18th Annual Freight & Logistics Symposium: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally—Leveraging Minnesota’s Strengths to Confront Future Freight and Logistics Challenges

Friday, December 4, 2015, 8:00–10:00 am

1330 Industrial Boulevard NE
Minneapolis, MN 55413

About the Event

We may live in a global economy, but every connection to it is ultimately local. Without a doubt, the ability to successfully compete around the world depends on having the transportation services, infrastructure, and policies in the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota to support such activities. How can we leverage our defining strengths as a state to ensure we can meet tomorrow’s freight and logistics challenges?

At the 2015 symposium, Adie Tomer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program and a member of the Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative, gave the keynote presentation on economic competitiveness and freight’s metropolitan future. Tomer used economic trends across the local and global scale to raise important questions that statewide and metropolitan leaders should be thinking about as they map their freight-related future. Following Tomer’s presentation, a panel discussion with representatives from the business community and the public sector offered local perspectives on major global economic changes.

The second portion of the symposium featured a presentation and a panel discussion about the implementation of the new statewide freight plan and action agenda. The freight action agenda comprises a range of strategies for MnDOT and other Minnesota freight stakeholders, including near-term physical, operational, and policy actions. The session panelists serve on the Minnesota Statewide Freight System Plan Advisory Committee and in the Minnesota Legislature.


Proceedings


Presentations

Metro Trade: Regional Economies and the Role of Freight Transportation


Sponsors

This symposium is sponsored by the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Minnesota, in cooperation with: