm just looking forward to us developing it. The topic in a way that encompasses everyone's interest. I know like that's the whole point of the plenary as well, but just in a way that, you know, we all have this buzz, this, you know, the buzz of AI in the back of our heads right now, just with how involved we all are with

What does a Program Manager for the 2024 Symposium do? Come and find out from James Gerrald and Bailey Bulls, as they help organize one of aviation’s biggest conferences. Also tune in to find out what is new this year and recommendations and strategies of what a first-time Symposium attendee can do to maximize the experience.The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 18 – James Gerrald and Bailey Bills Transcript [Introduction] TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura Canham: This episode is part of the passenger experience headers hosted by ACC's Terminal and Facilities Committee in this series. We are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics such as the U.S. population, aging and becoming more multicultural, new technologies, labor, and supply chain. Shortages and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us in the Hold Room.   [Interview] Laura: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Hold Room. I'm Laura. Today, we have Bailey and James here, who are the Program Manager and the young professional Program Manager. So, James and Bailey, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourselves?   Bailey Bulls: I'm Bailey Bulls, the project manager for Swinerton Builders, based out of our Dallas office, and I am, as you say, Laura, the YP Program Manager for the 2024 Symposium. I'm really excited to be here. So, thanks for having us.   James Gerrald: James Gerrald, I'm with Jacobs Solutions out of our Philadelphia office at PHL and working at PHL Airport as a program advisor. This is actually my third year for the Symposium, representing the Symposium, and so very excited to come back. It's always a, always a treat. And yeah, and excited to work with Bailey and you all as well.   Laura: Great. So, for everyone who doesn't know what a program manager does at a conference, can you tell us a little bit more about what your role represents and what you're doing to get the conference in great shape?   James: Sure. A program manager essentially is the ones that are the liaisons between the management team or the executive team/committee for the symposium and the representatives for each track session. So that's the moderators, that's the track hosts, the speakers. So, we're kind of the liaison. Between the two. And so, our responsibilities include ensuring that all the session information is populated, ensuring that the speakers are populated, making sure we have all the headshots, bios, everything that's needed for our track host speakers, moderators, and then passing that information on to ACC/AAAE so they can fulfill their documentation requirements that they need for the conference. We're kind of that go between. You can think of us as like a jack of all trades, everything under the sun. So, if it's anything from, Hey, can you just tap the speaker's shoulders to a shoulder to get some information on this? Or can we get a little bit of information on that? Or can we change this? We're kind of where that link between those individuals to get that information. And make changes if necessary and essentially make the executive committee look good.   Bailey: You summed it up perfectly, James. I just view it as more of administrative oversight. So really all the hard work the track hosts are putting in. making sure that we have a really diverse selection of moderators and panelists to just fine tuning and executing the workshops and the just the development that goes into that.   James: Absolutely.   Laura: Very nice. I know that's much needed a big conference like the Symposium. What are you most excited about for the conference?   Bailey: So this will be my first Symposium. So I think first and foremost, I'm just really excited to actually get to meet our committee in person kind of above and beyond that I'm super excited to see all the tracks come to life. And there's a bunch of panels that we've spent a lot of time kind of cross collaborating between the different tracks to make sure that they're diverse and that the content's relevant and just getting to see those come to life is something that I'm really excited about. And then I work for a general contractor and there's some panels that really applicable to kind of my day to day. That's going to be fun just to get to partake. And there's some really interesting speakers that are presenting. It should be a really, really great event. And everyone's put so much work and effort into it. And our committee as a whole has been so engaged and everyone's so passionate about the topics that we're going to be presenting on. I would say just about everything.   James: Awesome. For me, everything that Bailey said, I can echo this, those sentiments. And then also, I'm excited about the fact that, every year this symposium achieves new heights. It's taken a notch above. Every year it's getting better and better. And I've only been a part of this for a few years, but it's been growth and a greater Symposium event each year. And we pushed the bar higher. What's it going to look like this year? I see the work that we put in, I see what's going on. And then once it all comes together, it's exciting to see because you're in the mix and you're seeing it. And it's like, man, this is even better than the year before. And it's more people than the year before. And you're meeting more people than the year before. And so that's what I'm most excited about is how can we take it just that, that much higher and it happens year after year. And so that's what I'm excited about is seeing what that looks like this year.   Laura: Yeah, that's actually a really good point. This year, there's going to be a new approach on how to register, how to upload things as you're going in, more technology in that process as you're going through. Can you share anything more on that?   James: Sure. In the past, the registration process has been going through the ACC website. And there being a specific section allocated to the Symposium and the website and you go, you register, you pay through there and everything like that. And then when it comes to the documentation and how things are provided to the executive team for speakers, moderators, and stuff like that, it's just been a process of sending everything back and forth to the program manager or whoever in the executive committee.   This year, it's a different approach. We're using a platform that's specifically dedicated to Symposium. And from what it sounds like, you'll be able to do everything from registering and to actually uploading your documentation within that platform as well. And then we'll be able to track that through a weekly printout that gives us all the information for who's done what and we'll be able to relay that information amongst the entire planning committee. So, they're all aware on what's been received, what's not been received.   Laura: That sounds really neat. And especially on the backend to be able to see all the information, to have it all in one place. And hopefully that'll help out. Bailey, I know you haven't been yet, but James, what is your previous experience at Symposium been like, and what are some really neat things for people who haven't been, or as a motivator for people to sign up and come to the 2024 Symposium in Salt Lake City and anything you wanted to share?   James: I've been fortunate enough to go to three Symposiums. My experiences have been nothing short of amazing. Every Symposium has been lively. A lot of the folks that you see in there, individuals that are moving mountains in aviation, everyone's representing different airports. They're representing different companies. Everyone's friendly. Everyone's having a good time. The networking is awesome. It's great sessions. Very knowledgeable. And a lot of the times I'm mad, I'm jealous because I can't sit in on all the sessions that I want to because it's so many good sessions and you're helping actually plan it. And so, you're making sure that everything that you are supposed to do, you're taking care of. So you still have to fulfill your obligations to the conference. A lot of times I can't sit on all those sessions that I want to sit in on. And, but I hear great things about a lot of those sessions that I've missed. And it's like that every single year, one thing I can say about the Symposium is a lot of the content, a lot of the things that are discussed are applicable to the current status of the industry. And so it's not a lot of talking about things 10, 20, 30 years ago. These are things that have happened in recent times are currently ongoing in airports.   And so it's very applicable information. That's what I like is because if you haven't been reading the airport magazines, this is a great way to catch up on everything that's going on. That's one of the things I would say. It's definitely worth the ticket, worth the price of admission. If I could go every single year from here until the end of time, I will because they're just that good and I enjoy them that much.   Bailey: So, since I'm going to be a first timer, is there any advice you can give someone like me, just to be able to make sure I make the most out of the experience?   Laura: Oh my goodness. So many things. I wanted to add on James to what you said before we go into your question, Bailey. So, I'm a track host this year, and I know we have to stick with our track the whole time, but you're absolutely right. There are so many things where I'm going to be sending other people from our company and be like: you sit in on this session. You give me a detailed account of what's being said, because there are so many up to date things that are happening right now. We're trying to be on th

