About Helen Sullivan

Helen Sullivan is IPI’s communications counsel.

Action Item: Parking Trend-spotting Survey Time

April 5, 2013 By
Helen Sullivan

“Trends, like horses, are easier to ride in the direction they are going.” shutterstock_113788327
John Naisbitt, futurist, author of Megatrends

Understanding trends can make you smart, make you money, and make you successful.

I urge you to take five minutes to participate in IPI’s third annual Emerging Trends in Parking Survey. There are only 10 questions, plus a few at the end for demographics. I think you’re going to enjoy the new questions we’ve added this year, which help identify cities that are progressive when it comes to parking.

In addition to capturing overarching trends that are affecting the parking industry, there are questions related to trends specific to parking and sustainability. There’s also a provocative new question this year about the bad parking and driving habits parking professionals find most frustrating.

This is a nationally projectable, quantitative study developed and analyzed by marketing researchers that helps us benchmark and monitor parking industry trends. It also creates an opportunity for IPI to generate positive publicity that helps bring greater awareness for the important role parking has in terms of urban mobility, life on this planet, etc.

Your thoughtful answers to open-ended questions on the survey, such as “What’s the next big thing in parking?,” have been the seeds for IPI programming ideas, articles in The Parking Professional, and educational sessions at the IPI Conference & Expo. We listen!

We also use the results to guide the Parking Matters® program. One question asks you to weigh in on what group is most important for us to reach with our messages about the value of parking expertise. The collective wisdom shared in previous surveys to this question alone have been instrumental in targeting our efforts for maximum efficiency.

Ten questions – less than 10 minutes. Please weigh in. Your opinion counts. We’ll be releasing results in conjunction with the upcoming IPI Conference & Expo in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., May 19-22.

Please take the survey now, or by the Wed April 17 cut-off date. The survey is open to all parking professionals, but  IPI members in particular have a track record for incredible response rates to this type of survey, and that is appreciated beyond measure.

Filed Under: Industry Trends, Inside IPI

Parking Love List

February 14, 2013 By
Helen Sullivan

 

It’s no secret: I’m a bit fickle. I love some parking garages because they are extreme, some for their sheer physical beauty, some forP-HEART
their history, or because they are iconic, some for cutting-edge and just plain cool design, some for their intelligence, and some for being practical and sustainable. I have a particular soft spot for the ones that are artsy and have a poetic sensibility.

I am in the process of putting together a list of the parking structures I love best, and I’d like to meet a few new ones, too.  Please visit IPI’s Pinterest site to see photographs of a work-in-progress hot list of cool parking places:

  • 1111 Lincoln Road, Miami
  • Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee
  • Santa Monica Civic Center, Santa Monica
  • Michigan Theater, Detroit
  • Autostadt Car Towers, Wolfsburg
  • Car Park One, Oklahoma
  • Greenway Self Park, Chicago
  • Eureka Carpark, Melbourne
  • Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City
  • Nelson-Atkins Museum Parking Garage, Kansas City
  • The Poetry Garage, Chicago
  • Umihotaru, Tokyo
  • Parkhaus Zoo, Leipzig
  • Mineta San Jose International Airport, San Jose
  • Marina City, Chicago

By the way, this is my personal list, not an officially IPI-sanctioned list!  But, we will be surveying parking professionals soon, and with your input, this list will grow. Please share names, places, and photos of  parking facilities with a big wow factor that you love  –  on Valentine’s Day, and beyond.

 

Filed Under: Architecture, Inside IPI

Parking and IoT: The Internet of Things

January 29, 2013 By
Helen Sullivan

IoT stands for the Internet of Things, and it’s been dubbed by many as the next stage in the evolution of the internet. The word “next” doesn’t seem quite right, though, because it appears to already be here. If IoT isn’t part of your vocabulary now, it will be.

The effects on transportation, urban mobility, and life as we know it is huge–certainly in ways beyond what my non-technical mind can grasp, but I know that many parking professionals and parking equipment suppliers and service providers are already at the cutting-edge.

The Internet of Things came up when IPI Executive Director Shawn Conrad and I were meeting last week with Laurens Eckelboom of Parkmobile, and David Cummins of Xerox, co-chairs of IPI’s new Smart Parking Alliance.  And, I recently discovered that the Consumer Electronics Show dubbed 2013 the Year of IoT, as reported in a guest blog post on Forbes.com by Robert Raskin, Founder of Living in Digital Times.

The “internet of everything” is the focus of a CISCO Systems, Inc. 60-second ad called Tomorrow Starts Here now airing in some television markets, and is explained in a Cisco YouTube video. An internet search will find no shortage of references to IoT!

