Top EV Transportation & Technology Summit Coming In 19 Days — Register Now!

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As I noted yesterday, CleanTechnica‘s upcoming Wrocław Cleantech Revolution Tour conference is packed with great EV experts, speakers, and troublemakers, but remember that this isn’t the only event CleanTechnica is participating in next month.

The premier EV Transportation & Technology Summit, 6 time zones away, is taking place one week later in my home state of Florida, and I’ll be providing a new presentation and moderating two panels there. The event is packed with EV experts and detailed presentations on a variety of EV topics for the business sector, government sector, utility sector, and common consumers.

Since I last wrote about the EV Summit, three new speakers have been confirmed, so below is a short intro on them followed by a slightly modified repost of my previous article about the tantalizing Florida event.

Steven Polzin, Director of Mobility Policy Research at the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) at the University of South Florida, will give a presentation on “Policy and Planning for Innovative Transportation.” Dr. Polzin “carries out research in mobility analysis, public transportation, travel behavior, planning process development, and transportation decision-making; … [and] is on the editorial board of the Journal of Public Transportation and serves on several Transportation Research Board and APTA Committees.”

Jason Gaschel, Electric Vehicle Program Manager for Florida Power & Light (FPL), will present on “The Economic Impact of EVs.” Via fleet assessments and educational campaigns, Gaschel promotes EVs through one of the nation’s largest utilities. “Prior to joining FPL, Jason developed alternative energy programs at Seminole State College of Florida that featured electric transportation. He is a former chairman of Clean Cities Central Florida and holds a master’s degree in technical education from the University of Central Florida.”

David Thompson of Open EV Networks (the topic he’ll present on) has been focused on interoperability and operational freedom for decades. “He was a founding member of the BACnet Interest Group — North America and helped facilitate its merger with the BACnet Manufacturers’ Association to form BACnet International. In 2010 he founded The BACnet Group — Drupal as a non-profit Drupal Training Provider targeting BACnet-Drupal integrations. David is a Consultant for Function1, a software company specializing in enterprise technology. Founded in 2007, Function1 delivers its products, world-class services, customized solutions, and timely support across all sectors of industry.”

Here’s another look at other topics and presenters who will be in Cocoa in less than one month:

EV Summit Day 1*

First of all, the conference actually kicks off this year with in-depth workshops. The first day is fully dedicated to an “EV and Battery Technology” workshop and an “EV Powertrain, V2G Technology, and EV Case Study” workshop. Each workshop is 2½ hours long. I’m curious what will be presented in these sessions and will be taking a lot of notes, but nothing can replace being present yourself, so hopefully some of you can make it.

EV Summit Day 2

The next day, after the opening comments, I essentially kick off the show with a presentation on “EV R&D and the Future.” I will present an overview of the EV market, will share where I think it’s going in the near and long term, and will present findings from our extensive 2016 surveys of EV drivers.

I’m followed by Scott Miller of EV charging giant ChargePoint, and I’m genuinely very curious to see what he says about “EV Charging at Scale.” I’m sure I will pick up several insights, and I’ll do my best to drill him with some tough questions in order to uncover more. 🙂

After lunch, Leslie Eudy of NREL will talk about a favorite topic of CleanTechnica readers: “Electric Transit Buses: Clean, Quiet, Efficient!” I think we can basically assume what this will tell us — electric buses are much better for drivers, nicer for passengers, a huge boost for public health, key to climate action, and cheaper over a lifetime ownership basis. This is definitely going to be a cheerleader session, but as you know, CleanTechnica loves being a cleantech cheerleader. I imagine I’ll also pick up several stats and charts to use for future pieces highlighting how obvious of a choice electric buses now are for cities across the world. (Any bets that BYD & Proterra will be mentioned in this session?)

