Tag Archives: IPMI2020

Wrapping Up – and Taking Next Steps!

By Rachel Yoka, CAPP, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP

The past few months and weeks have been difficult—no matter what part of the industry or world you live in.

As we look toward a brighter future, coming together with our IPMI community through the 2020 IPMI Virtual Parking & Mobility  Conference & Expo reinforced everything we know about our members and friends. You were, as always, insightful, collaborative, generous, innovative, thoughtful, and inspiring. From on-demand to live education, and two amazing general sessions, we felt your courage and learned from your expertise. In the networking chats and the Expo, we explored every topic under the sun and collected so many resources. It would be easy to sit back having enjoyed the experience and move on.

Please don’t! Remember you have access to this valuable platform for an entire year. Some suggestions to stay engaged:

  • Keep learning, keep reading, and keep collaborating here and on all our platforms.
  • Go back and watch the sessions you didn’t have time for or the ones you want to revisit, including valuable resources and videos in the IPMI Now Resource Center (under Partners Pavilion 2 in the Expo Hall).
  • Connect with the experts you met in the Expo and keep them close in your network.
  • Collect all those CAPP points from the event—let us know if we can help in that pursuit!

If you weren’t able to attend, stay tuned for more information on how you can take part in the platform.

Thanks so much to our Board, volunteers, speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, and participants for taking this digital leap with us. Stay sharp, stay connected, and stay well.

Rachel Yoka, CAPP, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, is IPMI’s vice president of program development.

 

2020 IPMI Chairman’s Award: Thomas Wunk, CAPP

Tom-WunkThomas Wunk, CAPP

VICE PRESIDENT, PARCS SOLUTIONS
T2 Systems

I was asked to provide a list of work accomplishments, but that stuff is not important. Rather, I chose to point out just a few events and people that I look back on and cherish when thinking about my career in the parking industry. There are many, many more that I can list and should write a book, but for the sake of brevity:

To Dennis Cunning, who asked me to look at a broken lane at the Pier 40 location one cold December morning. I opened up the gate and a rat as big as a small hippopotamus came out. He looked up at me and wanted to know how long I was going to be (the rat, not Dennis).

To Bob Harkins and his sons for showing all of us what it is to love this country. To Bobby Brown, who exemplified travel expense management when he opted to sleep in a ticket dispenser box one evening instead of getting a hotel room.

To Kevin Austin and his mathematical conundrum discovery, when he glared down at a platter of 100 buffalo wings, stood, and shouted to the gods “Holy cow – how many chickens did it take to get this many wings?”

To Barbara Chance, who taught me the proper way to hunt waterfowl with a 3 wood and a Titleist.

To Peter Schneck, who showed that time travel was indeed possible. One morning we left a hotel in Monchengladbach and drove to Dusseldorf in a highly spirited fashion, a distance of 32 kilometers, and we arrived six minutes before we left.

To John Tencer and Mike Block, who demonstrated what extraordinary accomplishments could be had with a small team of dedicated and motivated individuals.

To Jeff Sparrow, who taught me never, ever lend anyone your cell phone.

But most of all I am grateful beyond words for my wife and family, who overlooked my many foibles as a husband and father, the missed events and late nights, the impromptu travel and the burned barbeque. It has been special beyond anything I could have imagined.

2020 IPMI Chairman’s Award: John W. Nolan, CAPP

John_NolanJohn W. Nolan, CAPP

MANAGING DIRECTOR OF TRANSPORTATION AND THE CAMPUS SERVICE CENTER Harvard University

My greatest joy in working as a managing director in the field of parking, transportation, and mobility has been the opportunity to greatly improve numerous organizations’ operations, enhance capital infrastructure outcomes, and provide multiple mobility programs that have improved the daily working lives of so many people.

I never could have accomplished as much as I have without the support and friendship of so many people within the IPMI family, the directors and managers who have supported me throughout the years, and certainly the trust placed in me and support given to me by Harvard, Georgetown, and MGH.

Before starting in this field 31 years ago, I realized how important education was in obtaining the knowledge, skillset and trust to move organizations forward in any field. My degrees in business and management from Merrimack College and Lesley University prepared me for this new field back then, however the education that would take me to the next level was being a graduate of the first CAPP class in 1994.

