Industry experts to discuss long-term future of USPS
PostalVision 2020, the annual conference that seeks to bring a little blue-skies thinking to the question of how the US Postal Service should face up to the digital age, has announced its line-up for its June event. For the second annual event in Washington DC, the programme has been expanded to cover two days, seeking to focus on three key questions regarding the long-term future of USPS – what will society need in the way of postal services, who should provide them and what would be viable operational models.
Speakers and panelists will look to brainstorm alternative postal delivery platforms and business models for the Postal Service, which is currently losing as much as $14bn a year as American consumers shift to digital communications.
Among the speakers will be US Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe, Postal Regulatory Commission chairman Ruth Goldway, Inspector General David Williams, GAO assistant director Teresa Anderson, NALC president Frederic Rolando and Postcom president Gene Del Polito.
This year’s event will bring in international expertise from the likes of Universal Postal Union e-business expert Dr Farah Abdallah and Global Address Data Association executive director Charles Prescott and global postal industry stalwart Elmar Toime.
This year will feature digital communications experts including public relations industry guru Larry Weber, City University of New York professor and social media commentator Jeff Jarvis, and MIT’s V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai, one of the early developers of email technology.
“Beyond the short term”
John Callan, managing director of consultancy Ursa Major Associates LLC and the creator of PostalVision 2020, said that with the ongoing Congressional debate over the future of the Postal Service and the new five-year business plan from the USPS itself, now was clearly the “time for serious discussions” on the future of the Postal Service.
He said: “While the government is focused on critically necessary short-term solutions, PostalVision 2020 is a unique opportunity to discuss what happens beyond the short-term. Our speaker roster, featuring key postal policy makers and disruptive digital thinkers, is perfectly suited to re-imagine what the USPS could and should look like in 2020 and beyond.”
PostalVision 2020 participants will be invited at the close of the conference to assist in developing a plan including potential scenarios laying out the role of the government and private sector in providing postal services up to 2020. Based on discussion at the event, the plan will lay out recommended goals for USPS.
More information on PostalVision 2020 is available at postalvision2020.com, with the event itself taking place at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington D.C. on 12-13 June, 2012.
