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Member News: The Flowbird Mobile App Is Launching In The City of Akron

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The Flowbird Mobile App Is Launching In The City of Akron

Parking convenience comes to drivers in Akron this summer

Moorestown, NJ — Flowbird Group, a global leader in curbside management and urban mobility solutions, announced that it is launching the Flowbird app in the City of Akron, Ohio at the end of June. The smart mobile parking solution brings ultimate convenience to motorists, allowing users to find and pay for parking with their iPhone or Android devices. Flowbird has worked closely with the City of Akron’s parking operator, ABM Parking Services, to customize and test the app in preparation for metered parking to relaunch after a year of free parking downtown.

The City of Akron has over 1,000 parking spaces throughout its downtown core to service patrons visiting local shops, businesses and restaurants. In addition, the downtown is home to the University of Akron and Canal Park, the stadium for Akron’s minor league baseball team, the Akron RubberDucks. To manage parking occupancy in this challenging environment, ABM utilizes a mix of both Flowbird parking kiosks and single-space meters. With the launch of the Flowbird app, visitors will now have an additional option of payment via their mobile device.

The Flowbird App allows downtown visitors to find and pay for parking without stopping at a pay station or meter. Users can opt-in to receive text notifications when time is about to expire and extend their time without needing to cut their downtown experience short. Designed as a true mobility app, the Flowbird app features a map-based user interface, integrated with Waze and other navigation systems to guide users to their preferred parking location.

Setting up an account is quick and simple after the app is downloaded to a mobile device from the App Store or Google Play Store. Accounts can be set up for individual motorists or for businesses to manage their fleets.

Flowbird’s powerful data hub provides the City with block-by-block parking activity information, aggregating payments from the Flowbird pay stations and the Flowbird app into one central web-based system.

Flowbird has partnered with two local Akron companies to help promote the Flowbird app. Ambassadors will be on-site the week of June 28th to perform a public outreach campaign, visiting with local merchants and the parking public to announce that the Flowbird app is now available.

Over 125 cities and universities are now using the Flowbird app to help manage parking around the country. Globally, Flowbird’s mobile platform generates over 50 million transactions a year. For more information, please visit www.flowbirdapp.com.

Member News: Pittsburgh Brings Additional Convenience To Parkers With Flowbird App

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Pittsburgh Brings Additional Convenience To Parkers With Flowbird App

“Steel City” expands touchless payment options this Spring

Moorestown, NJ —  The Pittsburgh Parking Authority has announced the launch of the Flowbird app to  make it easier for motorists to find and pay for parking downtown.  At a time when touchless payments are increasingly popular, the Flowbird App offers peace-of-mind for both the City of Pittsburgh and its drivers.

The City of Pittsburgh is no stranger to innovation, known in the parking industry as the first major city in the country to make the change to Pay-by-Plate in 2012 with Flowbird’s elite smart parking kiosks. Now, in its 9th year of their contract with Flowbird, the Pittsburgh Parking Authority (PPA) takes the next step by adding Flowbird’s mobile parking application as a quick and convenient payment option. The app allows users to pay for parking from their mobile devices, receive text notifications when time is about to expire and extend their time without having to run to a meter.

Designed as a true mobility app, the Flowbird app features a map-based user interface, integrated with Waze and other navigation systems to guide users to their preferred parking location.  The GPS enabled map also allows users to select their parking location without manually inputting a zone code.

Setting up an account is quick and simple after the app is downloaded to a mobile device from the App Store or Google Play Store.  Accounts can be set up for individual motorists or for businesses to manage their fleets.

“It’s all about expanding touchless payment options and giving users more choices,” said David Onorato, Executive Director of the Pittsburgh Parking Authority.

The PPA will benefit from Flowbird’s powerful data hub. All parking activity information from Flowbird pay stations, the Flowbird mobile app, and 3rd party mobile apps are aggregated into Flowbird’s back-office system to allow Parking Authority staff to have a global view of all parking activity.

The Flowbird system is integrated with the Authority’s Gtechna citation issuance solution for fast, effective enforcement based on the motorists’ license plates.

The PPA will still continue to offer payments by credit card or coin at over 1,000 Flowbird parking kiosks throughout the Downtown area for non-app users.

