The 16th installment of BusCon will be the star attraction at Chicago's world famous Navy Pier Sept. 13 to 14. Registration begins at Noon, Monday, Sept. 12, with pre-registered attendees able to pick up their badges at the Chicago Marriott Downtown on the Magnificent Mile, between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. The Welcome Reception that same evening at the historic landmark InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile, sponsored by Radio Engineering Industries (REI), will also give attendees a chance to mix and mingle with old and new friends and associates.

Free shuttle service between the Chicago Marriott Downtown and Navy Pier will be provided by Illinois Bus Sales, with shuttle service running every 20 minutes on the hour.

At the show
This year, BusCon will offer the largest quantity and widest variety of vehicles and products in the 115,000-square-foot exhibit hall, which will be open 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 13 and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wednesday. As always, vehicles will take center stage on the show floor with buses, cutaways and chassis on display from a large array of  manufacturers.

Attendees will not want to miss Wednesday's Breakfast and Keynote Address: "How Clean Cities Can Help Fleets Tap into Alternative Fuels" with Mark Smith of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) national Clean Cities Program.

As vehicle technologies deployment manager, Smith's responsibilities include developing outreach strategies for implementing new national partnerships between industry and the DOE Clean Cities program to successfully deploy new vehicle technologies.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday Sept. 13, the Evening Network Reception, "On Top of the World," will be held at the Chicago Navy Pier Rooftop terrace, which provides stunning views of Lake Michigan.

Attendees can also visit www.busconexpo.com and enter their cell phone number for show alerts and contest opportunities happening during the event.

Sessions
Halsey King of Halsey King and Associates will return to BusCon to moderate both the "Bus Fires: Solutions for Extinguishing the Problem" and "Making the Move to Alternative Fuels: Panel of Experts" sessions. The latter will feature Clean Energy's John Somers and the Sales NetWork Inc.'s Greg Zilberfarb, while the former will feature Daniel Blower of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, Kidde Aerospace and Defense's Joseph Peoples and Bjorn Sundstrom from the SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden.

In addition, FAAC Inc.'s Transit Training Specialist and METRO-Magazine.com blogger Louie Maiello will present "Advance Performance Driver Training" — a criterion-based training program designed to predict the safety performance of student operators after training by identifying potentially unsafe operators during training and disqualifying them from operating in passenger service.

Other sessions include "Is Your Drug and Alcohol Testing Program in Compliance with DOT Regulations?" with Jeff Waxman of the Illinois Department of Transportation and "4 Ways Transit Technology Helps You Effectively Manage Your Transportation System" with Solstice Transportation Group Inc.'s Mitch Skyer.

The popular University Transit Track also returns to BusCon, with Bob Bourne, Bourne Transit Consulting LLC, leading "Using Transit Research to Make Cost-Effective Service Improvements," a session that will review the Transit Cooperative Research Program, other university research. Other University Transit topics to be covered include, how to empower your front-line employees.

Sponsors
Sponsors for the 16th annual BusCon event include Ford, REI, United States Warranty Corp. and bluemedia. Visit www.busconexpo.com or call (800) 576-8788 for more information.