Another year, not just another summit

I somehow got roped into organizing the Silicon Valley Bike Advocacy Summit for the second year, and I have to say - things went pretty well! I couldn't have possibly done it myself, though. This year I was blessed with a committee and a co-host. So, many many many thanks go to Stanford Hospital & Clinics for partnering with us on the event, and a world of thanks to Ellen, Ariadne, Cindy, Maylyn, and Lucy for serving as my own personal event army - calling sponsors, finding speakers, taste-testing caterers (hey, it's not all hard work), brainstorming content, duping graphic designers into laying out our invitation and program, and finding money to pay for stuff.

I also want to thank all our speakers and session moderators who made the Summit a truly fun and engaging event for our attendees. We were fortunate enough to wrangle a bunch of smart, passionate panelists, and without their generosity and enthusiasm no amount of preparation on our end would have sufficed. Y'all come back real soon!

In all, we had around 150 attendees at the Summit, with audience members coming from as far away as Yuba City and speakers who joined us from Chicago and New York. We covered a big variety of topics - from local Safe Routes to School efforts, to Federal funding of transit systems, to Caltrans' requirements for bike infrastructure. I learned a lot and I hope everyone else did as well. Most importantly, the inspirational stories shared by attendees reminded me how exciting it is to be doing work that makes our world a healthier, cleaner, more peaceful place. Thanks for that, everybody!