As with any big idea or innovation, IoT is not without its challenges, as outlined in this Wired blog by Andrew Rose, which warns of potential privacy and security issues.

I’m very eager to hear your thoughts on the Internet of Things — and what you see as its  impact on parking now, and in the future.  When I speak with reporters about parking, I like to bring these ideas to life with real-world examples.

Filed Under: Future of Parking, Technology

Parking Publicity: Making “The List,” Watching it Twice

December 7, 2012 By
The List Parking Tips to Reduce Holiday Stress Around Town Story

Watch this fun video about parking during the holidays and share the link. It’s just one example
of IPI’s annual publicity campaign (via the Parking Matters® program) to provide the public with
holiday parking advice that reflects well on the parking profession. This is a video of a segment
on the hot new show The List, which aired last Friday on network affiliated stations in Phoenix,
Baltimore, Tampa, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Tulsa. IPI Chair Casey Jones, CAPP, is featured
via a Skype interview with the reporter, and not only is IPI mentioned, but the segment also
includes footage of our website. As usual, the commentary includes light-hearted disbelief that
there is an association for parking professionals, but there’s time spent talking about industry
innovations such as mobile apps as well.

Our Parking Matters® program is generally focused on business-related media, but a few times
a year we send out something that will generate general consumer coverage–trying to get some
fun, positive coverage about parking–and that’s what our holiday tips news release is all about.
Educating the public to be careful because so many crashes take place in parking areas is a
good public service message as well, and it’s good for the industry.

I have another list – it’s the (long) list of the IPI members who have taken time out of their day,
often at a moment’s notice, to speak to reporters and be ambassadors for the entire profession
through the Parking Matters® program.

In the past months, Dennis Burns, CAPP, helped me frame a message for the UBM Future
Cities blog, Larry Cohen, CAPP, was interviewed for a Pennsylvania newspaper, Roamy Valera,
CAPP, was quoted in a Florida daily, Art Noriega fielded questions from a business reporter
in Arizona, Bob Harkins and Geary Robinson, CAPP, were featured experts in a column in
Buildings Magazine, Cindy Campbell is tapped for radio and newspaper articles regularly, Mike
Drow, CAPP, was quoted in BOMA Magazine, Isaiah Mouw, CAPP, Mike Klein, CAPP, Allen
Corry, CAPP, Rick Decker, CAPP, Tim Haahs, Gary Means, CAPP, Tom Wunk, CAPP, Laurens
Eckelboom, Liliana Rambo, CAPP, Dave Hill, CAPP, and many others, have all provided
outstanding Parking Matters® media support. Read examples of media coverage, along with
tips on How to Speak Parking Matters here.

IPI Chair Casey Jones, CAPP and IPI Executive Director Shawn Conrad, CAE serve as our
primary media spokespersons, of course, and they are on speed dial – not a week goes by
they aren’t tapped for a media interview. We’re spreading the word about the value of parking
professionals, and that’s cheerful news to spread, this season and always.

Filed Under: Lighter Side of Parking, Perception of Parking

Six Words About Parking

March 8, 2012 By
Helen Sullivan

Are you familiar with the six-word project that originated at Smith College and launched a movement? The idea is that you can sum up your life in six words. Here’s a six-word example from John Grogan, the journalist who cashed in big with his memoir Marley & Me: “The dumb dog sure paid off.”  There are websites and a growing list of books devoted to this endeavor. Six words about love, six words about work, six words about everything.

IPI’s Parking Matters® program in six words: Changing perceptions about parking through education. That’s six words. And, often that’s about all the chance I get to convince a reporter to write an article about parking or persuade an editor that there is another side to the negative spin on a story in the works.

Here are a few of my favorite six-word sound bites that serve as conversation starters about the importance of parking and the value of parking professionals:

  • Parking professionals focus on customer service.
  • Parking laws: Needed to prevent chaos.
  • Parking problem?  Consult a parking professional.
  • Emerging parking trends: Technology and sustainability.
  • Sustainable communities depend on parking expertise.
  • Prioritize parking in planning urban projects.
  • Parking is integral to urban planning.
  • A successful downtown depends on parking.
  • Economic development hinges on smart parking.
  • Police find criminals via parking violations.
  • Parking First Observers are trained anti-terrorists.
  • Parking is about moving people forward.
  • Technology is driving a parking revolution.
  • Counterintuitive, but parking and sustainability mesh.

One six word request:   Help me add to this list!

Filed Under: Lighter Side of Parking, Perception of Parking