Regan Zane of Utah State University’s Center for Sustainable Electrified Transportation (SELECT) follows the buses to discuss a hot topic of ongoing debate — “Wireless EV Charging Systems.” Is wireless charging the future of EV charging? Will it remain a niche option forever? Will wireless charging also stimulate my brain cells and inspire better CleanTechnica articles? Are we really so lazy (or busy) that we can’t spend 2–3 seconds plugging in our cars when we get home?

The final individual presentation of the day looks like a fascinating one. Omer Tatari of the Electric Vehicle Transportation Center (EVTC) will talk about “Driving the Decision, Life-Cycles of EV Transportation.” Hmm, sounds interesting … but wait, what does that mean? The summary is: “Return on investment is a primary concern in the deployment of EVs. Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) can impact this analysis through the consideration of economic, environmental, regional, and societal influences. LCAs are employed in many project and financial assessments and are applicable whether a passenger vehicle, a transit bus, or a delivery truck is being considered.” Doug summarized it even further for me: “In short, it’s a very sophisticated ROI.” It looks enticing to me.

Panels are being incorporated into the conference this year, which I’m excited about since they can be so dynamic and can stimulate so much more discussion around complex topics. Also, I’m going to be moderating them, which will make them extra fun for me (and hopefully attendees). The first day ends with a panel on “Technology and Planning.” If you want to toss questions my way to throw at the panelists, feel free to do so in the comments below!

EV Summit Day 3

The third day has another attractive lineup that fills out the policy side of the EV revolution.

After opening comments, one of my favorite presenters last year, BMW i3 driver Peter King of Drive Electric Florida and Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA), will talk about “Stakeholders of Drive Electric Florida.” Based on his presentation last year, I can guarantee this one will be great. I’m looking forward to learning more about the initiative and seeing Peter present again.

The next speaker will be an official from the US Department of Transportation and will present about “The FAST Act, Funding Future Transportation.” This is the money side of the equation that too many people don’t want to pay attention to. We should.

Steven Polzin will then present on “Policy and Planning for Innovative Transportation,” which I’m particularly interested in, given that my master’s degree was in city and regional planning.

As a Floridian (I apologize for that), the after-lunch presentation “Envisioning Florida’s Transportation Future” looks particularly interesting to me. Hopefully everyone isn’t falling asleep from lunch hitting their brains, but hey, that would be fitting for retiree-dominated and overly sunny Florida, wouldn’t it? For the sake of Tim Chapin of FSU, the presenter, let’s hope it’s a light enough lunch and people drink enough coffee to keep the eyelids open and soak up the useful information. Naturally, I’m expecting many of the points in Tim’s presentation could be applicable to other states and countries as well.

Among all of these wonderful sessions, this is one of the presentations I’m most curious to see: Cornelius Willingham of Nissan wraps up the day’s individual presentations with “An OEM’s Perspective.” Hmm, I’m very curious what Nissan will share. GM’s presentation last year was an excellent one. I’m guessing I won’t hear a lot about this or this, though.

The day concludes with a panel discussion on “Policy and the EV Future” which I will moderate. Watch out — I’m going to try to make this one super useful, utterly fascinating, and fun! (And if it isn’t, I’ll be sure to blame the panelists, of course.) Again, if you have suggestions for questions or prompts for this panel, I’d be happy to check them out in the comments below.

EV Summit Day 4

Yes, this beast of an EV conference has 4 days. David Thompson of Open EV Networks will start the day talking about … “Open EV Charging Networks.” Then, Richard Raustad of EVTC will present on “Real World Workplace Charging” and Jason Gaschel of FPL will wrap up with a presentation on “The Economic Impact of EVs.” Given that this last one is a topic I recently covered in a long CleanTechnica article, I’m very curious to see the presentation and fill some gaps in my story.

Go register for the 2016 EV Summit now.

*By the way, EV Annex co-founder Matt Pressman will be in attendance on this day if you want to chat about aftermarket Tesla gear, what it’s like riding in the already historic Tesla Model 3, and Getting Ready for Model 3, which I imagine most of you will read.