The Flowbird app will be available this Spring, according to the PPA. Promotional stickers, printed and supplied by Flowbird, will be installed on all parking kiosks to inform motorists about the new app and corresponding zone numbers.

The City of Pittsburgh joins many other cities across the country utilizing the Flowbird app, including Atlanta, Las Vegas, Oklahoma City, Tacoma, and Virginia Beach.  The Flowbird app is now available in over 100 parking locations across the United States, and the company’s mobile applications generate over 50 million transactions per year.  For more information, please visit www.flowbirdapp.com.

Flowbird US Media Contact: Sean Renn – Vice President of Marketing & Communications, 856-220-1577, sean.renn@flowbird.group

Member News: Flowbird Shares New Case Study on Colorado State Parks

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Flowbird Shares New Case Study on Colorado State Parks

How the Colorado Division of Parks & Wildlife went from soggy dollar bills to $3 million in credit card revenue


OVERVIEW

Colorado Division of Parks & Wildlife (CPW) is a nationally recognized leader in conservation, outdoor recreation and wildlife management. The agency manages 41 state parks, more than 350 state wildlife areas and a host of recreational programs. Visitors flock to parks across the state for a variety of recreational activities including hiking, biking, fishing, camping and more.

In 2017, CPW evaluated options to modernize park admissions to provide more convenience to end-users, add more security, and allow park staff to focus on other critical tasks.  Flowbird was chosen to implement a new automated fee payment system.

In 2018, 15 self-service pay stations were installed for fee collection.  The pay stations were installed across 9 parks to better serve customers looking to quickly pay with a cashless option. The pay stations, officially named the, “Strada,” replaced the older ‘honor system,’ requiring customers to place exact amounts of cash into envelopes when staff weren’t available to sell park passes.  Utilizing wireless communications, all data from the Stradas are sent in real-time to Flowbird’s back-office system for reporting and analysis.

THE CHALLENGE

An outdated entry pass system

Colorado State Parks offer a variety of recreational amenities. Daily or Annual passes could be purchased at the entry gate during staffed hours, but options were limited after-hours or during the slow season. Visitors could use honor boxes to purchase their pass, but would need exactly $7 in cash to place in the provided envelopes.

Each day, staff would need to drive out to each honor box and collect cash; some filled with coins, others with just $5 bills, and hope that there wasn’t rain the night before. The cash would be hand-counted, a laborious task for revenue managers who had other jobs to perform before the day was done.

THE SOLUTION

Flexibility and Automation

In June of 2018, 15 Flowbird Strada self-service pay stations were installed to better service visitors of the CPW parks. The Strada machines accept credit cards, making it more convenient for customers who are not carrying the exact amount of cash.  Additionally, the solution is much more weather-resistant than the envelope system.

The pay stations are also solar-powered, allowing for operation without AC power throughout the parks. Constructed of heavy steel and engineered for security, the Strada interacts with customers after-hours, stands up to inclement weather, and provides peace-of-mind for CPW officials when staff are not available.

The flexible software running on the Strada allows CPW to sell a variety of passes including a daily vehicle pass, annual pass, family annual pass, and an individual walk-in pass.  Park donations are also accepted on the Strada.

BENEFITS

After installation of the new pay stations, the CPW gained better control of revenues along with a higher customer satisfaction rate. Though the honor boxes are still available for those who wish to pay in precise amounts of cash, staff has minimized their collection time, from once daily, to every 3 days. Payments collected by the pay stations are tracked through Flowbird’s back-office system, allowing CPW staff to better track parks visitation.

“All of that staff time has been saved,” said CPW Statewide Business Operations Coordinator Kirk Teklits, “That doesn’t mean we decrease staff, we just have time for more meaningful things, like serving customers and our parks.”

During peak season, the pay stations create a 2-lane system using both staff and kiosk. If a line is building up at the entry gate, staff can direct customers to the kiosk to purchase a pass quickly and assist the next customer. According to Teklits, customer satisfaction increased immensely with the self-serve addition, many of which already expect the credit card option to be there with today’s technology.

The Strada pay stations also comply and assist in the CPW’s stance on sustainability and green energy. With each machine running on advanced solar power, there was no need to build out infrastructure to have power, saving time and money to dedicate to the parks.

