What’s the future of parking, transportation, and mobility, especially with so much new technology and so many trends coming toward the industry? That was the topic of Monday’s General Session at the 2017 IPI Conference & Expo, and the expert panel did not fail to impress and intrigue the audience.

Stephen Smyth, CEO, Flow kicked things off with an explanation of what he considers a big challenge: Now that parking and mobility organizations have access to mountains of data from sensors and other technologies, what to do with it all to serve customers? “The challenge is actually accessing data and sharing that data across different types of public and private entities to create a great trip experience for the end user.”

Panelist Brian Shaw, CAPP, executive director of parking and transportation at Stanford University, told the audience to prepare for seismic changes that will dramatically alter the way professionals in the industry do business.

“If you don’t have data, you’re not going to be competitive and you’re going to frustrate people,” he said. “We don’t want that.”

The presentation went on to cover the Internet of Things, autonomous and shared vehicles, and what those and other technologies will do to parking. Look for full coverage in a future issue of The Parking Professional, but a little food for thought for now.