Learn about what interesting subject matters will be covered in the 2024 Symposium Project Management (PM) and Construction Management (CM) Track. Track hosts Melvin Price, Senior Associate Principal ORAT Practice Lead at Jacobs, and Annabelle Tran, Project Manager at Jacobs, share about their backgrounds in PM/CM and what they are looking to share and takeaway from Symposium. Melvin and Annabelle share with Max and Carrie how they are diving deep into ORAT, GMP, and the Seller’s Market during Symposium. If you want to learn (or a refresher!) on these terms and abbreviations, give this episode a listen and check out the PM/CM Track at Symposium. The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 17 Transcript   [Intro Music]   TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura Canham: This episode is part of the Passenger Experience series hosted by ACC’s Terminal and Facilities Committee. In this series, we are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics (such as the U.S. population aging and becoming more multi-cultural), new technologies, labor, and supply chain shortages, and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us in the Hold Room! [Intro Music End] Carrie Wojcik: Welcome back to the Hold Room. Hi, I'm Carrie. Max Vale: Hi, I'm Max. Carrie: And we are joined today with Annabelle and Melvin from Jacobs. They're going to take time to introduce themselves and their roles. Melvin Price: Melvin Price, I’m with Jacobs. I helped to lead our practice. I have been in aviation for the past 24 years. My degree is in electrical engineering. I have an MBA. And I have worked on projects all over the United States and some parts of the world. I have been a member of ACC since I became a consultant in 2018. Happy to be here. I have presented at ACC and AAAE Construction Symposium a couple of times. This is my first time as a track host, but none of this would be possible without my colleague Ms. Annabelle Tran. Annabelle Tran: Hi everyone! I'm Annabelle Tran. I've been with Jacobs for about two years now. I was working for our Denver office as a project architect and then transferred over to LAWA [Los Angeles World Airports] for PM/CM for wayfinding. I don’t have any experience with ACC, but since Melvin has brought me on, it's been quite a ride and I'm learning a lot about what this organization is and very excited to see where we go from here. A little bit about me, I. We have about 10 years of airport experience on airport campus facilities, both domestic and international. The different project types I've done include airport terminal renovations, expansions, airline clubs, signage, wayfinding, and tenant and hold room interior outfit. Since I have been working as an aviation professional, I haven't gone to any symposiums or been on any committees, so this is all brand new to me and it's been quite interesting so far. Max: To educate some of our listeners who may not be familiar with some of the terminology we say like PM/CM, can you take just a brief moment to talk about what those different abbreviations stand for? Melvin: What they mean? Yeah, so I will tackle ORAT, and interestingly enough as an industry, ORAT means a lot of different things. I just got back from Washington DC, and I was selected for an airport cooperative research program panel specifically on ORAT. We have determined what the letters and ORAT now mean for the industry. It [ORAT] means “Operational Readiness Activation and Transition”. It is the art and science that take a static construction project and bring it to life and it [ORAT] ensures opening day success for that facility and its stakeholders. PM/CM is “project management, construction management,” essentially it is the team of people that are responsible for the scope, schedule and budget of the project. They are in fact the team that you may hear referred to as the “delivery team,” so those are the people that manage the project construction, do everything to ensure that they maintain scope, scheduling budget for the owner. Max: Very good. Thank you. Carrie: I think your backgrounds are really interesting electrical engineering and, Annabelle, wayfinding and terminal design, so I'm excited to hear your different perspectives as we go through these questions and learn more about your track. Can you tell us a little bit more about the 2024 ACC AAAE Symposium track you are both involved with? Melvin: Well, it is actually the PM/CM Track. It's all about constructing things. It was refreshing that they chose ORAT specialists to lead the PM/CM track, because they those efforts really do go hand in hand in delivering a functional project program to the owner. The impetus of our group is to kind of highlight a lot of the things that go into delivering projects from design, construction, cost, personnel, and a bit about operational readiness. We feel it's a very well-rounded track and we look forward to people being able to come and learn about. We will discuss how things are done, how things can go right, how things can go wrong, and sharing knowledge and experience. It will be very enlightening. Max: Tell us a bit about the sessions that are part of this [PM/CM] track. What the topic is and a brief description of each session? Melvin: Yeah. Well, let me just go through some of them. One of the sessions is about GMP or “Guaranteed Maximum Price”. Last year, there was a track on CMR, so GMP's and CMR [or Construction Manager at Risk] typically go hand in hand. But we want to do a deeper dive on the efficiencies of GMP. To provide owners with tips and tricks on how to make the GMP work best for you. The next session is titled “It’s a Sellers Market”. One area in the aviation industry, and all industries is its workforce as a whole. There's very much a limited number of qualified professionals. There are new people coming in, but when you're looking at large capital programs. For a capital program, you want seasoned professionals. This session will teach the ability to identify and hone in on talent coming from the next generations. Annabelle? Annabelle: There was the one session about The Seller’s Market. Melvin: That was the one I just reviewed. Do you want to give more context of what you think about that one? You’re [Annabelle] in that seller's market. You are that demographic of coming in. You have some experience with this one [the seller’s market] both in architecture and ports. You [Annabelle] may have been only with our company [Jacobs] for two years, but you have a lot of aviation experience that makes you the person you are today. That’s why we're [Jacobs] happy to have you [Annabelle]. Annabelle: You did say that it's [Session “The Seller’s Market”] about how to get the best team for your project and being involved with wayfinding for projects we are always looking for the best teams to come and work on our project. There is a lot of work to be done beforehand, including laying out everything, going through the best practices, etc. We have to talk to these teams and create excitement and then make sure they know exactly what they're getting into and how we are able to receive the best and most complete proposals from all bidders. The Seller’s Market is about the do's and the don'ts along with different lessons learned. There is a lot that I can still learn from a lot of these different programs. Melvin: The next session is “Lessons Learned: Designing, Implementing, and Constructing a New Single Terminal at KCI [Kansas City International Airport]. Kansas City and KCI has a special place for me because that is where I started my career in aviation and in the workforce in general in the year 2000. I worked there from 2000 to 2013, and I just wanted to give a shout out that I got a call on Sunday that the person that taught me a lot about what I know about stakeholder engagement, empathy, and just understanding people passed away on Sunday. Shout out to Rich Williams. He has helped me get to where I am right now, and he will never be forgotten. The last session is “Exploring Innovation and Best Practices in the ORAT Program”. This is looking at innovation and best practices and what you should be looking for in your operational readiness programs, so that that outlines all the workshops that we have in our PM/CM track at the ACC AAAE Symposium. Carrie: Yeah, those are some awesome topics. I'm curious what track you're looking forward to, but also like what are you hoping to take away from this experience? Melvin: Well, for me it's honestly, it's less about what I want to take away and more about what we want to share. I firmly believe that high tide raises all boats. When you have an organization like ACC and AAAE working together to further the industry [aviation industry] with knowledge transfer for, you know, wonderful, wonderful suite of offerings from every aspect whether it be innovation, PM/CM, or the plenaries. It's [ACC AAAE Symposium] about being able to share this information, gain valuable insight from others and then being able to use that information as soon as you get back to work. With a lot of topics, you're going to find it in these sessions, you'll be able to put into play. Also, just being able to have the camaraderie of being in-person at these events. I think we've all learned a lot over the past few years about how lucky we are to be here. It’s icing on the cake. Then, what is my, the track I’m looking forward to the most? For me, it's title is “Integration Done Right: The Design Builders Guide to Aviation, Design Management Synopsis.” Your design is one of the key indicators of how good your project is going to go, the better your design, the better your project will go, and I'm looking forward because it incorporates a Univer

The 2024 Symposium Planning Track hosts talk about their sessions, including advanced air mobility and electric aircraft, capital and facility planning, runways to real estate, Environmental Hot Topics, which is always well attended, and moving to a greener future. There are a lot of changes happening in planning and environmental that we get to hear about!The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 16 – Melissa Vasher and Shawn Gibbs Transcript   [Introduction] TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura Canham: This episode is part of the passenger experience headers hosted by ACC's Terminal and Facilities Committee in this series. We are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics such as the U.S. population, aging and becoming more multicultural, new technologies, labor, and supply chain. Shortages and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us in the Hold Room.   [Interview] Max Vale: Hi, I'm Max. Laura: And I'm Laura. Max: And we are here today with Melissa Vasher and Shawn Gibbs to talk about the Planning Track that will be held at the 2024 AAAE/ACC Planning, Design, and Construction Symposium. This conference will be in Salt Lake City on March 5th through 7th, 2024. So, Melissa and Shawn, could you tell us a little bit about yourselves and your role in putting on this track. Melissa Vasher: I'm Melissa Vasher. I'm with Hanson Professional Services on the track host for the planning sessions at the Symposium. I've been with Hanson for almost 12 years in airports, probably 15 to 17 years, so I'm really excited to take on this role in planning and developing the content for this event. It's been an exciting event in the past and we're looking forward to more of that coming up in March. Shawn Gibbs: I am Shawn Gibbs, and I'm also with Hanson Professional Services. I've been with them in the airports world for about 12 years and my role is the young professional to help support Melissa getting moderators, working with speakers, developing this sessions. So really looking forward to it. I have not been to Symposium yet, so pretty excited about it. Laura: Oh, that's awesome. You have a wonderful first time. From personal experience, it's it's a great, great conference. So, I guess the next thing is tell us a little bit about the content of your sessions. You'll have 5 sessions. And so I'd love to hear a little bit more about that. Melissa: I guess we'll kind of tag team it here as we've been based on kind of our strengths as professionals in the business. The first session, probably the one we're most excited about and everybody hears about is advanced air mobility and electric aircraft and how is your airport getting ready for this. Our session is going to be really focused on kind of the planning and how to bring these electric airplanes and this technology into your airport and how to actually get it off the ground. You know, how do you get it through master planning or ALP process. How do you work with the local stakeholders. How do you decide what's the best fit for your facility at this time. It's gonna really delve deep into that. There's a lot going on with the Paris Olympics. I saw in New York City just had Jobe up there for test runs and I know Florida and Georgia have been doing it as well. So, it's going to be really timely to have this planning information out there. How do we get it through the process and actually get it operational. Our second session is all that airport capital and facility planning. Where do we come up with the projects to put on our airport capital improvement plans? How do we figure out how to fund these? We look to have some airports that have taken different tactics and looks at what they need. Maybe different sized programs, whether it's a big landside or terminal facility or if they've got some other operational and maintenance items are coming up that need to be funded and accounted for. And then maybe possibly looking at alternative funding sources. You know, we've seen a lot with P3. We've seen a lot with different bonds and sources. So, we're just going to take a look at that with several of the airports across the country. Our third session is titled runways to real estate, so all about land use around airports. Our airports have been in place now, and with that communities have kind of grown into the airports. Vegetation has grown up so we're taking kind of the two pronged look how do we control vegetation and make sure buildings and structures don't go up around your airport that impact your operations. But also, is there a way to work with your communities to make the best use of that space. You don't want somebody living off the runway having to listen to airplane noise all night long. How do we control for that, but maybe how do we also utilize that land for some revenue sources to help the airport remain kind of self-sufficient. And Shawn, did you want to talk about the last two sessions? Shawn: Yeah, on of our sessions is moving to a greener future. The goal of this session is to discuss how airports can meet the goals of the US. Aviation Climate action plan and move to net 0 by 2050. We're hoping the discussion will have different topics likes sustainability goals, resiliency at airports, 0incorporation of low emissions vehicles and ideally, how you take all of these different items and incorporate them into your design plans and your planning documents. And then our next session is environmental and planning hot topics and this is to discuss the ever changing NEPA permitting landscape, we want to discuss the new runway length requirements, reauthorization of 1050.1F. So the new NEPA guidance coming from FAA. So, we're hoping to have FAA at in an airport perspective on all of these things, maybe even include some FAA perspective on the new Clean Water Act and then have some consultants in there to discuss how we include these into our planning and design documents. Max: As well. Well, this sounds like quite an ambitious program. Laura: The hot topics. That's been something that's been very popular throughout the years. Is that correct? Melissa: I think it has. I think it's kind of been the opportunity to have a lot of consultants in airports in the audience and here agency perspectives. Shawn: It also seems like there's lots of things changing at the beginning of 2024, so reauthorizations, the Clean Water Act just changed, reauthorization for 1050.1, runway length requirements. So, we're hoping to have the panel discuss those new items. What's changed and how that fits into an airports planning and design. But it should be kind of the perfect storm of a bunch of things changing all at once, so lots of good discussions. Laura: Thank you. Max: On the runways to real estate session, is that focused mostly on off airport land use compatibility or is it focused on airport land use with topics related to Section 163 or is it both? Melissa: I think it's going to tackle both. There is a new ACRP report coming out on vegetative management that, but we also know that Section 163 is changing and has evolved and that airports need to block in projects. That's the one thing we don't want to see is that a community starts building something up next to an airport and you can't extend your runway in the future when you have that need. And so, it's going to be a lot about communications with the cities and the counties. If you're a smaller GA airport, and if you're a larger airport that does have that land, how best can you utilize it? Max: A lot of these topics that are being covered in the planning track are topics that we've seen and heard a lot about over the last few years. What do you think is gonna be new in this year's upcoming Symposium? Melissa: I think what's new, especially now, we've all been hearing AAM’s coming, it's coming, it's coming. Well, aircraft are starting to be certified, so it really is here looking at our speakers and our moderators, we have some airports that have gone through this very recently. How am I attracting this? Where am I placing this? How am I planning for the electrification needs? How am I planning for the airspace around to allow either short take off or vertical takeoff of electric planes? And I think that's the previous years have been looking like it's coming. What do we need to do running around? Trying to figure out all the different things and I think this is going to try to focus more in on we've seen what's happening, we know the paths to success. Let's layout that plan. Laura: Yeah, it's good to always build upon what's happening and that's good to hear that, that you're able to continue to move that forward and and give most the most up to date information available. You already mentioned the first track is the one that you're most excited about. Shawn, how about you, which one are you looking forward to the most? Shawn: I am an environmental specialist by trade, so I'm probably most excited about the environmental hot topics. Just getting to have the FAA in the room and discuss how 163, NEPA, Clean Water Act, all of those things change, what their perspective on the change is is pretty invaluable. So, I'm really looking forward to that and the discussion afterwards. I've heard again, this is my first one, that the discussions are pretty lively and helpful and people have lots of great ideas and that seems really neat and I'm pretty excited about it. Max: And hopefully with policymakers in the room, there might be an opportunity to plant a bug in people who set policies ear about: Here are the issues we're facing. And here are the policy needs that we have. Let's explore these a bit further. Shawn: I love that. I agree. Melissa: I think that's one