Additional phases of the project were performed in 2019 and 2020.  Now, CPW utilizes 54 Strada Pay Stations across 26 parks statewide.

At the end of 2020, an additional payment option – contactless payments – was put into test mode.  This functionality allows park visitors to pay with a contactless bank card or with a mobile wallet such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Over 200,000 transactions were performed in 2020 generating close to $3 million in revenue for Colorado Parks & Wildlife to help keep the parks well maintained and help park staff provide an enjoyable experience to their visitors.

Download the full case study here.

Member News: The Catholic University of America Launches Flowbird App For Campus Parking

Flowbird_LogoThe Catholic University of America Launches Flowbird App For Campus Parking

Flowbird Brings Convenience with Integrated Parking Solution


Moorestown, NJ —  Flowbird Group, a global leader in smart city and campus solutions, has announced that it has launched the Flowbird app on the campus of The Catholic University of America.  Located in Washington, DC, Catholic University faces the same challenges many schools face, especially schools set in urban areas.  With a limited parking supply, and a parking population with varied needs, the university looked to Flowbird to help manage daily parking with a simple, touchless solution – the Flowbird mobile app.

Catholic University started working with Flowbird several years ago when multi-space parking kiosks were installed in three parking locations.  In 2020, university staff decided to add mobile payments as an additional way to pay for parking in kiosk locations and the app was launched for the start of the Spring 2021 semester.  Additionally, the Flowbird app was rolled out into additional parking areas to bring better parking controls and automation to those locations.

The Flowbird app, available on the App Store for iOS and the Google Play Store for Android, provides users with a map-based user interface, making it simple for users to select their parking location without manually inputting a zone code or scanning a QR code.  Parkers can get a reminder notification when their time is about to expire and they can extend their time right from their mobile device.  Walking directions back to their original parking location are also a handy feature of the app.

A key aspect of the Flowbird solution that has been adopted by the university is the use of validation codes for campus visitors that are taking a university tour.  University staff create the electronic validations using Flowbird’s back-office management suite, and provide the codes to the visitors.  Upon arrival on campus, the visitor opens the Flowbird app, enters the validation code, and they are on their way.

Another important functionality that Flowbird delivers to the university is the integration of all kiosk payments and Flowbird app payments in the same reporting module.  This provides university staff the ability to view all parking activity in one place, broken down by payment method.

“We are very excited to launch the Flowbird app on campus,” said J. Charles Lavallee, Associate Director of Transportation and Parking Services. “As more and more people are returning to campus, we are seeing the Flowbird app as an extremely convenient and beneficial tool.”

The Flowbird app is now available in over 100 parking locations across the United States, and the Flowbird mobile platform generated over 26 million transactions globally in 2020.  For more information, please visit www.flowbirdapp.com.


Flowbird US Media Contact

Sean Renn – Vice President of Marketing & Communications

856-220-1577

sean.renn@flowbird.group

www.flowbird.group

Member News: Carbon County, PA Automates Parking With Flowbird, Installed in partnership with Butts Ticket Systems

Flowbird_LogoCarbon County, PA Automates Parking With Flowbird, Installed in partnership with Butts Ticket Systems


Moorestown, NJ —  Flowbird Group is proud to announce that Carbon County, Pennsylvania, has partnered with Butt’s Ticket Systems, Flowbird’s local distribution partner, to launch a new Pay-by-Plate parking system. Implementation of the system completed in January and includes 15 Strada pay stations and Flowbird’s mobile parking payment application.

The new system automates parking for both the users and county staff.  The previous parking solution included an attended parking booth taking payments in the county’s large, 100+ space parking lot that stretches along the popular Lehigh River.  The lot is used by daily parkers looking to take advantage of shopping, restaurants, and outdoor activities in Jim Thorpe, the county seat.  The Flowbird system is programmed to charge based on vehicle type (e.g. cars, buses, campers, and vehicles with trailers).  Additionally, the Flowbird solution replaced single space coin-only parking meters that were installed in hourly county operated locations.

Carbon County is replicating the Town of Jim Thorpe’s Flowbird parking system which was implemented in 2018.  The system has proven to be very successful, and after careful research and consideration, the county installed the same system for their parking locations.

