AASHTO Journal - Agenda for Annual TransComm Meeting Detailed

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials recently provided more details regarding the annual meeting of its Committee on Transportation Communications – known as TransComm – to be held in Chicago September 21-24. Click here to register.

[Above image by AASHTO]

TransComm promotes excellence in communications through the exchange of ideas and educational programming, presents an annual skills awards competition, and advises other AASHTO committees on communication issues. It’s comprised of public affairs professionals from all 50 state departments of transportation, plus those of Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.

The TransComm 2025 Annual Meeting will feature an interactive plenary session entitled “Whose Idea is it Anyway?” that is a considered a “kitchen sink” communications forum to help inspire everything from safety campaigns to troubleshooting crisis situations; a forum that will share best practices on a range of transportation topics and tools of the trade from three states: Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.

Breakout sessions at the TransComm conference will also delve into a broad range of subjects. One will focus on developing more effective communication during construction projects to help build trust within local communities while also minimizing disruptions.

The Texas Department of Transportation will share its experience at this session, using the past five years of its $674 million Oak Hill Parkway Design-Build project in Austin to illustrate how the agency built a proactive outreach campaign paired with a robust, data-driven measurement program.

Other breakout sessions will delve into how advancements in artificial intelligence applications could potentially change how transportation agencies engage the public and create communications; how TxDOT and the Illinois Department of Transportation targeted social media “influencers” to help enhance their safe driving public outreach efforts; and how public information officers play a critical role in keeping the public informed during emergency situations, with the South Carolina Department of Transportation sharing its experiences in this area.

The TransComm Annual Meeting will also feature the “Roll Call of the States,” where each state takes 90 seconds to highlight a significant accomplishment from the last year, or a challenge they’re looking to address within their department.

The “roll call” helps facilitate conversation for the rest of the event; offering ways for attending state DOT communications professionals to get ideas and solutions from their peers to help address their own particular challenges.

The annual TransComm Skills Awards will also be presented at the meeting; a competition that recognizes the best communications and marketing work from state DOTs over the last year.

To learn more about the TransComm Annual Meeting, click here.