The 2024 Symposium Engineering and Airside Track hosts share their sessions including Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), changes in materials and techniques, and PFAS. Please join us today to hear about the session topics and thoughts that went into picking these topics.The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 15 – Curtis Brown and Danielle Tran Transcript [Introduction] TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura Canham: This episode is part of the passenger experience headers hosted by ACC's Terminal and Facilities Committee in this series. We are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics such as the U.S. population, aging and becoming more multicultural, new technologies, labor, and supply chain. Shortages and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us in the Hold Room.   [Interview] Laura: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to The Hold Room. I'm Laura. Kisa Hanlon: And I'm Kisa. Laura: And we're here today to talk about the 2024 Symposium, Engineering and Airside track. And so Danielle and Curtis, would you please introduce yourselves? Danielle Tran: My name is Danielle Tran. I'm a project manager at Woolpert and I just started there in February of this year and I was so lucky to have Curtis bring me on as his YP for this track host. Super excited to be here. Curtis Brown: Great. Thank you, Danielle. And I am Curtis Brown, the track host and senior project manager with Woolpert and doing airfield design for over 30 years and part of the organization and previous speaker. I'm so glad to be able to support the organization and miss you all. Thank you, Laura and Kisa. Kisa: Well, we're excited to have it brought back to Salt Lake City. I think it's been a couple of years since it's been there. So, everyone's excited and definitely the engineering/airside track is always one of the most popular ones out there. So digging right into it, what are the sessions that you guys have planned thus far? Curtis: Excellent. Yeah, we have a pretty wide swath of engineering topics. It's starting from Envision and ISIS certification. Toing through potentially looking at just some PFAS and other contaminants and that session is still developing a little bit. Safety and risk management for smaller and mid-size airports. Is that new initiatives rolling down with them. Changes in materials and techniques for airfield rehabilitation and products and then kind of summing it up with AAM for airfield engineers. Kind of getting away from the planning and what we as consulting engineers need to know. But I am really excited about this broad spectrum of topics and what we get to do. Laura: Great. Is there one in particular that either of you are most excited about? Danielle: I'd say I'm most excited for the AAM topic because that's something that I'm just not familiar with and it's something that I am interested in. I'm kind of like a gadgety person and so like anytime you bring like super cool new tech into something I'm very interested in it. Curtis: And I'd have to second that I am excited about the AAM and such emerging and changing the routinely and just what that means is so we can be better consultants. Close second to that is the changes in the airfield rehabilitation. I'm very much a materials person and love to see us new in the industry and what things are coming down with the changes and specifications as well as just environmental initiatives and what that means to our industry. Kisa: And it seems like you guys have a nice variety there. So how did you come up with just the selection that you have? Curtis:  At the end of last year, we had a no solicitation of topics and I can't remember one like over 200 some odd topics were submitted and we clustered those for the airside engineering and found some common themes and so we created a session for each of those common themes created by those within our industry. Kisa: Very good. Now, have you both been to the Symposium before and if so, what's been your experience at the design symposium? Curtis: Yes, I've been to the symposium numerous times and really enjoy the technical feedback and the networking and just what's happening. I’ll speak for Danielle as a new hire to consulting coming to us from Air Force. This is her first experience as a YP coming to this and I am really glad that she gets to be part of this role and get plugged in and make a lot of great connections. That probably took me several years to develop as just an attendee. And so just so neat to build help facilitate that. Laura: Danielle, since this is your first time, what have you heard? What are you excited about? Anything in particular of how this conference may be different from others? Danielle: I won't say that I've been to a lot of conferences, but I'm really excited to go to this one. I've been to the Air Force’s design and Construction symposium, which was interesting because it was very focused on Department of Defense design and construction and how that works. So it'll it'll be interesting to kind of see it from the consultant side as well as like Curtis said, making those connections because like he said, the civilian world, the consultant world and making those connections and enlarging my network is going to be, I think, key to having success in my career. Laura: Well, how neat that your first conference that you're attending is one that you're also helping host a track that's exciting. Kisa: Yes! Danielle: Yeah, it seems like a little bit of press. But I think that with my past that I'm definitely able to handle it, to step up and to be a great YP Curtis. Curtis: I definitely would second what Danielle and others said. She has shown herself to be more than capable on those leadership skills, so already been a great help. Danielle: Thanks Curtis. Kisa: So, my first YP event was at the ACC Design Symposium in Salt Lake City and it was probably like 10 years ago or something, but it actually created connections that still to this day moved forward. So it's definitely definitely good want to be a part of. Curtis: Yes, I'm envious of that. When I was young, YP didn't really have those programs and just the way that you get to develop those cross-company connections and the team building as well as the networking, it's just an amazing program that ACC started and I'm really supportive of that. Glad for being able to do. Laura: Great. Well, thank you both so much. Any parting words before we wrap this up? Curtis: Come to our track. It is going to be the best one ever. The planning is just pretty pictures engineering is where it's at. Kisa: Perfect. Danielle: We have a lot of interesting topics and a lot of great people that are moderating and and speaking on those topics so it'll be a good time. Definitely put in a good word for our track. Laura: Great. Well, thank you both so much for taking the time and walking us through your track. Curtis: No, glad for the discussion, Laura and Kisa. So much. Kisa: Thank you both.   [Outro] Wendy Hageman: Thanks for joining us in The Hold Room for this special podcast series exploring the new passenger experience. You can find more from this series on the ACC Training Hub—that’s training.acconline.org/the-hold-room—or wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, etc. Follow us for more content from the Airport Consultants Council. You can support this podcast by leaving a rating or review and by telling your friends and colleagues about the podcast. Thanks again.  

The 2024 ACC/AAAE Planning, Design and Construction Symposium in Salt Lake City, Utah on March 5th through 7th is featuring the new Innovation Track. This track is a combination of AAAE, Innovation topics, and heavy Young Professionals involvement. Please join us today to hear about the session topics and thoughts that went into making robust and relevant topics for all age groups.The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 14 – Laura Canham, Amanda Sheridan, and Abigail See Transcript   [Introduction] TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura Canham: This episode is part of the passenger experience headers hosted by ACC's Terminal and Facilities Committee in this series. We are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics such as the U.S. population, aging and becoming more multicultural, new technologies, labor, and supply chain. Shortages and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us in the Hold Room.   [Interview] Max Vale: Welcome back to the Hold Room, everyone. I'm Max. Kisa Hanlon: And I’m Kisa. Max: And we're very excited today to talk with the hosts of the Innovation Track for the AAAE/ACC Planning, Design, and Construction Symposium happening in March 2024 in Salt Lake City. We've got Laura, Amanda, and Abigail with us, who are the hosts. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourselves. Laura: Thanks Max. I'm Laura Canham with McFarland Johnson. I am an aviation planning project manager here and I'm the host for the Innovation Track. So very excited to be here today. Amanda Sheridan: And I am Amanda Sheridan. I'm also with McFarland Johnson. And I'm helping Laura as the YP track host for the Innovation Track. Also very excited to be. Abigail See: And I'm Abigail See. I’m an associate managing consultant with Jacobsen│Daniels, and I'm happy to be helping out with one of the innovation YP tracks for this year's Symposium. Laura: And one person who was not able to make it is Molly Statler. We don't want to forget her because she's been instrumental throughout this process. Kisa: Awesome. Well, I know we want to dive right in there. I think the Innovation Track is one of the most exciting and also challenging. I think if you're probably the host to keep coming up with what are the innovative topics that everyone wants to hear about. So going right into it, I guess we'd like to hear what do you all have planned for this upcoming Symposium. Laura: Thank you, Kisa. Yeah, we’re really excited about this. So, this year is the first year that we're doing the Innovation Track. It used to be the mini track and now we're a full-fledged track in and of itself. And so as part of that, there are five sessions. The first one is going to be coordinated through the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) and we are just as curious as you as to what that workshop is going to be. But some of our items. So, we're going to have a couple of people speak because we have it split up that the young professionals are organizing two of the sessions and then Amanda and I are doing the other two and continue to communicate throughout the process. To make sure we have a good balance of all the different topics. So, the first one I'm going to talk about is sustainable culture change and we want to make sure that the aviation industry is more inclusive, more diverse and how we get there. So, some of the really cool things that are going on, we're hoping to build upon AAAE’s inclusion in aviation conference that just happened a couple weeks ago and continuing to move that topic forward because it is such a relevant topic in our industry. To be able to find more diverse younger workforce with the focus on underrepresented groups and looking at the future leaders and if the future leaders of any company are not seeing themselves in the workforce, they are less likely to come work for those consulting firms, airports, and different contractors. And so we really want to focus on having successful strategies in place and methodologies that we can use to move that forward active tools to foster a more diverse and inclusive workforce and kind of learning from other people's experiences, both the challenges, the lessons learned, things to be aware of. Just really be more intentional in mentoring and fostering both economic and professional growth. Another workshop that Molly has been organizing, and she's not able to be here today, is the opportunities for artificial intelligence and aviation to develop innovative solutions for planning and design specifically. And you know, this is really cool of being able to coordinate together with young professionals and being able to incorporate such robust and relevant topics into our Innovation Track because this is the forefront of where we are. There is no question that AI is going to be part of our lives. And so keeping that in mind, and understanding how it can be a benefit for airport planning and design, but also understanding what some of the challenges and limitations might be where we need to focus some attention. So, hoping to have a thought-provoking discussion to talk both from the developers of AI to different airport applications. So, we'll have airport representation and the consulting side and really getting the full breadth of what might be going on through the planning and design using. And then also real world application of how it's been successful, how it has been improving efficiency and again what kind of lessons learned and challenges do we need to be able to consider throughout this process. Kisa: Awesome. Thank you, Laura. That sounds great. Amanda, can you go ahead and tell us about your session? Amanda: Yeah. And I was actually just going to add to Laura's. I think a cool part of the YP sessions this year, that is a little bit different in the past, is they're not specifically geared toward YPs, so the YPs are organizing them, and there's YP's moderating and on the panels in some cases. But we're hoping that people who are not YP's are also attending these sessions because they're definitely going to be applicable to everyone. And it's on topics like AI that YPs are probably a little bit more versed and then some of the older conference attendees. So hopefully that should be really cool to see. So, another session that we will be hosting is going to be transforming operational problem statements into technology solutions. So, this is interesting because it gives a little bit of a different spin on things. It's actually giving us real world examples of solutions that airports and consultants have developed for operational problems with technology. I'm not naming any names yet, but one of the topics that we're going to talk about is an airport that we'll be discussing an IT master plan that they developed. So, it's just a little bit of thinking outside of the box and learning the importance of data intelligence and how it is playing into our industry. Kisa: Great. No, that sounds amazing. Abigail, we'd love to hear from you as well on your session. Abigail: Yeah, thanks. I'm helping organize a session on YPs raising their professional profile on. While at a glance it might not seem like it's directly innovation and technology related as people would think in the traditional sense. It definitely falls under the innovation category because as we're seeing across the industry, a lot of these senior leadership are retiring and there's not necessarily an obvious or an easy way or path forward for leadership across all kinds of organizations. Be that public or private. So really, businesses are trying to, having to, innovate their younger staff, emerging leaders. And so this session is really focused on that group of people. People from all levels of experience who are looking towards helping develop their own organizations. So, we are having a YP moderate the session and it will be their first opportunity to moderate a session and participate. So, I think it's fantastic way to get YP's involved. You know it's on exactly what the session topic is about and we're looking to feature quite a few different panelists from federal, airport, and consulting firms. So we're looking to have a wide range of panelists speak about what that's like raising your professional profile across all different types of organization. Max: That all sounds great. Something I think is interesting is that this is the innovation track. And when people say innovation, they typically talking about technology advancements. But half of the sessions that we just talked about are about the softer side of the workplace, about creating a more sustainable culture and raising your professional profiles, so. Amanda: Well, and that was actually something that Laura and I consciously discussed because we had gotten a few proposals that walked the line between diversity and innovation. We’re like: I think this is the right place for it, so we're excited about that too. Kisa: I think that's great. You guys almost did an innovative take on an innovation track. So well done. Max: Yeah, fair point. Very meta. So what sessions are each of you most excited about? Laura: That one is so hard. I've been thinking about that. There are so many cool things, right? Technology changes and how they impact the passenger experience. I mean, with COVID going through passenger experience has been at the forefront of some of the terminal changes that are happening at airports. So that one is really neat. Obviously, continuously moving in the right direction, so having a more diverse and sustainable work culture is huge and needs to be talked about. I mean, they they're all really good because you want to make sure that we give, like you said, Max, the soft skills to people who

