Schedule

Meet in the Crowne Plaza lobby. Start your day off right with a 3 or 5 mile run, or a 2 mile walk down the Indy canal. A great time to enjoy the beauty of Indianapolis and engage with your colleagues. Participates also receive a complimentary running shirt.

Union Station Lobby

Enjoy a hot breakfast and omelet station before the conference sessions begin.

Hear an industry thought leader discuss the demand expectations on the market for various railcar types, including their challenges and potential growth areas. The session will also look at how fleet utilization and other metrics will affect the leasing market.

Hear from an industry leading shipper on his view of the railcar market and whether modal shifts are a serious threat to the demand for rail equipment. This session will also look at the potential for hidden issues in the rail space from trucking changes.

The lunch is divided into industry areas for enhanced networking. This lunch provides good opportunities to find the people you are interested in getting to know.

The consumer has a significant impact on freight demand. Our panelists examine how changing consumer behavior could alter demand for railcars in the consumer sectors. Equipment markets to be explored will include intermodal cars, autoracks, box cars, coil steel, and more.

The construction and infrastructure markets blend business, government, and consumer fundamentals. As such, a resurgence in construction markets could change the outlook for those railcars dependent on building materials. This session will explore equipment for mil gons, center beams, and aggragate cars.

Meet in the Crowne Plaza lobby. Start your day off right with a 3 or 5 mile run, or a 2 mile walk down the Indy canal. A great time to enjoy the beauty of Indianapolis and engage with your colleagues. Participates also receive a complimentary running shirt.

Enjoy a hot breakfast and omelet station before the conference sessions begin.

Union Station Lobby

Additive manufacturing (aka 3D printing) is coming to your doorstep! Bringing this concept into the consumer and business space has been a challenge over the years. Investments in technology have created an environment that now allows for additive manufacturing in the back of a delivery truck as goods are being transported to your doorstep. Join this session in exploring real world applications of this transformative technology from an industry thought leader who is putting this process into practice today.

Join us for a sit down with John O'Bryan, President and CEO of American Railcar Industries, to explore issues that will impact the rail equipment landscape. This session will discuss uncertainties and opportunities facing the industry as it continues to move toward a more digitally enabled railroad. Digital content and real time information has a chance to transform the rail transporation system and provide better transparency to industry particpants. How stakeholders embrace these changes could have a dramatic impact on how the supply chain evolves. Attendees will have an opportunity to be actively engaged and ask questions.

Understanding locally sourced brown sand's impact on frac sand and cement car availability is a major issue for the railcar markets. This sesison will look at how the shifting balance between rail and truck in the shale drilling fields could alter demand for railcars.

With the manufacturing economy leading the way, global demand is heating up regarding the moment of goods. Rail plays a central role in this all-important sector. As underlying freight demand is putting pressure on the transportation sector, trucking is at capacity and should be pushing more freight back to rail. Yet, the rail system is only seeing incremental growth in freight. How this will impact demand for rail equipment and understanding the upside and downside risk factors will be explored during this session. Join FTR's CEO, Eric Starks, in looking at the outlook for rail equipment demand in North America.

Industry experts explore the supply chain for railcars serving the agricultural sector. Because the industry is dealing with high inventory cycles, finding the steady state demand for grain cars creates headaches for car suppliers. As we move toward the harvest season, finding equilibrium is of paramount concern for industry participants.

Plastic Pellet traffic along the U.S. Gulf coast should support growing demand for covered hoppers. Increased domestic and export activity will also create new challenges for the existing fleet as its work load increases. Experts will discuss how many cars will be needed to meet this growing demand. This panel will assess railcar growth opportunities in the plastic pellet and petrochemical markets, as well as ongoing replacement pressure for existing cars.

Experts discuss everything you need to know about general purpose tank car demand and the various subsets within the group. Growing exports to the Mexican fuel market and a shift to 286K lb railcars could drive additional demand for tank cars. This session will examine what these demand drivers mean for the market.

The pressure tank car market is seeing growth opportunities from several commodity groups. Changes in behavior and freight flows from items such as LPG, propane, ammonia, and more could have fundamental impacts on demand for this car type. Join us as this panel of experts gives insights into this all-important market.

The coal market faces competing headwinds from low natural gas prices and carrier service issues. As generators seek to find the right balance between coal and other competing fuels, the process has the potential to effect the entire rail system. This session will provide clarity to these uncertanties.