Patrons can now simply enter their license plate numbers into the new parking kiosks before paying for their time. Users are guided step-by-step through their parking transactions on the full-color display screens at the new kiosks. Time can be extended at the kiosk with your plate number.

Payment is accepted in either coin, cash, debit or credit cards. For motorists wanting to skip the kiosks altogether, they can pay via the Flowbird mobile payment app which can be accessed on Android and iOS platforms, as well as on the Flowbird app website, www.flowbirdapp.com. The Flowbird app provides time expiration notifications, remote time extension, and a “find my car” feature.

Parking space is very limited in the Jim Thorpe area so having automated parking controls in place is critical.  “I think the most important thing is the parking because the town lacks that, and this should help the businesses in the area also,” said Frank McCutcheon, Carbon County resident.

Carbon County joins a growing list of Flowbird clients in the State of Pennsylvania, which includes the Philadelphia Parking Authority, Pittsburgh Parking Authority, Lancaster Parking Authority, and the municipalities of Scranton, New Hope, Mount Lebanon, and Williamsport.


About Flowbird

FLOWBIRD operates in over 5,000 towns and cities in 70 countries. The company is constantly innovating and breaking new ground to help provide solutions. Its mission is to facilitate the individual journey and maximize a city’s unique mobility potential, while considering all city stakeholders and end-user experiences. Through its devices, elite service platform and teams, Flowbird enables a new era for maximizing urban harmony and value throughout the city’s core.


Flowbird US Media Contact

Sean Renn – Vice President of Marketing & Communications

856-220-1577

sean.renn@flowbird.group

www.flowbird.group

Member News: Conduent Transportation and Flowbird Selected to Equip Paris Ile-de-France Mobilites’ Buses and Trams with Next Generation Onboard Ticketing Platform

Conduent Transportation and Flowbird Selected to Equip Paris Ile-de-France Mobilites’ Buses and Trams with Next Generation Onboard Ticketing Platform


GUILHERAND-GRANGES, France and PARIS, France, Feb. 17, 2021 — Conduent Transportation, a unit of business process services and solutions company Conduent Incorporated (Nasdaq: CNDT), and Flowbird, a French company specializing in urban mobility payment methods, today announced that they have been selected by Comutitres, on behalf of its members and the transport authority Ile-de-France Mobilités, to replace all Ile-de-France bus and tram onboard ticketing platforms with next-generation technology. The Ile-de-France region has a population of approximately 12 million who take about 9 million trips every day on public transport.

Comutitres, which is in charge of ticket management for public (RATP, SNCF) and private (Optile) transport operators on behalf of Ile de France Mobilités, has chosen the Conduent-Flowbird alliance to install a modern onboard ticketing platform to replace outdated equipment across the transit network. In this newly awarded 10-year contract, Conduent and Flowbird will design, install and maintain the driver consoles, ticket validators, central units and communication devices on board the region’s public-transit vehicles.

“The modernization of the Ile-de-France ticketing system is continuing. Ile-de-France Mobilités aims to make life easier for the millions of people using public transport in Ile-de-France thanks to some of the most modern ticketing services in the world. This project is a new stage in our ambitious strategy to transform ticketing,” said Laurent Probst, Managing Director of Ile-de-France Mobilités.

“It is a source of great pride for Comutitres to see, through this contract, the convergence of the needs and requirements of transport operators in the Paris region with the desire of Ile-de-France Mobilités to implement a common range of ticketing equipment and onboard systems,” said Eric Lainé, Managing Director of Comutitres. “Conduent Transportation and Flowbird will help us to implement the desired solution thanks to their experience and expertise in ticketing system modernization projects.”

This new onboard ticketing platform will be one of the largest of its kind based on Information Technology for Public Transport ( ITxPT ) specifications, which are increasingly becoming an industry standard. The ITxPT association provides specifications and guidelines for open architecture, data and interoperability between IT systems, for public transport and other mobility services.

“More than ever, solutions that encourage modal shift to public transport and optimize the management of urban spaces are at the heart of the needs of city dwellers. The choice of Comutitres to implement open and interoperable technologies fully attests to this,” said Bertrand Barthelemy, CEO of Flowbird. “With our 600 high-tech engineers in France, specializing in urban mobility, we are pleased to bring our skills and expertise to support Comutitres in the renewal of ticketing in the Ile-de-France region.”

