Meet A Speaker:
Gil Penalosa

Guillermo (Gil) Penalosa will be our keynote speaker at the Wednesday conference luncheon. His topic will be "Walk and Bike: Connections Beyond Fun and Games."

Gil is the president of Walk & Bike For Life, based in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. "This not-for-profit organisation promotes walking and cycling as activities, and parks and trails as facilities," said Gil. " Its objectives evolve from the strong linkage between walking and cycling to health, recreation, transportation, environment, and economic development."

In the late 1990s Gil was Commissioner of Parks, Sports and Recreation for Bogotá, Colombia, where he led a major re-development of its parks system, including the design of more than 400 parks and the construction of more than 170 parks. He also brought about the closure to cars of 91 kilometers of roads every Sunday to allow more than 1.5 million people to walk, run, skate and cycle.

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Meet A Speaker:
Jane Silberstein

Jane Silberstein will address the Opening Plenary at the conference on the topic of Eco-Municipalities. She will describe the ecomunicipality model for sustainable community development, and how the idea has taken hold in the Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior. Her focus is not bicycling and walking per se, but rather on an overall context for alternatives to the automobile making a lot of sense.

Jane's long and abiding interest in building sustainable communities brought her to this relatively untouched part of the country. Currently, she is an associate professor, University of Wisconsin Extension, and serves as the Community, Natural Resource and Economic Development Educator for Ashland County. Jane grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she received a B.A. from Hamline University and an M.A. in journalism and mass communications theory and research from the University of Minnesota. In 2000, she co-authored, with Chris Maser, Land Use Planning for Sustainable Development. More...

Pro Walk/Pro Bike 2006 Conference Schedule

Don't wait until you're in the door of the Monona Terrace Conference Center in Madison to decide which workshops you want to attend. We've posted the entire daily schedule, including all of the workshops, presentations, and poster sessions. To view that schedule, click here.

Take a moment to preview what's available during each of the nine resentation sessions. Hit the "Print Preview" button at the top of the page and you'll get a printer-friendly overview of the entire conference. A few minutes with a high lighter and you'll be all set to get the most out of the Pro Walk/Pro Bike conference.

Special Wednesday Evening Presentations

We'll be trying a "first" in Madison: a special Wednesday evening edition of presentations, with some fun and stories mixed with some factual information. First, Ellen Vanderslice will take a lighthearted look at the image of walking in a post-industrial culture. What are the messages about walking we get from pop culture, comics, cartoons, movies, literature, and fairy tales? Then Sheree Davis and Elise Bremer-Nei will guide you through A Day in the Life of a State Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator. Next we've got David Phillips, Charlie Gandy, and Drew Hanson looking at The History of Walking. And finally, Michelle DeRobertis and Randy Neufeld look at how music can help a movement get started and keep it rolling with Music for the Velorution. The Wednesday evening presentations start at 7p.m. and go until 10p.m. at the Lecture Hall of the Monona Terrace.

Mobile Workshops and Self-Guided Tours

We've posted the listings of the Mobile Workshops as well as a selection of local bicycle rides and walks, all provided by members of the Madison local host committee. You'll find them on the Pro Walk/Pro Bike conference portion of the NCBW web site.

On the left-hand navigation you'll find links for Mobile Workshops and Local Walks and Bike Rides. The mobile workshop listings include the times that these workshops will be offered on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon of the conference. Several of the rides and walks will also be available before and after the conference. You can go on a self-guided tour any time you feel like taking a break from the sessions, early in the morning, or after the sessions close in the evening. Maps and cue sheets will be provided for the self-guided tours.

If you would like to rent a bicycle while in Madison, for either daily rides or to take part in one of the mobile workshops, check the bicycle rental information we've posted on the conference web site.

On our travel page, we've also included several maps, including an overview map of Madison, the City of Madison bike map, and the Dane County, Wisconsin, bike map. These three maps can be downloaded as .pdf files from the site. You can also view the Dane County bike map on-line here.

Traffic Justice Institute and SRTS Practitioner's Workshop

If you haven't yet made your travel plans for Pro Walk/Pro Bike, consider coming a day early and taking part in one of the two special meetings on Tuesday: the Traffic Justice Institute or the Safe Routes to School Practitioner's Workshop.

On Tuesday, Sept. 5, from 11a.m. to 5p.m., the NCBW is offering the Traffic Justice Institute. With this meeting as a launch point, we plan to mount a campaign to redefine our societal perspective on motor vehicle crashes, and substantially reduce their occurrence. Note that this session is open to all...you don't need to be a Pro Walk/Pro Bike delegate in order to attend. However, you must register for the Traffic Justice Institute using the on-line registration form. The cost is $75, and includes lunch. More...

The Safe Routes to School Practitioners’ Workshop, presented by the National Center for Bicycling & Walking and the SRTS National Partnership, will run on Tuesday, September 5, from 1-5 PM. This workshop will include case studies from across the U.S; large and small discussion groups will explore the latest innovations in the implementation of local SRTS planning and initiatives.

The Safe Routes to School Practitioner's Workshop is free of charge, but you must pre-register using the on-line form.

Two cyclists, John Fair and Jack Becker, are traveling from Vancouver B.C. to Madison, Wisconsin, the environmentally friendly way, to attend the Pro Walk/Pro Bike 2006 Conference, "Making Connections"

To read their greeting and to check out their daily trip log, click here.