Bike Summit Call for Proposals!

This year’s theme for the National Bike Summit — United Spokes: Moving Beyond Gridlock — is all about winning.

With another transportation bill looming in Congress, we must strengthen our movement AND address the big questions that are holding us back.

The 2014 Summit — and the National Women’s Bicycling Forum — will share success stories and best practices from the federal, state and local level; examine new means of messaging and communications; and take on some of our critics’ most challenging arguments against investing in bicycle-friendly policies and funding.

We invite you to submit your ideas and expertise to make the event a success. Please fill out this online application by December 5, 2013 for consideration as a presenter or moderator at the Bike Summit or Women’s Forum.

Success Stories

This year we’re looking for success stories on the following topics. We are accepting ideas for full session proposals from within one community (preferred) or for individual presentations.

• Addressing equity and diversity — including working with women, youth, and people of color (in specific outreach / programming or organizational partnerships)
• Working with the business community
• Delivering effective education programs that improve safety
• Changing the conversation through better messaging
• Winning elections – for political office, funding, or policy changes
• City / community success in increasing mode share

Answering Our Critics

There are still a handful of arguments that are routinely used against “doing something more for bicyclists.” How do we get past these issues, even if we can’t take them off the table altogether?

We are looking for a handful of thought-leaders who have demonstrated the ability to rise above these issues and successfully increase funding and improve the planning and policy framework for bicyclists at the state and local level. Sessions at the National Bike Summit will help us all get past the arguments that:

• Cyclists don’t pay their way; they don’t contribute
• Cyclists are scofflaws and until we clean up our act we deserve nothing
• Bicycling is not a Federal issue; it’s just a local matter
• Bikes are still a marginal activity and not a mainstream mode of transportation; the numbers and diversity of users aren’t there

We are NOT looking for presentations that “prove” these arguments are wrong. We are looking for partnerships, messaging, political strategies, and other winning techniques that eliminate these arguments and move us past them to success.

Moderators

We are also looking for strong moderators for these sessions who have the ability to:

• Will work with us to prepare background information on the issue
• Facilitate the panelists and audience in constructive conversation and debate
• Maintain a cordial environment and remain open to all sides through the session.

If you’re interested in presenting at the 2014 National Bike Summit or Women’s Forum, please complete this short online application by December 5.

Photo by Brian Palmer: Veronica Davis, co-founder of Black Women Bike DC, presenting at the 2013 Summit.