“Comutitres has a bold vision of a modern, technologically advanced system that will equip the buses and trams of the Ile-de-France region and become a model for the world,” said Jean-Charles Zaia, General Manager, Public Transit at Conduent Transportation. “Given our more than 50 years of expertise in this area, our team is well positioned to help Comutitres implement an onboard solution at scale for one of the largest transit systems in the world. Ile-de-France transit authorities and operators have been valued clients of Conduent for more than 25 years, and we’re honored to expand our partnership on this major project.”


About Conduent
Conduent delivers mission-critical services and solutions on behalf of businesses and governments – creating exceptional outcomes for its clients and the millions of people who count on them. Through our dedicated people, process and technology, Conduent solutions and services automate workflows, improve efficiencies, reduce costs and enable revenue growth. It’s why most Fortune 100 companies and over 500 government entities depend on Conduent every day to manage their essential interactions and move their operations forward.

Conduent’s differentiated services and solutions improve experiences for millions of people every day, including three out of every four U.S. insured patients, 10 million employees who use its HR Services, and nearly 18 million benefit recipients. Conduent’s solutions deliver exceptional outcomes for its clients, including $16 billion in savings from medical bill review of workers compensation claims, up to 40% efficiency increase in HR operations, up to 27% reduction in government benefits costs, up to 40% improvement in finance, accounting and procurement expense, and improved customer service interaction times by up to 20% with higher end-user satisfaction. Learn more at www.conduent.com.


About Flowbird
Alongside the challenges posed by the evolution of increasingly populated urban spaces, cities must continuously meet the changing needs of their citizens. Flowbird supports decision-makers in the organization with the development and management of mobility within their territories, helping to meet new economic, quality of life and environmental challenges.

Through its solutions, mobile apps and online services, Flowbird helps to improve the environment by reducing air pollution, optimizing traffic management and simplifying payments relating to mobility. In this way, Flowbird helps make cities safer and more economically sustainable.

With 60 years’ experience and more than 100 million weekly users, Flowbird continues its high-technology journey through a program of substantial investment in research and development (7% of annual turnover) to offer ever more innovative solutions to its customers. This innovation culture enables Flowbird to export 85% of its output to 4,500 cities in 85 countries.

For more information, visit www.flowbird.group/transport.

Member News: Minneapolis Upgrades to Advanced Parking Kiosks with Contactless Payments

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Minneapolis Upgrades to Advanced Parking Kiosks with Contactless Payments

Easy-to-use touch screen kiosks with environmentally sustainable design

The City of Minneapolis has partnered with Flowbird North America, the leader in curbside management and urban mobility solutions, to replace the city’s ‘Pay-by-Space’ parking kiosks with 700 of Flowbird’s CWT touch screen smart kiosks. The upgrade offers customers a variety of payment options, improves the end-user experience, and is more environmentally sustainable.

The City’s current parking system covers about 8,400 parking spaces. These spaces were previously managed by single-space parking meters and Pay-by-Space kiosks. The kiosks were installed by Flowbird back in 2010 and successfully provided the city with the latest technology at the time. Now, the City has upgraded to Flowbird’s latest ‘contactless’ technology with the CWT parking kiosks. Users can now pay with their contactless credit or debit card, or digital wallet such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, allowing a swift ‘tap and go’ payment process at the kiosk.

The new Flowbird kiosks will continue to utilize a Pay-by-Space parking configuration, already familiar to motorists in Minneapolis. Users simply enter their parking space number, the duration of their stay, and make their payment. A new text receipt option will replace previous paper receipts and printers, limiting litter on the streets for an environmentally friendly approach.

All 700 kiosks are fully solar-powered, ADA compliant, and are equipped with a 9.7” full color touch display that resembles the look and feel of a tablet. Built of stainless steel, the kiosks are vandal-proof and with-stand all weather climates.

The kiosks wirelessly communicate to Flowbird’s analytics platform, providing the City with the tools to analyze parking activity trends and streamline operations.  This leads to high uptime and gives parkers a system it can trust.  All paid space information is communicated wirelessly with the City’s citation issuance system, provided by Gtechna.