We are kicking off a new part of our season to talk about the upcoming 2024 ACC/AAAE Planning, Design and Construction Symposium in Salt Lake City, Utah on March 5th through 7th. The next few episodes will include interviews with the track hosts as well as conference leadership. Please join us today to talk to the Terminal and Landside Track hosts Enrique Melendez and Jack Walfish.The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 13 – Enrique Melendez and Jack Walfish Transcript   [Introduction] TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura Canham: This episode is part of the passenger experience headers hosted by ACC's Terminal and Facilities Committee in this series. We are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics such as the U.S. population, aging and becoming more multicultural, new technologies, labor, and supply chain. Shortages and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us in the Hold Room.   [Interview] Laura: Hello everyone and welcome back to the Hold Room. I'm Laura, your host for today, and today we're going to kick off a little bit of a new part of our season which talks to each of the track hosts for the 2024 AAAE-ACC Airport Planning, Design, and Construction Symposium. So this conference takes place in Salt Lake City, UT from March 5th through 7th of 2024. It's a combined conference between the American Association of Airport Executives and the Airport Consultant Council. And so we're here to talk today about terminal and landside track host. So why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourselves. Enrique Melendez: OK, great. Thank you, Laura. I'm Enrique Melendez. I'm the senior special assistant consultant for the JW Group. I basically provide technology, business consulting to the airport industry at the C-level and beyond, if you will. My background is I've worked with airlines, I've worked with airports, I've worked with TSA, CBP, all around the world. So, I just bring many years of aviation experience at airports dealing with technology solutions and that's a quick summary of my background. Personally, I am electrical engineer by education. Jack Walfish: And I, I'm Jack Walfish. I'm a principal with the JW Group. I've been in the industry for about 17 years. That entire time is spent on the technology, IT systems, IT infrastructure, planning, design, construction support, taking our clients through the entire process of that. You know, I know I'm the young professional. I just turned 40 in August. So, I just made the cut off. Happy to be here. Thanks. Laura: All right, so tell. Us a little bit about your sessions. Enrique: OK. Yeah. Well, let me tell you. First of all, it was a hard mix of inputs we got. Many inputs and then we had to decide which topics we thought would be interesting and we discussed them internally. So let's talk about the first workshop. The first workshop was focused on the digital identification checking. The reason I thought it would be a great topic is it's new in terms of doing the biometrics that check in. All you hear about on pilots recently. Last several years around the world been focused on air exit, the boarding gates and to some extent at the security checking. This is more focused than the passenger checking at the ticketing lobby. To make it touchless self-service and without an agent if you will and Delta of kind pioneered a pilot and there have been operational Atlanta airport and the Detroit and they're expanding to two other airports before the end of the year. So as a result, I thought that would be a great topic. And so we're gonna have some airlines airport and talk about the program they have and how they see the future. And the challenges with that program and how airports and consultants could start designing in that environment. That's the first workshop session. Jack: So, the second one is called Wheels Up: The New Flight Path for Post Pandemic Terminals. You know, obviously we've seen a lot of changes since the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic, we've seen a lot of changes in the way that retail and hospitality and you know, all sorts of business have changed how they operate. And so what this session is going to be doing is talking to some of the industry experts within aviation and also beyond to see what they've learned and what's being done. The different trends that are occurring out there and how we can bring that into terminal design for airports and kind of shape the new experience for our passengers. Enrique: Yeah, just let me add to that. I I think what's really exciting about this session is we'll have people from outside the industry to share their perspective. And how the trends they're seeing in other industries may apply to the airport industry in terms of design of future terminals. So, it's kind of exciting. The next workshop number 3 is Innovation in Aviation: The future of Mass Timber. I think that's really a cool topic dealing with mass timber construction. You know, we're so used too many years of steel and iron construction. And the wood frames has kind of got out the door in terms of timber and the natural look and it doesn't have to be a northwest airport. You know, in terms of Northwestern part of United States, there's a lot of forests. I mean, you could apply a timber in any building in any region. So, we decided that's a good topic. We're going to have a session on the topic where the panel is going to talk about recent capital programs with airports using timber, so that'll be exciting. And the challenges with that, that go along and lessons learned, that's what workshop #3. Jack: Number 4 is related to the Portland Terminal core redevelopment. Specifically, we're looking at the roof installation. You know, we just talked about previous session has timber, so it's using local timber there in Oregon to build this beautiful new roof in Portland and sustainability being a a key aspect of that and optimizing daylight and reducing the cost of energy required to have that in the main terminal facility there in Portland, and Enrique. Anything to add to that? Enrique: Yeah. I mean, the thing is going to be more about the roof installation and the challenge of installing a roof over an existing terminal that's operating. So, from an implementation construction perspective, the session will focus on that topic. So, we'll have the airport there along with some of the consultants involved in the project to talk about their experience and lessons learned. So that should be a good session. The last session is one that really was was developed from two different inputs from the industry. Originally, we saw inputs on physical art at airports and the other one was multimedia rich dynamic displays. And so we decided to blend it two and how you can use both physical art and multi reach media to create a sense of place at an airport. So this topic we'll we'll talk about both topics and I think we have several airports lined up. We have a vendor and that'll be another interesting topic to show you, how art is changing the environment at airports today and the use of central art and in terms of exhibits and also how displays and technology is being used in a dynamic fashion to create a local sense of place for a customer and enhancing the passenger experience. So that's the last session. Laura: Wow, that encompasses a lot of different things. Quite the plethora between art, passenger experience, sustainability, how to operate phasing of having an existing structure being used while a new roof is being put on. And I want to hear first what you're most excited about coming up. Jack: I'll go first, Enrique, so you don't steal mine. Mine, mine’s definitely the the blending the art and immersive multimedia. I'm definitely excited about that and especially having representation from some of the top industry experts on that type of passenger experience, I think there's a lot that can be gained from people attending that. Enrique: Well, I'm actually excited about all those sessions. Because in a way, unlike in the past, we used to have a technology track that was separate from the other track, like terminal landside, planning engineering. Now with the importance of technology we've been able to blend within the terminal land side, the topic of technology. So that's why I'm excited about. Because I do have the technology background, even though I understand the brick-and-mortar side of airport planning and design and implementation. That's what I'm excited about that that finally the industry sees the importance of the role of technology in enhancing the passenger experience and making airports more efficient. Laura: So going backwards a little bit, I wanted to see if you are able to give us a little bit more detail. I think it was about Session 2 where you talked about outside trends and how they influence aviation or how they might start influencing aviation. And if you could give us a little bit more of a tidbit for that session. Enrique: Sure, I mean, we do already have the the kind of firms that we'll be speaking with. I’m not sure I can announce that at this point. But you know we have Airbnb is planning to speak. We have Google, a couple others. The point is that we're looking at hospitality. We're looking at retail. We're looking at Wellness. We're looking at mobility; employees. We're looking at every component that exists in an airport and how these components and other decisions entries have changed. Especially if you go to design a facility like a terminal facility. So that's where that's the focus of it. That's what's gonna make it exciting. I think there'll be a lot of insight to gain from the session coming from inputs from other industries. Especially from an architectural perspective or plann

Dan Seeley and Allison Hawk talk about the Tampa International Airport changes including installing an Express Lane for passengers with only carry-on bags. The conversation centered around finding this creative solution and how best to phase construction while maintaining operation and the challenges of new construction coming within close proximity to existing structures.

Today Carrie is joined by Airport Consultant Members Matthew Wenham of C&S Companies, Belinda Hargrove of TransSolutions and Linell Olecki of AECOM to hear about their experiences at ACC Annual. This year’s conference is in Vancouver, Canada November 1st-3rd. To learn why attending ACC Annual is a valuable experience, please give this episode a listen to hear from ACC members of their experiences and what they have gained from attending the ACC Annual Conferences in the past.

