Less than three weeks ago, Clean Fuels Ohio (CFO) wrapped up the 2020 Midwest Green Transportation Forum and Expo. The fully virtual event was uncharted territory for the organization. It was a huge success in terms of total attendees, participants in virtual expo and educational sessions, and direct engagement between attendees, members, sponsors, exhibitors and speakers. Rachel Ellenberger’s article in the October newsletter tells the full story. Through the rest of 2020, the focus turns to the critical work of leveraging impact on what matters – deploying advanced fuels, vehicles, technologies, charging/fueling facilities and smart mobility systems and enacting policies at all levels to overcome market barriers.
“We don’t hold a conference just to hold a conference,” said Sam Spofforth, CFO’s Executive Director. “It all comes down to following up with partners to create real impact in the market.”
Attendees came from 25 states, including Ohio. First, staff are segmenting attendees by state, then sharing contacts with peer Clean Cities coalitions across the country to enable them to follow up. Second, staff are sharing limited attendee contact information with sponsors and exhibitors. Data from the virtual platform yields further insights on interests based on attendance of specific educational and expo sessions. Staff are also analyzing survey results.
Ohio participants have been organized into categories – types of fleets, local, state and federal government, various types of businesses, planners, and citizens. Over the next few months, Clean Fuels Ohio’s goal is to follow up directly with all Ohio participants to gauge specific interests and potential opportunities to explore and evaluate cleaner transportation options, facilitate additional industry and peer connections and move projects and policies forward.
In some cases, follow up may include creation of working groups to focus on specific fuels and technologies based on interest, fleet type, and among potential site hosts for EV charging. Thus, implementing partners could benefit from peer-consultation in addition to analyses and guidance from CFO staff.
The diverse array of fuels, technologies, peer-fleet lessons learned, policy issues and other subjects addressed over two weeks will yield many new opportunities. These include electrification, renewable and conventional natural gas and propane Autogas, biofuels, efficiency, and more.
Finally, the virtual platform continues to provide learning opportunities. Attendees can view any session they missed until the end of March 2021. Agenda details remain on the conference website. Those who missed the conference entirely can still register, then use the Whova app to gain access to all the content, plus connect with other registered attendees.
“We look forward to connecting with you over the next several weeks,” said Andrew Conley, CFO’s Chief Program Officer. “Our goal remains to assist in any way possible to help our partners develop successful projects that produce economic and sustainability benefits.”
