What are we looking for?
We are looking for speakers with new perspectives, solid best practices and/or innovative twists to winter maintenance, workforce development, and fleet/operations. At Snow Conference, participants will have the ability to attend sessions from six tracks throughout the event. Within each track, there are presentations specific to that topic. Each year, we receive feedback on what attendees would like to learn more about.
Below is a list of requested topics for 2024.
Information Management for Winter Operations:
- Emergency management of severe winter events
- Winter weather plans and snow/ice control techniques for areas with infrequent winter storm events
- Seven–10-day weather forecasting improvements and maintenance decisions
- Community outreach/citizen interaction
- How to determine level of service
- Environmental resilience and impacts of winter maintenance practices
Innovative Solutions for Snow and Ice Control:
- Use of electric vehicles and how its changing fleet management
- Technology advancement and the evolution of winter operations
- Trending technologies and expanded uses for current technologies: (GPS, AVL, RWIS, smart city technologies, mobile apps, asset management, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, etc.)
Leadership and Workforce Solutions:
- Workforce development and succession planning
- Innovation in workforce recruitment and retention
- Preparing staff for leadership roles when extreme weather happens
- Recognizing career transitions and cross-training between departments
- Increasing staff during extreme weather
Materials Application—Snow and Ice Control:
- Deicing, liquids, blending, and the exploration of the materials used in snow and ice control
- Anti-icing techniques and tips
- Chemical usage and selection
Winter Fleet Operations and Equipment Management:
- Multi-use vehicles—fleet vehicles serving outside winter operations
- Insights on the growing supply chain concern and how to plan for the future
- Snowfighting equipment
- Winter fleet operations and vehicle preparation
- Specification writing and ordering of fleet vehicles
- Maintaining less used fleet vehicles
- Winterproofing fleet vehicles for snowplowing operations
- Establishing timely replacements of fleet assets
Winter Maintenance Planning and Operations:
- Strategies for plowing and disposal, right-of-way management
- Snow and ice clearing/management around facilities, sidewalks, walkways
- Best practices for winter maintenance planning and operations
- Approaches to mixed precipitation challenges
See where these topic areas fall in terms of the “Track” you can select for your proposal.