Tips from 2018 Accelerate! Conference & Expo

TransConnect Services (TCS) is a proud partner of the Women in Trucking Association (WIT) and we gladly attended their fourth annual Accelerate! Conference & Expo last month. This conference is designed with transportation, logistics, supply chain, and other trucking industry professionals in mind. It was centered around providing helpful information and networking opportunities, promoting personal growth and empowerment, and having fun. We’re going to discuss this year’s conference and why you should add it to your list for 2019.

You’ll Learn Something

The 2018 Accelerate! Conference & Expo was held in Frisco, TX with more than 830 attendees. Those attending the conference were kept busy with over 60 educational sessions covering trends in trucking, regulations from the FMCSA, and critical transportation issues.

One of our favorite sessions during the conference was from The Adcom Group, “How Popular Culture Shapes Young People’s Image of Trucking.” Members of the younger generation are our future workforce and it was very informative to hear their research about how the portrayal of the trucking industry and truckers affects young people’s decisions about entering the industry.

You’ll Be Inspired to Grow Personally and Professionally

WIT works hard to engage and retain women in the trucking industry and develop female leaders. Those initiatives were included in the conference. The keynote speaker was Lois Barth, Human Development Expert, Motivational Speaker, Coach, and Author. She encouraged conference-goers to let go of their inner critic and use their unique gifts to help them sparkle personally and professionally. We also got to hear from the four finalists of the WIT Influential Woman in Trucking Award. Each finalist talked about the importance of using resiliency, innovation, persistence, and empathy as leadership traits and answered questions during a Q & A session.

You’ll Network and Meet Some Great People

The Accelerate! Conference & Expo is three days and you will have plenty of opportunities to meet and network with people from all aspects of the trucking industry. Networking happens in-between sessions, at the booth with exhibitors, at the closing receptions each day, and during lunch. There were interactive discussions that you could sign up for lunch. TCS got to sit with Ellen Voie, some truck drivers, and a trucking company owner in Ghana during one of our lunches. We learned a ton and made new friends in just one hour. Sometimes networking can be intimidating but at this conference, they offered “Accelerated Speed Networking” where you quickly network with 50 different people and pass out business cards – it made chatting with new people easy and fun.

You’ll Have Fun

Speaking of fun, Accelerate! has a reception party each night. These receptions are just what you need after a long day of sessions, it allows your mind to take a break with great food and fun. At “The Where’s Clare” Reception, hosted by TA and Petro, people showed up dressed like Clare and they picked a winner for the best costume.

TCS and WIT

We’re proud of our partner, WIT for putting together a great conference and expo for the trucking industry. They’re working hard to leverage a diverse workforce for the trucking industry. They believe that everyone deserves a chance to succeed and so do we. At TCS, we believe everyone deserves access to the same fuel discounts no matter how many trucks they have.

If you’re ready to benefit from big fuel discounts and zero transactions fees at in-network locations, call us today at 844-827-7705 or get started here.