Today Carrie and Laura are joined by Hersh Parekh, Director of Government and Community Relations at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who shares insights into successful Community relations, what goes into setting WBE goals, benefits of having local employees, and some of the upcoming programs. The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 10 – Hersh Parekh Transcript [Introduction] TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura Canham: This episode is part of the passenger experience headers hosted by ACC's Terminal and Facilities Committee in this series. We are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics such as the US population, aging and becoming more multicultural, new technologies, labor and supply chain. Shortages and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us in the Hold Room. Paula Nguyen: Welcome back to the Hold Room. Today Carrie and Laura are joined by Hersh Parekh, Director of Government and Community Relations at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who shares insights into successful Community relations, what goes into setting WBE goals, benefits of having local employees, and some of the upcoming programs. [Interview] Laura: Welcome back to the Hold Room. We are excited to talk today to Hersh the Port Authority of New York, New Jersey. Hersh, would you like to take a few moments and introduce yourself? Hersh Parekh: My name is Hersh Parekh. I’m the Director of Government and Community Relations for New York at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Glad to be here. Laura: We’re glad to have you. So tell us a little bit more about your role at the Port Authority. Any, you know, previous experience goals for the industry and what kind of neat things you're involved in right now. Hersh: Sure, so the Port Authority, by virtue of its name, is a bi-state entity that operates, runs, manages many of the regions’ most important transportation infrastructure facilities. Everything from our major airports, which we're here to talk about today, such as LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy, and Newark Liberty, along with two smaller airports: Teterboro and Stuart. But we also own the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan. We own and operate some of the major crossings between New York and New Jersey, such as the George Washington Bridge, the Lincoln Tunnel, Holland Tunnel. We operate the country’s second largest seaport, the Port of New York and New Jersey. So, we have a very diverse holding of assets and facilities within the Port Authority’s portfolio. And so what my role is as the Director of Government and Community relations for the New York side is to make sure that we are engaging with our elected officials, our governmental partners, but also groups in the communities. Everything from Chambers of Commerce to civic associations to religious groups to community boards, so on and so forth. Because many of our facilities also often sit within communities and neighborhoods, and it's important that we establish a strong relationship and manage and maintain those relationships with those communities and elected officials. Because the operations of our facilities oftentimes will impact our neighbors. Whether that's from construction when we are embarking on some capital projects or just traffic related to customers coming to and from our facilities. And so it's important that we have a strong connection to our neighbors. It's important that we are working with them. It's important that they are aware of what's happening at our facilities and it's important that they aren't just in some ways. Suffering from the impacts of living next to these facilities but also accruing some of the benefits that come with living near those facilities, and so that's the role that that I play. And my team, we played to make sure that those relationships are there, that those dialogues are happening regularly and that we're trying our best to be good neighbors to the communities where our facilities are. Carrie Wojcik: That's great. Thank you for elaborating on your role and just some of the facilities that you're currently working with. Related to diversity community engagement, ensuring that you're being good neighbors as you put it. What are some of the goals specific to those initiatives? Maybe there's specific projects you're working on related to that. Could you elaborate more on those initiatives and how you're hoping to influence the community. Hersh: Yeah, absolutely. With respect to our major airport projects, just for the audiences’ awareness, we do have three major redevelopment programs occurring at our three major airports. So, we are reimagining rebuilding Newark Airport, LaGuardia Airport, and John F. Kennedy Airports. My focus is specifically on LaGuardia and Kennedy. And just for context, we are at the last stages of the LaGuardia redevelopment program, which was a billion dollar public private partnership to build a whole new LaGuardia Airport. Every single passenger facility was ripped up, torn down, and rebuilt, except for the historically landmarked Marine Air terminal. But we also rebuilt the entire network of roadways. We rebuilt the utility infrastructure, the parking garages. Everything on the airport except for the runways and the taxiways was part of the redevelopment of LaGuardia. And the results speak for themselves. LaGuardia's new Terminal B was just ranked by Skytrax as the best terminal in receiving the five-star rating, and so we're very proud of what we're doing at LaGuardia and our next big project at the airports is JFK Airport, which is really in the middle of construction now. So the LaGuardia was 8 billion, John F Kennedy redevelopment program is $19 billion of redevelopment. Also, a public private partnership between the Port Authority and and many terminal developers to again reimagine JFK to unify the terminals, to modernize the terminals, and really improve the customer experience in a dramatic way. So, we're very excited about what's to come at JFK, but that's just the background, right? Really to your question, Carrie, how do we do these projects in a way that it's not just building or rebuilding an airport, but also doing it in a way that can benefit the diverse communities that live near our airports. Both LaGuardia and Kennedy sit in historically disadvantaged minority environmental justice communities, and they are bearing the brunt of everything from traffic that would would come with not just the redevelopment airport, but obviously when you have two major airports, there's traffic that comes with that. So, what can we do to make sure they're not just bearing the brunt, but they're also able to take advantage of the benefits? And there's a couple of ways that we do that. One is something that we're incredibly proud of, which is our commitment to minority and women and local business, enterprise participation at our airports. So that's M/WBE and LBE participation. We have a 30% MWBE participation. And what that means is 20% minority and 10% women owned businesses. And these are businesses that are often left behind or are not part of these mega infrastructure projects. And we did a disparity study that showed that the availability of minority and women owned businesses versus the utilization of those businesses is not where it needs to be. And so with these goals we require our private terminal. Partners to ensure 30% of the contracts are going to M/WBE's. But we also took it a step further and said not just MWBE's, but let's really try to focus on the hyper local businesses that operate near the airports. Again, these are businesses that should be benefiting from what's happening in their own backyard. Whether it's trucking or architecture and design or even security services and catering. I mean anything under the sun are things that you would need at an airport. So really having that hyper local focus is something that we have put up as a priority. And the results once again speak for themselves. At LaGuardia, we achieved with our private partners over $2 billion participation by minority and women owned businesses, which is a record in the state of New York. And we know that we're going to far surpass that at JFK as that project moves forward. So, it's a record we're very proud of, but it's something that we treat as an equal priority to the things that we spoke about when it comes to the customer experience and building world class facility. In addition to business participation, we also look at local hiring and something like that benefits both the airport and local communities. As an airport employer, you want your employees to be close to their place of work because that's gonna make them get to work on time, ensure that the airport can operate efficiently and and effectively. But also if you're a local resident you want to be able to work in your backyard. That reduces your commuting time. That gives you a sense of pride of this major asset in your community. We also have one of the higher minimum wages for all on-airport employees. In the state of New York, the minimum wage is $15.00, but at our airports our minimum wage is $19.00. And so it's important, you know, for for local residents to be able to work in their backyards, take advantage and benefit from these historic investments coming into their communities. Laura: That's really incredible and I was going to ask you about the 30% and how successful it is, but you already hit it, so that's great. I guess I want to talk a little bit more about the community engagement aspect that you mentioned. What is usually your strategy with projects on community engagement you had mentioned the local area you want to be able to make sure that they see some of the positive impacts of it, not just the negative. So, I wa

Today Max is joined by Carrie Shaeffer, Director of Aviation at Swinerton Builders and Board Members for the Airport Consultants Council. In this episode, Carrie shares best practices for managing a construction project at an airport and highlights the benefits of being involved with the Airport Consultants Council. The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 9 Transcript TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura: This episode is part of the Passenger Experience series hosted by ACC’s Terminal and Facilities Committee. In this series, we are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics (such as the U.S. population aging and becoming more multi-cultural), new technologies, labor and supply chain shortages, and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us in the Hold Room! Paula: Welcome back to The Hold Room. Today Max is joined by Carrie Shaeffer, Director of Aviation at Swinerton Builders and Board Members for the Airport Consultants Council. In this episode, Carrie shares best practices for managing a construction project at an airport and highlights the benefits of being involved with the Airport Consultants Council. Max: Welcome to the hold room, everyone. We are excited to have Carrie Schaeffer here with Swinerton. Carrie, could you go ahead and introduce yourself and what you do on a day-to-day basis? Carrie: Sure thing, I'm Carrie Shaeffer. I'm a Vice President at Swinerton. We are a construction company that primarily deals in construction management at list and design build. We still performed several trades, including mass timber and cross laminated timber through our group called Timberline. I personally have been in construction for 35 years, and I've been the National Director focused 100% on aviation at Swinerton for the last five years. In addition to that, I chair ACC's Finance and Project Delivery Committee this year, and I joined the Board of Directors for ACC back in the fall of 2022, very much enjoying that experience. Max: Awesome! What are some of the evolving trends that you're seeing these days in airport construction projects? Carrie: A big overall concern of airports right now is the concept of stability, and for us, from the construction point of view, this includes constant accessibility, no hiccups at all in security because building systems are going down or communications are going down because of construction projects. We have to recognize that we have to keep the airport operations flowing or else the passenger experience will definitely be affected, and a good construction manager contributes to the design and engineering of the new facility by performing really thorough investigations. It’s amazing what one finds below an airport. Sometimes it's pieces of the old airport and the old airfield, but usually it's a maze of old abandoned utilities and then more modern utility distribution running through that. – and I would note that there are some great emerging multimodal technologies for better modeling the underground space, which is really exciting thing for us and planning construction. Max: Would that be technologies like BIM? Carrie: Yes, when I say multimodal, there are a few companies out there that are combining ground penetrating radar and other scanning techniques that have been used. They're enhanced now so they can use them pointed underground and we can actually use them to model. Max: Are you more focused on, say, airfield construction or terminal construction, land side construction, or all the above? Carrie: That's one thing we don't do the airfield piece. We rely on our partners to do the flat work, but other than that, we touch pretty much every other aspect of the airport from the passenger boarding bridge all the way backwards to the curbside and even airport parking structures as another specialty of ours here at Swinerton. Max: What are some of the biggest changes that you think you've seen as time has gone on in terms of how say, how the passenger experience is coming into the consideration of various construction projects on airports? Carrie: I would say the evolution, especially on a multi-phase project where functions may move around the past may change from time to time, that planning is best done with a comprehensive set of stakeholders. Certainly including all the usual players, AEC industry and airport operations and security, but, also, in airports now accessibility and inclusion officers. We’re really hoping we've learned our lesson as an industry and now we know we need to plan for the less common traveler than the weekly business traveler. One of our field operations manager says he tries to think about if his grandma were traveling alone. So, when we're planning these pieces, we're striving to offset any negative impact to the passenger experience by the construction process. So when we're planning our means and methods, we look for solutions that actually enhance that by maybe easing some anxiety or building excitement for the project. All of this coming through communications. We often have to create a temporary environment in order to create that new permanent space. So if we select the right materials and create the right communications plans, passengers will still travel through the airport process from curbside to sitting in their seat without confusion. Big, bold, clear wayfinding and informational graphics and great lighting are essential to these temporary measures. We know that more and more airports are allowing their communications directors to drive this process, along with architects and builders, as opposed to keeping those airport functions segregated as in the past. Max: So temporary facilities that I saw recently was traveling at Portland International Airport. They're building their whole T-Core project right now, and because of that, they no longer have an airside connector between concourses B and C and D and E, and so they have these temporary wings that kind of go around and connect B to C and D to E. That would be one example of a project that works as kind of an interim? Carrie: Exactly and Portland has gotten, you know, really some of their graphics and communications are kind of playful, and they are that part that I was talking about helping to build the excitement for what's to come. Almost everybody likes to peek into a construction site and see what's going on. We really do like to bring that practice inside the airport. I really recommend and like to employ both low-tech and high-tech communications when change is happening. I'm talking about putting cheerful, friendly personnel posted human beings with stickers and cookies to hand out at the point of change of the flow. Long Beach Airport, our expansion there is a good example of this. Whenever there was a new phase put in place, that place [Long Beach Airport] looked like a party was going on to greet those like first guests and help guide them through their new flow of check in the bag check and all the way through the security checkpoint. They almost felt celebrated, I hope, by the actions of the airport and our team. Max: On one hand, there's the technical and the hard side of the construction, physical infrastructure and the financing and all that stuff. But then there's the softer side, which is the messaging and the communication to the past, like you were talking about, getting passengers excited for this new facility that is going to enhance their experience. Is that something that Swinerton does, or do you collaborate with partners? Carrie: Definitely, we do. We really recognize that while what we're doing is delivering construction and permanent structures, what it really is all about is relationships. So, the more that we as a project delivery team can all get behind one mission and do what's best for the project, which means what's best for the ultimate end user, the better it's going to be for everybody. It's easier to make decisions that way - when you have one definition of success. We all know that during the actual construction phase, it's rare for it to go exactly as planned. What we really have to do is remember that we are problem solvers, and we have to really carefully choose not just our field management, but the field supervision of all of the trade partners and make sure that the right personalities are out there - they are good problem solvers and they are proactive. For example, some element may be impacted and addressing it right away and being willing to go do whatever it takes to address it on the spot. That kind of on-the-fly problem solving, that practice especially comes into play on the mini-Delta sky clubs that we have updated. It's really difficult to anticipate the number of guests at any certain time or any certain day, and, also, the arrival of provisions because of that fluctuation. So, in a process like that, I mean we have to always be ready to reorder or even suspend our activities mid-pass to allow that experience to be better for the passengers; therefore, better for the client, therefore better for us. Max: To what extent do you think passengers are aware of all this behind the scenes work? Carrie: I think that passengers are just really wanting to get where they want to go and anything that is not as anticipated is going to cause stress for them, so I think primarily it's probably the airport that takes the brunt if someone's unhappy. So that's one of the big measurables that we [Swinerton] use. Getting immediate report from the airport if they receive some complaint or concern. We want that direct line of communication to us so that it's immediate, so if there is any chance to address it. Now, sometimes things change at the airport itself, and that can easily affect what we're doing and our construction schedules. When lots and lo

Joining Anita and Carrie in the Hold Room, Dan Barton with InterVISTAS gives an overview of the airport rental car industry. He talks about recent airport rental car market trends, recent and emerging technologies, rental car fleet electrification and its impact on the power grid, and how electrification factors into the passenger experience. Episode Transcription: https://training.acconline.org/thr-s2-e8

Today Carrie and Max from ACC are joined by Laura Benson Jones and Annabelle Klein from the Executive Board at Flight Club 502. In this episode Laura and Annabelle will discuss strategies for engaging young individuals on topics related to aviation from engineering to becoming a pilot. They are helping develop future leaders, while promoting engagement in the industry. The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 7 – Flight Club 502 Laura Benson Jones and Annabelle Klein Transcript [Introduction] TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura Canham: This episode is part of the passenger experience headers hosted by ACC's Terminal and Facilities Committee in this series. We are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics such as the US population, aging and becoming more multicultural, new technologies, labor and supply chain. Shortages and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us. Paula Nguyen: Today, Carrie and Max from ACC are joined by Laura Benson Jones and Annabelle Klein from the Executive Board at Flight Club 502. In this episode, Laura and Annabelle will discuss strategies for engaging young individuals on topics related to aviation from engineering to becoming a pilot. They are helping develop future leaders while promoting engagement in the industry. [Interview] Max Vale: Welcome back to The Hold Room, everyone. Today, we're very excited to have Laura Jones and Annabelle Klein with us from Flight Club 502 based out of Louisville, KY. Laura Jones: Hi, I'm Laura Benson Jones and I'm an airline transport pilot. I've been flying airplanes since 1985. I sort of retired about seven years ago. I work part-time is more of a consultant for aviation, aerospace education and for corporate air travel, and we started a nonprofit here in Louisville, KY, called Flight Club 502, and it's been an amazing volunteer opportunity. We started Flight Club 502 in 2015 because those of us who were rehired from the aerospace industry wanted to make available lessons in aviation to inspire teenagers to really excel at science, technology, engineering, and math. And we really wanted to inspire the teenagers to be leaders for America tomorrow. And for us, that meant reaching down and lifting up those 8- to 12-year-olds because they're watching the older kids and we think it's important for our teenagers to take on the responsibilities of being a leader and the last piece we built into flight club, there's four fundamentals of flight club. The fourth piece is patriotism. It's been an amazing journey. We started with eight girls in October of 2015 and my son said that why is it that only girls can fly? And why is aviation so gender bias? They didn't understand that really most of the commercial aviators are male, but nevertheless we decided not to be a gender biased organization and we brought boys on. Today our organization has 400 members ages 13 to 21 and those kids served an additional 1,200 kids outside of our organization through outreach programming last year. Annabelle Klein: And I'm Annabelle Klein. I was the 1st President at Flight Club 502 when I was a junior in high school. And it's just insane how much it's grown. It's really become full circle. I got my private pilot's license in 2017 and then I went off to college, did my thing in Nashville. And when I got married last year and we moved back to Louisville. And just fell back in love with this organization. And it's a full circle because now I work here full time, which is a dream come true. It's the most fun job in the entire world. I get to hang out with all these people that love aviation, inspire these teenagers, and be a mentor towards them. They get to see airplanes every day and get to talk to really cool people that know a lot about the aviation industry. Max Vale: I'm curious about Flight Club 502's mission and what exactly its purpose is. Could you talk a little bit about that? Laura Jones: You know, we developed Flight Club 502 to build leaders for America tomorrow. We weren't really thinking about building an aerospace workforce. However, what we've found is that by introducing aviation to these children as young as eight years old. That I think currently we have 42 of our members and engineering programs across the country. We have, I think it was like 37 who are in commercial flight training programs and it’s amazing to me. But I'm just giving you a rough idea that we have young people who are pursuing aviation as a career, even one of our young people had an internship with Textron and she's a marketer, but she wanted to stay in the aerospace industry and she was actually one of our founding members. We started our nonprofit we wanted to build, build people, and we want to give these young people a safe place to come. And we want to give them a community that not only offers them mentors, engineers, mechanics, pilots, retired military pilots and personnel. We're connecting teenagers with mentors and what we've seen is that with the mentorship, the kids are excelling. We're seeing them actually have direction at an early age and they seem to really care about the younger gen. and that peer-to-peer mentorship that the teenagers do for their younger generation, the 8- to 12-year-olds Junior Flight Club, has been really amazing piece to. Currently we have 6 airplanes and 70 adult volunteers, and I think we've had something like around 92 that have obtained their pilots license. That's pretty impressive. Carrie Wojcik: That's very impressive. What do you think are some of the challenges for young people to get involved? In aviation, whether it's being a pilot or other aspects of the market, but just from your experience interacting with children who are interested in this line of work, what are some of the challenges you think they're facing? Annabelle Klein: That's part of the reason we started Flight Club 502 is because this original group of eight girls: We wanted to fly. And luckily, I knew who Laura and we all had a connection to her. And she's like, OK, round you all up after school and we'll start a little club just talking about ground school stuff. It's really hard for people who have no connection to aviation to get involved and that's part of what Flight Club 502 does with all these outreach programs we do. We tell them it's an available resource and we are here to help you find your path. Laura Jones: I agree with Annabelle. I think it's just about exposure. We're open to all kids and this program offer outreach to elementary, middle school and high schools. And as a result, we have kids from every economic background. We have girls and boys. We might have more girls than boys here. Annabelle Klein: At least 50/50 girls and boys, which is incredible. Laura Jones: The biggest, the most important piece to our organization are our volunteers, because volunteers make this opportunity available for the kids in our community. Annabelle Klein: And a lot of the kids are first generation pilot. I come from a family of pilots, but most of our kids, their parents have never touched an airplane other than a big commercial jet that they go to Florida for vacation in. I think that's also really important is to bring in new pilots and expose as many kids and teenagers to this industry as possible. Laura Jones: We don't care if these kids become pilots. We just want the kids to do well in school because if they do well in school, they might be able to be an engineer and build airports. Max Vale: Yeah, we're always looking to add to the aviation workforce. You both started talking about this gender equity with respect to the aviation industry. You know, Flight Club 502, it's about 50/50 and that's quite impressive. What kind of structural barriers do you feel like are in the way for people who are not men to get involved in this industry? Why does that happen? Laura Jones: I'm flying since 1985 and I do sit on the women in Aviation Advisory Board and they've been examining these issues. For me, I didn't have a barrier to entry. I've never had a problem having a seat at the table. I feel like many of my friends who didn't want to get involved in aviation, perhaps it was just the exposure piece that Annabelle mentioned. Some women that I knew when I was growing up, might have just wanted to stay at home with their family and not on the road. Tor us here, we just really haven't seen a barrier to entry. We haven't seen a lot of obstacles. We think the main thing to get girls interested or minorities interested in aviation is just the exposure piece. Annabelle Klein: And my mentor, like I saw Laura and I was like oh my gosh. She's awesome! And she's a pilot. I grew up with a woman pilot and her sons were thinking, oh, all pilots are female. Like it's just. Laura Jones: Isn't your POV? Everyone's point of view is different based on where they are. So that's why I hate to weigh in very strongly because I definitely think that there are people who've had different experiences than we've had here in Kentucky. But here in Kentucky, the kids literally think it's normal, they think all kids fly. Max Vale: That's awesome. Normalization of it doesn't matter where you come from or what your background is. If you're interested in aviation, then you're interested in aviation. Laura Jones: We're hoping that our one touch of picking kids up in an airplane or showing them that they can build a plane will positively impact them because we know that those touches they get from their peers in school could be negative. And we know that teenagers, they're #1 influencer it's not their mom and dad, it's their peers. And we have to understand that if we want to see a better workforce, then it's going to require that all of us step up to the plate and find a place to get involved, where we help build our teen

Today’s episode comes from the 2023 ACC/AAAE Planning, Design, and Construction Symposium in Anaheim, California. Laura Canham and Carrie Wojcik asked people about diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility and they delivered! Here’s what we learned from Cole Hartfiel, Senior Airport Planner at Sacramento County Department of Airports; Tambre Moten, Airport Accessibility Manager at Houston Airport Systems; Sri Kumar, CEO/President at Connico; and Eric Lipp, Executive Director at Open Doors Organization. The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 6 – Live at Symposium 2023 Transcript [Introduction] TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura Canham: Hello and thank you for joining us. We are here today at the 2023 ACC and AAAE Symposium in Anaheim, CA and interviewing people throughout the day to see what kind of changes they're making to the airports for diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility and the changing demographic. Or other ideas that they've seen throughout the day. So, thank you very much for joining us today. Cole Hartfiel: Hi, my name is Cole Hartfiel. I work for the Sacramento County Department of Airports. I'm a senior airport planner there and excited to tell you about the customer experience at Sacramento that we're trying to improve for those with low visibility or no visibility at all. So, there's a program that we just recently subscribed to us called AIRA, A-I-R-A, and we're really excited about we brought the community in to test, drive it, to roll through. One of the things we had heard was getting to different areas that have ADA compliance may be difficult for those with low vision, mostly because: how do they know where the placards on the wall are in the first place? So, one of the things that we use AIRA for. It's a program where the airport pays for it and then allows the users to be able to access it by connecting with someone who is their live. So they have a live representative through AIRA that we pay for through the system. It's an annual subscription. And they can hold their phone up wherever this is low-vis, no-vis, or even someone with difficulty hearing. They can still take their phone and hold it out, and it uses their camera to show the operator where they are. So then the operator can give them directions as to how to get to the airport from the moment they arrive within our sphere of, I think, it's our wireless network. Once they hit that, they can subscribe. They don't have to even subscribe, they can just call in. Get it. And then go all the way from curb to gate. And it's really exciting because that's something we needed to bring to our customers for a long time and it's just showing some way that Sacramento is trying to build and grow with our community moving forward, especially with any of our expansions coming up. Laura: So how are you implementing this? For example, how are you if somebody comes to your airport, how are they? Going to know that this service even. Cole: Right. So, on our website, we do have our accessibility options available. And on there they should be able to find the knowledge behind that. It'll let them know, hey, this is where you can find it. And so definitely check that out. SMF.aero, there's a plug. That's for our International Airport. We don't quite have it at our other three airports at the moment, but at least for the customers experience, SMF Sacramento International Airport, they'll be able to utilize that. Laura: Thank you. Tambre Moten: Hi, my name is Tambre Moten. I'm the Houston Airports Accessibility Manager. Glad to be here. Laura: We're so happy to have you. So tell us a little. Bit about what you're seeing at airports. That's really cool for DEIA. If you're seeing any changes or have anything upcoming that you're thinking of for addressing change in demographics. Anything along those lines this that would be great. Tambre: Well, I really feel like the role that I do at the Airport as an accessibility manager is expanding our reach when it comes to our customers. I'm seeing a lot more travelers with disabilities through our terminals and being able to provide better amenities to them, it means that there's going to be a lot more coming. Some of the things that we plan to create more sensory rooms. I know that we just did all of our service animal relief areas, so customers that are traveling with their service animals, they don't have to go out of the security area. They can stay inside the terminals and make sure that their service animal is good to go. For those with intellectual and developmental disabilities or low vision, they can use AIRA service. And then for mothers, lactating mothers, we have nursing facilities that are very, very comfortable. I'm also a nursing mother, so I remember when I was traveling to go see my dad, I also used our nursing rooms and they're super comfortable. So, I just feel like the different steps and amenities that we're adding to our airport, they make it to where we can welcome anyone to our airport. So mothers that are nursing, aging populations by making sure that the ramps and things like that are accessible, so that wheelchair service providers can do their jobs. Service animals can come through. I'm super excited for us to create those sensory rooms because I feel like those that are neurodivergent and have autism they'll be also welcomed into the airports and find that comfortable space and being able to access travel. One other one is a companion care facility for those that need to use a universal design changing table throughout their flight. We have that at Hobby airport, and then we're also planning in our new terminal to incorporate a companion care room and it'll have a universal design table. So those that have larger children that no longer fit on the baby changing table, they don't have to put them on the floor, they can put them on the universal design table and it just makes it to where they can travel with dignity. And I feel like that's also an important part of DEI is just making sure that you're including everybody and their experience is dignified. Laura: Yeah, absolutely. And especially for things like actually getting people out to travel, who may not because of exactly that, those restrictions that are in place that would otherwise make it either impossible or extremely uncomfortable to travel. So that's really cool. And I think at the session this morning, you had mentioned a couple of resources that people can use. I don't know if you wanted to mention a couple of the ACRP manuals or some of the other resources that you had included. Tambre: Yea, so, when I stepped into this role, I think probably about three years ago. I think one of the first places that I was looking was of course, like the FAA, there's advisory circulars that are available that talk about wayfinding and signage, how to properly design restrooms, service animal relief areas, and also the lactation rooms. And I feel like those are very helpful to design firms and professionals in construction. And then another resource that I looked at was the Transportation Research Board. So they have the airport cooperative research program where there's a lot of different studies that are done. I think the one that I was on, I think it was 210, and we talked about just increasing accessibility in the airport, but there are many others. I think the best way is to look at the different functions of the airport and in some of those manuals or reports they do incorporate accessibility and have some lessons that can be learned and some examples. And the examples they start from even like rental car facility all the way to the gate. So, I know that I looked at resources in regards to our curbside and how to properly do the loading and unloading for travelers. That's a revision that I know that we're going to need to do coming up. And then just making even the ticket counter is accessible, making them an accessible height at a universal design height is something that I know was also covered, and you can see what other airports have done. One of the points that I brought about in my presentation is that when it comes to accessibility, it's about community and collaboration, and there's no shame in reaching out to other. Airports and finding out you know what type of amenities that they're providing to customers with disabilities and seeing if you can emulate those things because it just makes our airports more accessible. It makes travel more accessible for everyone. If we just, you know, work together and create those options. Laura: That's awesome. Thank you so much. Tambre: No problem. Sri Kumar: Hello world this is Sri. I'm the CEO over at Connico. I've been asked to talk a little bit today about changing future of airports and how we're doing more to be accommodating, be inclusive, make sure that the facilities are accessible for everybody. You know, one cool thing that I do see changing is that it's in the conversation. Before, you know, the spotlight wasn't really on this stuff, but people were still needing to get around. People were still wanting to be included, so especially with, you know, Conoco being an MBE and my background coming up in the industry. Sometimes I didn't see people like me in leadership positions and things like that. So, it's really cool that they're focused on panels here at the symposium. Or we're seeing them more, you know, on posts in LinkedIn or they're being elevated to leadership positions at airports. I think that's really cool. You know, I really like the partnerships that are going on more and more. Even just like we heard in the opening session today, people are saying: “Where can I get the right knowledge for this?” They're not saying: “OK, cool. I won this contract at this airport. You know, we're gonna modernize the terminal. We're gonna pull a set of plans off

