Were you able to join us in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania for the Roadway Management Conference (RMC) a couple weeks ago? If so, you were among the 200 or so attendees that enjoyed great technical training sessions, talked to highly relevant equipment and materials vendors, saw some excellent demonstrations, ate some sumptuous food, and met new colleagues! If not, you missed out on a wonderfully affordable event and weather that surprisingly cooperated with us. But let your heart not be troubled because the RMC is coming your way again in just a year.
The Mid-Atlantic Region (PA, WV, MD, VA, DE) was at the Seven Springs Resort October 17-19 with this year’s RMC. In recent years, the annual conference, optimized to operations and maintenance personnel, was held in Gettysburg, PA, Ellicott City, MD, Rehoboth Beach, DE, and Wheeling, WV. It was again a great success in PA, or so we heard from many attendees that praised our collective efforts throughout the conference (along with some constructive feedback from the evaluations to aid in planning for the next couple of years).
Our three-day conference was attended this time by about 200 folks from each of the five region states and a handful from farther away. As usual, we had a diverse array of technical and other speakers dealing with pavement management, traffic calming, winter maintenance, electric vehicles, chainsaw safety, bike facilities, stormwater management, management and personnel topics, and a series of other safety elements.
Our general sessions and breakout sessions drew from a collection of subject matter experts across the region, and we thank all of them for the time they committed to the conference. If you missed the conference or were there and had to choose between breakouts, you can find a copy of slides for many of our speakers at the 2023 website; find them under Agenda and click on More Info.
Another cornerstone of the RMC is our demonstrations and this year we got to see load securement, pothole patching, mastic, high voltage safety, chainsaw safety, and new equipment. We were able to film some of the demonstrations and they are making their way onto the Delaware T2 Center’s YouTube channel. More will follow so feel free to subscribe to see more in the coming weeks.
We owe a huge thanks to a host of folks that helped us deliver a great conference this year. Some twenty five speakers attended from all over the region and brought thought-provoking ideas for our attendees. Our vendors answered endless tough questions from our attendees. Several of them provided demonstrations outside to further illustrate how their products work and how they could best be used. Event sponsors, Slurry Pavers, Pennoni, and the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of APWA, helped keep the registration low for attendees. Finally, some attendees drove a long way to be at the conference, immersed themselves in the technical issues, met new colleagues, and joked and carried on with us for three days. Our goal was a casual conference where we can all learn new things to take back home with us and all these stakeholders banded together to make it happen.
With Seven Springs in the books, the Mid-Atlantic Region staff are exhausted, but it is time to start planning 2024, when we will return to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. If you were with us a few years ago, you will be glad to hear we are returning to the Atlantic Sands Hotel and Conference Center. You’ll be right on the Boardwalk and a few feet from the Atlantic Ocean October 23-25, 2024. Watch this space for details as they develop and have a look at our premier trailer for the conference. Don’t miss out when the RMC returns to Rehoboth Beach, because we would love to see a strong Delaware contingent.
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