In late May, I traveled to beautiful Grapevine, Texas, part of the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex, to take part in the Railway Systems Suppliers, Inc., gathering. This meeting is unique among railroad sessions, and the 2008 confab lived up to the high standards set by its predecessors. As regular readers of this column know, I've been a fan of this current meeting format since its inception in 2001. (Full disclosure: I'm a member of the RSSI Board of Directors.) Its goal is to bring together the people who use the signal equipment in the field with the companies that manufacture and sell it. Whatever you have to say about this meeting, you have to admit that it achieves this goal. Since the inception of this format, suppliers were urged to meet people in the exhibit hall, not take them out for dinner or to the golf course. Meals are all served on the exhibit floor to reduce expenses for attendees and their companies and encourage railroads to send more of their people. The meeting sites have been in railroad hubs such as Kansas City, Omaha, Chicago, Louisville and Calgary so there would be a large number of folks who could attend the exhibit without having to spend much on travel or hotels.
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