In this episode of the Hold Room, Courtney Pene at San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport talks about how the airport is enriching the passenger experience by engaging perspectives from multiple stakeholders, including their own diverse staff, addressing family travel needs and implementing various initiatives to help ease the stress of navigating airports. The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 5 – Courtney Pene Transcript [Introduction] TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura Canham: This episode is part of the passenger experience headers hosted by ACC's Terminal and Facilities Committee in this series. We are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics such as the US population, aging and becoming more multicultural, new technologies, labor and supply chain. Shortages and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us. Paula Nguyen: In this episode of the Hold Room, Courtney Pene at San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport talks about how the airport is enriching the passenger experience by engaging perspectives from multiple stakeholders, including their own diverse staff, addressing family travel needs and implementing various initiatives to help ease the stress of navigating airports. [Interview] Anita Cobb: Hello everybody, we’re excited today to have a really awesome conversation today with Courtney Pene. She works with the San Luis Obispo County Department of Airports and has an awesome position working on some planning and whatnot. Courtney, would you like to get us started with a little introduction to talk about you a little bit Courtney Pene: Absolutely so thank you again for having me. I appreciate it. So my name is Courtney Pene and I'm the deputy director of planning and outreach here at the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport and I've been with the team since January of 2021. So this is almost my 2 year anniversary. Anita Cobb: And let's talk about a little bit about your day-to-day job. What is it that you do for the airports, especially as it relates to the passenger experience? Courtney Pene: As many would agree, the world of aviation changes day-to-day, and I think that's what makes it so exciting, that it's not monotonous. Something new is happening every day. There's new passengers, new planes, you know the conditions are different. So every day something's different and here, as I mentioned, I serve as deputy director of planning and outreach. So that looks like everything from meeting with property owners as it relates to future master plan efforts to talking about diversity, equity, inclusion to meeting with local reporters that want to talk about holiday travel. So it's really exciting. There's always something different, and that's what I truly love. Currently, right now, we’re brainstorming different ideas about how to make the passenger experience more fun, how it can be less stressful and what we can do to really encourage a better atmosphere here at the airport. We realized that airports are inherently very stressful. So whatever we can do to kind of ease that stress, ease that pain and make it a more enjoyable experience for everyone. As a day-to-day kind of look in what I do. Anita Cobb: That's awesome. Laura Canham: Yeah, that's wonderful. Can you share a couple of the ideas you floated around or some things that you're considering to make it more fun? Courtney Pene: One of the things that we were doing right now to just make it more fun is installing a little library here in our airport and we realized that you know everything's gone digital, but there's something great about holding an actual book, and you know, especially for our little passengers, we want to be able to have them walk up to the little library, open it up, and choose their own book for their next adventure, and I think that's a really fun thing to engage the little travelers. Something that we're also working on is trying to figure out how to have kind of a TSA pre-check line for families. I'm a new mom myself and I have an 11-month-old son and so I see the world now through a different lens and it's really pushing that right? So we want to try to see if we can figure out a way to make that happen with our local TSA to have a passenger experience that's better for families, right? You have to check-in all sorts of stuff and whether it be food, whether it be you know a car seat, things like that. So how do you make that easier? Another exciting thing, as I mentioned, that we're working on is a diversity, equity and inclusion learning series. And that's really to focus on the passenger experience here at the airport. How we as airports deliver customer service and how it's received as a customer experience and we really want to deliver it as one. We realize that there's lots of different entities here on the airport, whether it be staff, whether it be rental, car agencies, airlines, and so. How do you give something that looks like a unified message? How do you give a better experience for people? So lots of different things kind of looming around festering and brainstorming in my head every night at 2:00 o'clock in the morning, but that's just a little glimpse of what we're trying to do to make it a better experience for all. Anita Cobb: That is amazing, and I think something that you mentioned that's really cool is that you want to use all your stakeholders to work together on defining what that passenger experience is. Can you talk a little bit about what are some of your strategies to think about inclusion? Courtney Pene: So for strategies on inclusion we really see that our airport staff. We have a smaller airport team. There's 25 full-time individuals, but we realized that you know the airport experience is really comprised of everyone, right? It's not just our team, but it's the airlines, the rental car agencies, TSA, everybody in between. So we really want to engage everyone, even you know the concessionaires and say “hey, how do we provide a top quality experience for everyone?”. You know we want everyone to feel welcomed. We want everyone to know that this is, you know, an extension of us and we want them to feel included in it. So it's really important to engage those stakeholders because we're not the only ones that make things work right. They have very intimate experiences with the passengers, right? So they're helping processing their bags. They're getting them their rental cars. So it's how do we deliver a consistent message and we want to help provide that training, and we want to have everybody on board. So the strategy is really reaching out and having that dialogue. Our Airport Director is a fan and she really kind of drives home the importance of having the inclusive conversation rather than just having that top down messaging so it's not just virtual, but it's in person and I think that's sometimes scary for people these days now. But really, trying to take off the veil and saying hey, you know we want to deliver the best customer experience at a top quality one for everybody and how do we do that as a team? Laura Canham: I love that because communication is so important throughout this entire process and open and honest communication especially, so kudos to you, so I'm going to switch from one spectrum of young families to the other side, the aging population. Have you seen more of your passengers from that group use the airport, or is there anything that you're paying attention to as part of the passenger experience or as part of the terminal that you're adjusting? You're changing to be able to adapt to that? Courtney Pene: Great question, so I think that you know the aging population is something that we look at and I constantly have to think like how would my parents go through the airport? How would my grandparents go through it? And my interpretation is that everybody wants to push technology and it's like, oh, add this add this, add this, add this, add this, but not everybody is attuned to technology. And so we're realizing, hey, it's really great to have everything available on your smartphone and you know, just show your phone, click on the app and the ticketing process is underway. But from the aging population perspective, we really want to dial back and make things simpler as well, so it's not doing all the technology, also having the most basic kind of processes. So right now we are actually undergoing renovation of our parking system and I know that sounds really elementary, but it's important that you know, everyone's saying, hey, let's do a text to park, let's do you know, log online and all these things. But not everybody feels comfortable with that, so we're also having a kiosk that's located inside the terminal. If you want to pay with cash, that is an option and we will have staff available when we first install those machines to help walk people through it, and we wanted to do something that was very basic to eliminate options, eliminates confusion for everybody, but then also makes things easier, right? As I shared before, I think airports are inherently stressful, and so whatever we can do to make that process easy for everyone and easy for all, I think that's important. So maybe not jumping to every technology that we see, but also seeing like, hey, you know, is that really going to benefit everyone because the last thing we want to do is exclude the entire population from visiting our airport and trying to connect with people. Laura Canham: So Courtney, are there any other initiatives that San Luis Obispo are taking on, or any considerations that you have for new and exciting innovations and strategies to help passengers? Courtney Pene: Something great that the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport is working on here at our commercial airport, besides our diversity, e

Max and Laura talk to Angela Berry-Roberson, Vice President of Civil Rights Advisory Services and Compliance for WSP, about tackling accessibility and equity at airports concerning signage, language needs, walking distances to TNCs, and her experiences from a civil rights attorney’s perspective. The Hold Room, Season 2 Episode 4 Transcript [Introduction] TJ: Welcome to The Hold Room with ACC: a quick update on all things relating to airport development as well as the Airport Consultants Council. Laura: This episode is part of the passenger experience series hosted by ACC Terminal and Facilities Committee. In this series we are collecting the experiences and perspectives about the future of passenger travel, including changing demographics such as the U.S. population aging and becoming more multicultural, new technologies, labor and supply chain shortages, and what the future may have in store. Thank you for joining us in the Hold Room. Paula: Angela Berry-Roberson, Vice President of Civil Rights Advisory Services and Compliance for WSP, talks about tackling accessibility and equity at airports concerning signage, language needs, walking distances to TNCs, and her experiences from a civil rights attorney’s perspective. Laura: Welcome Angela and thank you for joining us today. Do you want to tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and your role? Angela: Sure. First of all, thank you for having me. My name is Angela Berry-Roberson. I'm the Vice President of Civil Rights advisory services and compliance for WSP. And as you can imagine, we do a lot with airports all over the nation and the world. My focus lately has been, of course, making sure the experiences are equitable experience in whether it be in services and accessibility. But a lot of my focus has been on contract equity and making sure that there's the involvement of diverse firms and local firms in some of the major development that is going on all over. I'm a recovering attorney by trade. Civil rights’ attorney, actually. And so this is a passion of mine, and I'm blessed to do something I, I truly love to do. And over the time I've been my entire career in transportation, both transit highway and, and so this is exciting. So, the experience I can tell you experience from all different types of ways and all different perspectives. So that's a little snapshot, Ohh, I hail from Dallas, TX and, yes, despite some of the headaches that we've had earlier, I am a Dallas Cowboys fan. But thanks for having me here today. Max: Great, no shame about the Dallas Cowboys fan. You got to support the local team. If you could start off by describing to us what a positive passenger experience means to you, that'd be great. Angela: A positive passenger experience means friendly faces, excellent customer service. If there is anything that is needed, timely quick to go through TSA, quick to get to my gate. Relax, clean atmosphere and then of course the airlines making sure that everything goes through because even though it's not “with the airport”, many of us think of that extensions from gate to plane is also part of that passenger experience. Max: So, a lot of what you just described in terms of moving through the passenger terminal is almost I would classify as functional in a way, but given your background as a former civil rights attorney and you're focusing on equity issues, are there elements there that play into positive passenger experience that you would think about as well that perhaps are overlooked by a lot of folks? Angela: I do believe so. I mean right now, many of our airports are under construction or in a remodeling reformat because the age of a lot of our airport. Whether that's new builds or modification and upgrading. One of the things that I look for is a diversity professional and practitioner is like who's working on our projects. Are there diverse teams that are out there that experience goes from the concessionaires to not only as well is there a variety of of services and a diversity of services that would address different populations? I travel a lot with my 82-year-old mother and so making sure that when we go through with the wheelchair that there is accessibilities when she wants to be stubborn and be that independent senior that she always is. And wants to use the cane opposed to being being wheeled. Is it easy for her to go in in a bathroom out of bathroom. How does that all work? From a diversity perspective, I do look at the fair accessibility equal accessibility in diverse markets. Actually, I did experience this the other day where there was a woman who did not speak much English and she was about to exit the secured area where all she needed was a bathroom. Do we have enough signs? In different languages, so people understand that it exit is an exit opposed to a a bathroom. Laura: You touched upon some really good points of some of the other things that we wanted to talk to you about, which is, you know, the demographics of the U.S. are changing. We have an aging population. We have a continuously more diverse, more multilingual multicultural population, and you touched upon some really good points. So, I wanted to dive into that a little bit deeper and see what are some of the challenges that you've seen? What are some of the ways that solutions that could be implemented to mitigate those challenges and also, what have you seen that's really neat and really good that should be continued to be expanded? Angela: I've been blessed or cursed. I don't know because I travel quite a bit both domestically and internationally, and I've traveled with my college aged daughters, my husband, by myself on business, as well as with my 82 year old mother. And so we've been to several different places and so. I can tell you the experience is different. Having somebody who's there, we've waited as long as almost 30 minutes to have somebody to take my mother through security. Just to get a wheelchair. Should not happen. Then there's those waiting that for you at the gate, taking you all the way to car rentals, people going over and beyond. So I've seen a lot of different ways. I think we just definitely need to address the language barriers that do happen, as well as the mobility, language, bathrooms. The ability to see what's open, what's not that helps in the ease of that .Anybody who's dealt with the women's bathroom and making sure that we can get through instead of trying to open a door, knowing whether or not it's occupied or not. I've seen that in a number of facilities that have happened and and that has made a difference. Security I told people you can't travel me unless you have TSA PreCheck. That really does make a world of a difference. I know everybody's not blessed then that becomes an equity issue. If I can't afford to pay the amount in order to get that service, is that an equitable question? That you can ask. Even with the parking facility because you know, again, the experience really starts, not necessarily from the physical airport, but also from the parking experience that is part of the experience of making it accessible. Or that Uber, Lyft being able to walk no longer than a few feet, or at least some accessible through a train or tram makes it a lot more easier than having to walk like a half a mile to even get to the Uber or Lyft. That is an experience that people really need to look. Especially in this day and age where you have so many Ubers and Lyfts. There's one airport I have to walk literally a half a mile to get there. And think about what somebody with a wheelchair: How do you do that? So, there are good things that are happening using some of the technologies and innovations of letting us know where the bathrooms and the parking, which ones, if it's red, light green light that helps. There are some that are really good as far as language making sure that the signage is a good thing as well. That is important when airports are thinking about their experience. How are we making sure that there's accessibility and there is the same benefits for all? And then especially for those that work at the airport. What is their experience? Do they have comfortable parking? Do they have access to get to the terminals? That is not burdensome. These are all the things that I also think about when running through airports, and I'm just like: Oh! We just want to make sure that not only is it equitable for the customer experience, but part of that customer experience from an airport perspective are those that work at the airport as well. Max: One of the complaints I've heard a lot of about if a toll road is going to be implemented, it's viewed as sometimes are regressive tax because it doesn't take into account the income of the folks who are using it. And TSA PreCheck seems like it could be something similar. It's it's not a cheap program necessarily, and it's the same flat amount or not graduated for your income. And same with parking as well. Angela: I think the burden for TSA PreCheck is not as bad as this of the parking: $85 for five years. Parking is another story. I definitely think that there should be some discount for those that work at the airport, and I think a lot of airports do do this, but they need to think about it where those parking places are. I understand the customer experience, we want to be close. From the customers for the those who work there, they want to be close to or have accessible transportation services from those far lots to get there. And maybe that is the benefit of working there. Laura: Some of the really cool things that you touched upon are trends that we see all over. So one of the things that we talked about in a more recent interview with Anita was about some thoughts on: how to attract, you know with this labor shortage everywhere, how to attract more people into the aviation environment? And so some of the things that you said can there be a benefit of that the employees park close by.