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Training: Distance Learning Events


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Marketing Your Transportation Services to Older Adults

Wednesday, Mar. 19. 2-3 p.m. EST

Marketing transit services to older adults is becoming increasingly more important as America ages. In this session, Leslie Gonder with AARP explained marketing strategies for reaching older adults.  Also during this session, Steve Blacksher and Jon Swanson of Special Transit shared the comprehensive marketing plan used at their transit agency.

Supplemental materials related to the presentation
These materials are intended as additional resources to provide more in-depth information and it is not necessary to download them for the presentation.

Meet the presenters:

Leslie Gonder
Leslie Gonder is Sr. Manager, Brand and Integrated Channels for the Integrated Marketing Services team with specific responsibility for provider brand development and management as well as channel integration at AARP Services Inc. the taxable subsidiary of AARP.

Gonder has over 11 years experience in the marketing field, primarily in the field of consumer and business-to-business direct marketing and branding in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. In her current role, Leslie leads initiatives focused on brand awareness and messaging coherence for AARP’s product and services providers to drive brand differentiation and member engagement. Prior to that, she was Sr. Marketing Manager for Time Warner Cable’s commercial Internet Service Provider group where she was responsible for designing and implementing customer acquisition and retention initiatives for the SMB and Enterprise space. Her greatest strengths are her market knowledge and commitment to team success. Leslie lives in Alexandria, VA with her finance. 

Steve Blacksher and Jon Swanson
Steve Blacksher and Jon Swanson job-share as Directors of Customer and Community Services at Special Transit; a nonprofit transit agency located in Boulder, Colorado. Special Transit, established in 1979, has a mission to promote independence and self-sufficiency for people with limited mobility by providing caring, customer-focused transportation options.

Special Transit provides demand-response, door-through-door, driver-assisted transit services throughout Boulder County and surrounding communities. They provided over 120,000 passenger trips in 2007 to older adults, people with disabilities and very low-income individuals. Persons aged 60 years and older represent 79% of their riders and nearly 50% are over the age of 80.

Special Transit also provides free, one-one-one travel training to teach seniors and others to use public transit; coordinates a volunteer driver program to augment the paratransit services provided by their paid drivers; and offers a mileage reimbursement program to provide financial incentives for riders to use other alternative means of transit.

Steve has worked in the nonprofit sector for over 25 years and Jon had a distinguished career in higher education before coming to Special Transit. Together, they have over 18 years of transit experience in marketing, community outreach and customer services to seniors.

Transcripts are now available. Braille and/or audio CDs can be requested by contacting us at NCSTdistancelearning@easterseals.com.