Participating in a T3 Webinar

T3 Webinars are Internet conferences where ITS topics are presented and discussed. T3s are a widely-used and convenient platform for learning about issues in ITS procurement, implementation, evaluation, operations, and maintenance. T3s cover ITS used in transit, highway, and commercial vehicle operations. T3s are sponsored by the ITS Professional Capacity Building (ITS PCB) Program at the U.S. Department of Transportation. The ITS PCB Program also sponsors the ITS Peer-to-to Peer (P2P) Program.

Being asked to participate in a T3 Webinar indicates that P2P staff believes the larger ITS community would benefit greatly from learning about the lessons and outcomes of your peer exchange. Staff from the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center , administrators of the P2P and T3 Programs, will coordinate all activities needed to put on a successful T3 Webinar.

Your Role: During the T3 Webinar, you will present the lessons learned or the learning outcomes that resulted from the peer exchange. You might also be teamed with another presenter. For example, if the peer event involved one agency visiting another agency to learn about a process or a technology, both agencies generally present in the T3. The organization and format of your T3 Webinar will be determined by you and the T3 Program staff.

Federal Role: Each T3 Webinar is hosted by a Federal ITS subject matter expert. The Federal host facilitates the webinar by introducing the session, managing the question and answer discussion, and adding the Federal perspective to the discussion when needed. The Federal host does not present during the Webinar but can act as a resource to the presenters during the development of their presentations.

Time Commitment: The time commitment required for participating in a T3 varies but as a rule, you can expect to spend up to 4-6 hours on all activities required to put on a T3 webinar (see key activities below). In general, the most time is spent on thinking through the storyline of your presentation and then organizing content to fit that storyline. If you already have a presentation developed on the subject, your time commitment will be less. Usually, these are the key activities involved in preparing for, and presenting, a T3 Webinar:

1. A 60-90 minute planning meeting to discuss the content and organization of the T3.
2. Time commitment off-line to develop a draft PowerPoint presentation based on the planning meeting discussion. This step makes up the bulk of the time commitment. If you already have a presentation developed on the T3 subject, your time commitment will be less.
3. Review of the draft presentation by T3 Program staff.
4. Finalization of draft presentation based on T3 staff comments (comments are negotiable; most comment relate to organization of the presentation and the "story" the presentation tells; staff does not usually comment on technical content).
5. A 60-90 minute orientation meeting to familiarize the presenters and Federal host with the net conference format (software, roles/responsibilities during the webinar, and discussion of how the question and answer period will be managed. Presenters can also use this meeting to do a dry-run of their presentation if desired.
6. A 90 minute T3 Webinar.
7. Review of session’s Question and Answer transcripts (provided to presenters several days after the T3 Webinar). T3 staff will ask presenters to review the comments they made during the Question and Answer discussion. The level of review is the preference of the presenter.

After the T3 Webinar, T3 Program staff post the sessions presentation(s), the Question and Answer transcript, and the audio of the session to the T3 Archives.