It was this educational foundation, association networking, vendor/consultant engagement, and strong work ethic that enabled me to be a solid leader and demonstrate a skill set that led to numerous engagements as owners’ representative or client executive for major capital garage and infrastructure projects and to serve as an operations and management consultant to many organizations.

I have always felt it was important to give something back to our industry that had helped me along the way and was honored to be selected to be a member of the IPI Board of Advisors, to be elected several times to the IPI Board of Directors and to serve as President of the New England Parking Council for over 10 years. However, my greatest joy has been to be a member and now Chairman of the William M. Voigt CAPP Golf scholarship outing, named after my mentor, that has enabled many individuals to achieve the goal of CAPP in order to advance their career as I did.

In closing let me say, I am very honored and grateful to receive this special recognition from the International Parking and Mobility Institute, but as I’ve indicated above, it’s because of a lot of help received from so many wonderful parking and mobility professionals, educators and family along the way. A big thank-you to all of them!

2020 IPMI Professional Excellence Award – Innovation: David Wallace

David WallaceDavid Wallace

SENIOR WEBSITE DESIGNER/DEVELOPER
Parking & Transportation Services, University of Arizona

David Wallace has been with the University of Arizona Parking & Transportation Services for over three years. He started as a website designer and developer, updating internal and external webpages. As a senior website designer and developer, he has designed and developed several programs and apps for different parking section heads that have improved efficiency tremendously in a wide variety of areas. The apps have reduced the need for paperwork and redundancy, helping better serve customers.

Paperwork is no longer required when officers go out to assist customers. Instead, the app on the officers’ tablets allows customers to sign the consent form electronically. Officers can now do boots and tows and provide motor assist without carrying around all the paperwork that was once linked to those tasks.

Wallace also created a program that tracks the equipment employees check out. This is also on a tablet that requires filling out only a few fields. Wallace recently created a check-in/out form for special events employees. The program logs the time employees sign in so they can get to their stations faster. Plus, it cuts down on the congestion of 80–100 employees trying to log in at the same time.

Wallace created an online shuttle request form for the Cat Tran Shuttles rental, again eliminating paperwork and improving speed. Another project he created was a program that bills a hotel that uses one of the university garages for their guests. The program is based on a contract with the hotel that stipulates that it pays extra for any spaces its guests use over 50. The new program tracks the guests’ ins and outs and bills accordingly.

Beyond these new developments, Wallace has also created several dashboards for the different parking sections. One allows that section’s employees to go to one spot for all their announcements, training, time reporting, and operational documents. It includes a section for supervisors to post daily briefings and tasks for employees. The dashboard includes a report that list trends and other stats.

Wallace has taken every task he has been given and created and improved upon each one. He has illustrated that he can find creative solutions to solve problems. Furthermore, he’s always available to lend a hand to his co-workers and has excellent listening skills, which are critical as he works with co-workers and supervisors to come up with the best solutions to the problems they are trying to solve.

2020 IPMI Professional Excellence Award – Innovation: Jannette Benefee

Jannette_BenefeeJannette Benefee

ASSISTANT MANAGER, PARKING AND TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS GROUP
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport

Jannette Benefee is at the forefront of innovation through use of business intelligence tools and facilitating development of new business solutions. She led the Dallas/ Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport Transportation Business Unit (TBU) in two critical innovative efforts recently. The airport is partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy on the Advancing Transportation Hub Efficiency Using Novel Analytics project. The objective of this three-year study is to leverage mobility data to optimize efficiency and reduce the cost of both passenger and freight movement at and around transportation hubs. Benefee has worked closely with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, providing input and ensuring that DFW provides accurate and applicable data to fit the needs of this project.

Benefee has also created and fostered the internal Transportation Business Intelligence (TBI) team, with the motto “Data that makes sense.” This team disseminates essential and usable data throughout the organization to optimize the customer experience and operational excellence. Collaborating with the DFW Information Technology Services business intelligence team, she has developed a custom training series that used actual parking information to enable trainees to internalize their training experience and expose them to reporting and data dashboards. This training created a group of “citizen analysts” consisting of staff at all levels and job descriptions. Each citizen analyst acts on behalf of his or her section to create data solutions and informational displays specific to the individual sections and provide section management the ability to quickly access information and identify trends.

