Tuesday, July 14

Location: Tuscany Ballroom

Description: Over 1,000 school transportation professionals will attend the STN EXPO Trade Show, including manufacturers, OEMs and suppliers offering new and existing products, solutions and services that help transporters perform their jobs better and more efficiently. These exhibiting companies will connect with professionals who transport children of all ages, sizes and distinctions, and who prepare specifications for products and services, make final decisions on purchases, and are responsible for recommending purchases.

Location: Naples 6 & 7

Moderator: Ryan Gray

Panelists: Richard Jimenez, Timothy Purvis, GP Singh, & Rosalyn Vann-Jackson

Description: Artificial intelligence is already embedded in routing, telematics, cameras, and back‑office tools—but most transportation teams still see it as a mystery, a threat or simply “that ChatGPT thing.” In this opening panel, transportation leaders and technologists will cut through the hype to define what AI actually is (and isn’t) today, how vendors are using it, and what it really means for dispatch, fleet management, safety, HR and frontline staff. Panelists will discuss policy and safeguard considerations, strategies for working with IT and vendors, and ways to turn AI into a time‑saving thought partner instead of a job‑taking fear factor. Attendees will leave with concrete ideas and questions to bring back to their districts and operations. Immediately following this panel, participants will move into focused breakout sessions for deeper dives into AI used as a decision-making tool for bell times, budgeting, dispatch, fleet management, personnel productivity, and safety.

Location: Naples 1 & 2

Speaker: GP Singh

Description: This breakout explores how AI can support smarter, faster decisions in the dispatch office without replacing the critical human judgment of dispatchers. We’ll look at how AI tools can help with real-time route adjustments, handling last‑minute absences, managing field trips, and communicating changes to drivers and families. The discussion will also highlight practical guardrails—what to automate versus what must stay in human hands—and how to work with IT to ensure data security and reliability. Attendees will hear concrete examples of prompts, workflows, and use cases that reduce manual effort and improve responsiveness. The session is designed to be interactive, giving dispatchers and leaders a chance to share current practices, ask questions, and leave with prompts and ideas they can try immediately.

Location: Naples 3 & 4

Speaker: Richard Jimenez

Description: This breakout focuses on how AI can support personnel decisions, productivity, and professional growth across the transportation team. We’ll look at how leaders are using AI to draft communications, build training materials, create checklists and SOPs, and analyze staffing patterns—while still maintaining human oversight and judgment. The session will emphasize moving beyond “using AI like Google” toward treating it as a thought partner for problem‑solving and decision support. We’ll also discuss safeguards: ethical use, bias, protecting employee and student data, and the importance of clear district policies and training before AI is widely adopted. Attendees will leave with concrete examples of prompts and workflows they can use to save time, support staff, and elevate the strategic work of their departments.

Location: Naples 6 & 7

Speaker: Tim Purvis

Description: This breakout explores how AI can support smarter, more transparent budgeting decisions in student transportation. We’ll discuss how AI tools can help analyze historical spending, forecast fuel and labor costs, model “what if” scenarios (such as adding a route tier or changing bell times), and surface savings opportunities without sacrificing service quality. The session will emphasize guardrails around data privacy, security, and accuracy—how to work with IT and business services to ensure that budget models are grounded in reliable, district‑approved data. We’ll also cover how to use AI outputs to communicate more clearly with superintendents, boards, and unions, turning complex budget scenarios into understandable options. Participants will leave with practical examples of prompts and workflows they can use to build budget narratives, compare scenarios quickly, and support more strategic financial planning for their operations.

Location: Naples 1 & 2

Speaker: GP Singh

Description: This breakout explores how AI can help districts make better decisions about fleet health, lifecycle planning, and day‑to‑day operations. We’ll discuss using AI to interpret telematics data, maintenance histories, and fuel/energy use to prioritize work, predict failures, and improve uptime. The session will also cover long‑range planning questions—such as replacement cycles, EV readiness, and right‑sizing the fleet—and how AI can help model different scenarios. Participants will hear about common vendor claims around “AI‑enabled” systems, what questions to ask, and how to work with IT to validate data security and integration. The conversation will be practical and example‑driven, including prompts, with time for attendees to share their own fleet challenges and explore how AI might help.

Location: Naples 3 & 4

Speaker: Rosalyn Vann-Jackson

Description: This breakout focuses on using AI to inform bell time models and scheduling decisions that impact transportation, instruction, and labor. We’ll discuss how AI can help simulate different bell schedules, model route impacts, and surface tradeoffs around ride times, tiering, staffing, and fleet utilization. The session will emphasize working closely with IT and district leadership to use secure, district-approved data sources and to keep AI as a decision-support tool—not the final decision maker. We’ll also address how to communicate AI-informed scenarios to school boards, unions, and community stakeholders. Participants will leave with examples of questions and prompts to ask AI so they can quickly test “what if” models and bring clearer options to their leadership teams.

Location: Naples 6 & 7

Speaker: Tim Purvis

Description: This breakout focuses on using AI to inform bell time models and scheduling decisions that impact transportation, instruction, and labor. We’ll discuss how AI can help simulate different bell schedules, model route impacts, and surface tradeoffs around ride times, tiering, staffing, and fleet utilization. The session will emphasize working closely with IT and district leadership to use secure, district-approved data sources and to keep AI as a decision-support tool—not the final decision maker. We’ll also address how to communicate AI-informed scenarios to school boards, unions, and community stakeholders. Participants will leave with examples of questions and prompts to ask AI so they can quickly test “what if” models and bring clearer options to their leadership teams.