“We are extremely happy that we will continue our decade-long partnership with the City of Minneapolis using Flowbird’s latest technology,” said Benoit Reliquet, President of Flowbird North America. “We expect that parkers will be very pleased with the overall user experience provided through the large touch screens and advanced payment options.”

Flowbird worked together with City staff to install all 700 kiosks in just two months, completing the deployment at the end of December 2020.

Flowbird smart kiosks are used throughout the Minneapolis/St. Paul region for on-street parking, parking at city parks, and for off-board fare collection for METRO Transit’s Bus Rapid Transit system.  lose to 1,000 Flowbird kiosks are installed throughout the Twin Cities.


Flowbird US Media Contact

Sean Renn – Vice President of Marketing and Communications, sean.renn@flowbird.group

www.flowbird.group

Member News: City of Las Vegas Partners with Flowbird to Unveil Frictionless Mobile Solution

July 24th, 2020

What APPens in Vegas…saves drivers a lot of time

Moorestown, New Jersey – The City of Las Vegas, in partnership with Flowbird Group, has launched a new mobility solution, combining on-street and off-street parking into a personalized, seamless experience. The Flowbird App, a multi-solution application, combines an advanced user interface, congestion optimization and off-street parking reservations to offer the ultimate one-of-a-kind mobile solution.

The City of Las Vegas takes entertainment seriously. Residents and visitors to the downtown hub enjoy world-class dining, shopping, concerts, comedy shows, and much more. As the City begins to reopen amid recent closures, it is now more important than ever to venture out with a plan. Using the Flowbird App platform, drivers can easily find, reserve, and pay for parking long before they arrive at their destination, avoiding circling the block in search of the ideal parking space.

Flowbird’s enhanced mobile experience allows drivers to pay for their on-street parking or reserve off-street parking with a platform powered by Arrive, a leader in the parking reservations space.  The combination allows the City to increase the visibility of parking options and optimize parking occupancy downtown. The result – a frictionless parking app that is simple to use and uniquely customizable.

Users can view real-time inventory and pricing displayed on a searchable map or list on the app. Results can be filtered according to individual preferences, sorting by various features such as price, EV charging, covered parking, security, and more. The ultra-intuitive platform even allows users to search by event, pinpointing the venue and highlighting the best options for parking on that specific day.

“We are very excited to continue to improve the parking experience for Las Vegas customers,” said Brandy Stanley, CAPP, Parking Services Manager for the City of Las Vegas.  “The Flowbird app will cut down on the time it takes to pay for parking, and customers will now be able to use the app to pay and reserve parking in the city’s parking garages.”

Flowbird is also proud to announce that the City of Las Vegas is the first to upgrade its Strada Pay Stations  with the new S5 upgrade kit, bringing the latest pay station technology to the parking operation in Las Vegas. The Strada S5 features a 9.7” touch screen providing an enhanced user interface on the existing pay station housings.

“The start of our conversion to the enhanced meters is in full swing with more than 100 meters to be upgraded over the next two weeks,” said Stanley, “These new screens make the meters so much easier to see in full sun and interact with.”

The City of Las Vegas has been a partner of Flowbird since 2013 when they implemented a Pay-by-Space parking system throughout their downtown core. The importance of customer convenience then, holds true to the City’s values today, as they enter into a new era of mobility with the Flowbird App and digital platform.

”We are very excited to reinforce our strong partnership with the City of Las Vegas and to bring a unique mobility solution to residents and visitors for an easier and frictionless parking experience,” said Benoit Reliquet, President of Flowbird North America.

Flowbird’s app platform has over 2.5 million users worldwide, and offers an easy, fast and secure option to make mobile parking payments. Las Vegas joins other popular U.S. tourist destinations such as Atlanta, Niagara Falls, Lake Placid, and Virginia Beach on the Flowbird app platform.

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About Flowbird

Flowbird_LogoFlowbird operates in over 5,000 cities and 70 countries, using a cloud-based solution to help clients ease traffic congestion and efficiently manage their transit systems.  Our significant expertise and strong investment into research and development allow us to deliver products and digital services that will help us improve individual journey experiences and make our communities better.

Flowbird US Media Contact: Sean Renn – Vice President of Marketing and Communications

sean.renn@flowbird.group

www.flowbird.group