Speaking

With increasing scrutiny from media and communities, clear, concise and accurate communication is not just courteous—it’s a safeguard. This presentation will equip engineers and planners with essential communication tools for engaging non-engineer stakeholders and the public by exploring common technical terms that cause confusion and emphasizing strategies to simplify language, tailor messaging and maintain clarity.

Brian (Engineer) and Shannon (Planner) will use real-world examples to show attendees how to frame meeting materials effectively, control messaging, and manage public interactions—always mindful that today’s smartphone-equipped audiences can record and share instantly. Attendees will leave with practical strategies to ensure consistent, understandable messaging that improves collaboration between engineers and planners during the project development process.

This presentation is a must-attend for professionals seeking to bridge the gap between technical accuracy and public understanding.

This session will introduce the Safe System Approach and explore how it can be applied in a typical fatal crash review, or crash investigation process, and shift the focus to systemic solutions that can prevent future tragedies. In this interactive session, attendees will engage in a mock fatal crash investigation, using the principles of the Safe System Approach to analyze the causes of the crash and explore strategies for prevention. By working through the crash scenario, participants will gain practical insights into how systemic factors—such as road design, vehicle safety and human behavior—contribute to crashes and what changes can be made to reduce future risk.

In the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) world, data drives decisions—but numbers alone do not tell the full story. To make meaningful and lasting impacts, we must combine traditional performance metrics with insights from stakeholders and lived experiences. This integration doesn’t just add context—it enhances clarity, builds trust and leads to smarter prioritization decisions.

This session introduces a topic-agnostic prioritization framework that blends qualitative and quantitative inputs to help agencies make the best decisions for their communities. We’ll explore how this flexible approach has been applied across various geographies and project types—from prioritizing intersections for roundabout improvements in Clark County to identifying high-priority corridors for nighttime safety enhancements in Richmond. The Richmond case study uses a systemic sliding window analysis of the city’s High Injury Network, combining crash data, lighting conditions and field-verified nighttime visibility to target locations most in need of improvements.

Attendees will walk through the prioritization process from start to finish, including how to engage local stakeholders, weigh diverse indicators and validate findings using community insights and technical data. This blended approach improves outcomes and leads to significant cost savings by identifying the right solutions earlier in the process, reducing redesigns and increasing public support.