What Works

What Works

While I would like to believe that the only communication vehicle our industry needs is a publication like Airport Improvement, I'm not naïve enough to tell you so.

Fact is, there are numerous ways to communicate: publications, texting, Twitter, webinars, websites, email and more. You can't effectively exist on any one solely; but when used in the right combination, the sky's the limit.

Conferences can be an important part of that mix. They've been around for a long, long time and have seen growth and contraction like many other media. Executed correctly, they accomplish what no other form of communication can do: bring people together, face-to-face. Some think there are too many conferences in this industry, but there is still a lot of money being spent attending and exhibiting at them. Why? Because they work.

This spring, the General Services Administration (GSA) stirred up quite a scandal at its conference. Seems that things got a little out of control with taxpayer's money. Did you know, however, that GSA's indiscretions led to the FAA having to pull the plug on many of its regional conferences? These wonderful and effective means of communicating with airports and the rest of our industry have fallen victim to the GSA scandal.

I've attended FAA conferences, and I don't ever recall seeing any GSA-style antics. If anything, one might make the case for adding a little pizzazz to them. How many more water bottles and pocket protectors do we really need?

Fact is, the FAA regional conferences are an important link that is not provided by any other means of communication. State shows and webinars serve their purposes, but they don't do what the regional conferences have done.

The indiscretion here is not just the GSA scandal. It's the federal government putting the kibosh on an effective communications tool. Maybe Mitt could add this to his campaign platform.

Cheers,

Paul