During her first year on the job, she led TBU business intelligence efforts, collaborating with TBU leadership, IT, and finance to enhance and update the TBU business intelligence mobile dashboard and ensure the data integrity of its contents. This dashboard provides essential decision-making data to staff.

When a software update to the revenue control system created data gaps, Benefee identified the gaps and collaborated with IT to make corrections and re-map data tables and views. She also employed tactics to ensure the data needs of all sections of the TBU were addressed.

Benefee identified future data requirements and partnered with DFW IT to develop custom training for the parking and transportation team. Additionally, she collaborated with the TBU operations team to improve occupancy measurements and with DFW Intelligent Transportation System to build a mobile input screen to update and display lot occupancy information more efficiently. She also led the creation of a mobile app to display comparatives of DFW parking options and was able to resolve issues that prevented the curbside team from automating taxi dispatching and regulation.

2020 IPMI Professional Excellence Award – Leadership: Hugo Contreras

Hugo ContrerasHugo Contreras

SUPERVISOR
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport

Hugo Contreras joined Dallas/ Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport in March 2013 as a guest assistant in the Guest Transportation Operations section of what is now the Transportation Business Unit (TBU). After a year of service, he was promoted to ground transportation agent, and in June 2016, he became a quality agent in the Guest Contract Services section, where he was quickly promoted to Supervisor in May 2017.

In the supervisor role, Contreras has provided significant leadership. He supervises the evening and overnight shifts of quality agents, provides leadership of daily operations, and oversees a variety of special operations and projects. He oversees as many as 12 permanent employees and four contract employees. He also works closely with contract managers to incorporate DFW values and objectives into their dayto-day operations.

Contreras leads the infrastructure and construction, emergency response, communications, and career development committees within Guest Contract Services; he was the lead member of TBU’s Lifesaver Steering Committee (emergency response drills), a member of the Military Exodus Planning Committee, and a coach for Q1 FY20 Quarterly Department Meeting hosts.

He regularly collaborates with the TBU project manager to assess the operational impact of planned construction projects on Guest Contract Services’ business. This collaboration has included six major projects in the past year alone. In 2019, he reached beyond his assignment to provide leadership for the TBU Guest Services Section during a transitional period. Guest Services assists the public by providing customer service and transportation for aircraft hardstands, special events, and emergency response.

Contreras’ leadership skills are especially apparent when he is called on to mediate conflicts between employees. Contreras consistently motivates the team to perform at an optimal level, keeping safety and customer experience at the forefront. His focus on emergency operations has made him a key contributor to TBU’s emergency planning; he created the emergency operations protocols for Guest Contract Services.

Contreras also serves as a founding member of TBU’s Support Desk, where he helped establish procedures for department-wide collaboration in sharing information during routine and irregular operations. Contreras’s fluency in English and Spanish adds to his ability to connect and communicate effectively with customers and colleagues.

2020 IPMI Professional Excellence Award- Marketing: Megan Smit

Megan SmitMegan Smit

DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
PayByPhone

At heart, Megan Smit is a brand evangelist. As PayByPhone’s director of marketing and communications, she develops and maintains the North American marketing strategy to increase adoption, usage, and reactivation of users on a global scale. She has created a marketing presence from ground zero and is focused on growing PayByPhone’s monthly active users as the company’s coverage increases worldwide.

Smit challenges the status quo and forges long-term relationships with key partners, clients, prospects, and departments. When she joined PayByPhone, Smit created a full marketing department in a remarkably short amount of time. She used her experience and knowledge from building brands and experiences with global companies within Africa and Europe to scale a high-performance team with specific skill sets that include mobile growth, digital marketing, media and communications, operations, and strategic campaign management led by an aggressive growth strategy.

Smit introduced processes and agile frameworks that brought structure and scale to all projects and tasks that involved multiple departments, including product management and client management. This was new for the company and disrupted it in the best possible way. Most importantly, however, Smit achieved this while forging strong relationships with these stakeholders.

Her tireless efforts and expertise were recognized through four IPMI awards in two years that recognized innovative and creative campaigns.

Smit has presented on the industry on various stages around North America.

2020 IPMI Professional Excellence Award- Marketing: Melissa Maraj-Bubela

Melissa_Marja_BubelaMelissa Maraj-Bubela

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
Texas A&M Transportation Service

The Texas A&M University Transportation Services Marketing and Communications unit is a powerhouse of creativity charged with safeguarding the public image, promoting services, and telling the university’s story. As manager of this unit, Melissa Maraj-Bubela leads the marketing and communications charge for one of the largest parking and transportations operations on any college campus in the country.

Maraj-Bubela joined the department in 2015. Since then, the department has garnered national and international recognition, including being awarded an IPMI Parking Matters Marketing & Communications Award for three consecutive years. She manages two websites and two mobile apps that target nearly 200,000 combined users each year. She also oversees seven social media platforms, leads branding and image campaigns, and maintains media relationships and media inquiries, community relations, and public engagement.

Throughout her time with the department, Maraj-Bubela has been at the forefront of the department’s most impactful initiatives, successfully spearheading the communications and media outreach for noteworthy campaigns such as the rollout of the largest bike-share program for a university and the implementation of the first U.S. Dutch-style unsignalized and glow-in-dark intersection installed on a university campus.

She has also led the implementation of the university’s Donations for Citations initiative and collaborated with the university’s Football Thursday gameday communications committee, which resulted in unprecedented social media engagement for the university, international media coverage, and university-wide recognition. Furthermore, she has participated in some of the university’s most notable events, providing communications support for events such as the 2017 Hurricane Harvey response and the George H.W. and Barbara Bush interments. ,

Why is it Raining in my Parking Structure?

parking structure rainingBy Scott Weiland

Ever wonder why it is raining inside your parking structure?  Well, it is a sign that your parking structure needs attention. Water is the No. 1 cause of parking structure deterioration. Water-saturated concrete can freeze, expand, and spall. Combined with oxygen, water can also cause corrosion of the concrete reinforcing, accelerated by exposure to deicing salts. As reinforcing steel expands as it rusts, this process also leads to concrete spalling. Spalled concrete provides less cover or protection of the structure which leads to further (and accelerated) deterioration if not repaired in a timely manner.

The top level of your parking structure not only provides possibly the least desirable parking spaces, it also serves as the roof of the facility. Controlling water in the form of rain or melting snow at this level is the least expensive way to extend the life of your parking structure and minimize maintenance costs. Controlling the water runoff involves shedding water to drains as quickly as possible.

Ponding water is unacceptable as it saturates the concrete and leaks to lower levels. The installation of supplemental drains can easily and permanently address ponding. Urethane joint sealant at the top level is exposed to UV sunlight and tends to break down within a few years. The breakdown of this product leads to cracks in the sealant allowing leaks to the levels below. This leads to degradation at lower levels like that described above at the top level.

Therefore, it is important to visually inspect joint sealants annually and budget a portion of joint sealant replacement approximately every three years at the top level. Urethane joint sealant replacement will cost approximately $4.50 per linear foot but provides one of the best returns on investment when it comes to parking structure maintenance.

Given the accelerated rate of parking structure deterioration, this is cheap insurance against having to perform more expensive repairs in the future.

Scott Weiland, PE, is founder of Innovative Engineering, Inc. He will present on this topic during the 2020 IPMI Virtual Parking & Mobility Conference & Expo, June 1-2, wherever you are. Click here for details and to register.

 

Real-life Connections in a Virtual World

How not to suck at virtual networkingBy Kim Fernandez

Raise your hand if big-event networking can be a little overwhelming.

Now raise it if the thought of that same networking during a virtual event makes your head hurt a little bit.

I thought so.

As it turns out—and this was news to me—virtual networking is a very big thing. You can absolutely attend an online event and come away with the same valuable contacts you’d make face to face (slightly awkward small talk optional).

Take a minute and a half (seriously) and check out this video that offers some great tips to set yourself up to expand your contact list and make great industry connections while you attend an event (say, the 2020 IPMI Virtual Parking & Mobility Conference & Expo June 1-2, not that I’m biased) from home. Get your note-taking pen ready—the takeaways are plentiful and fast.

I’m looking forward to connecting with more people than ever during my next virtual event. Wanna race me?

Kim Fernandez is IPMI’s director of publications and editor of Parking & Mobility magazine, and now an enthusiastic advocate of virtual networking.