Parking... Less Seriously!

Just a collection of a few short items today… nothing too heavy for you.

My new job

In the parking business there are very few companies that make a formal venture into product and industry research.  I am extremely fortunate that T2 is making this investment.

Huh?

Okay… here’s why.

I have a new job!  Woohoo!  I’m still with T2 Systems but I have a new role with the company.

Formerly as VP of Research and Development I led the R&D efforts for the company.  We’ve experienced significant growth in the last year with a huge focus on the “D” and not so much on the “R”.  So I’ve relinquished my Development role, handing it off my second-in-command, Laura Paterson (she’s far better at the management piece than me).

So now my focus is now primarily related to Research.  I hope to add value to T2 and our customers by looking strategically at the trends in both technology and parking, and then try to figure out ways for T2 to create parking products that apply those technologies in anticipation of customer needs a year or three out.  This has always been a component of my job, but now it’s the primary role.
I think I’m going to like this new role.  Thanks, T2!

That Elusive Book

I was complaining in my last article about how difficult it was to locate a copy of Donald Shoup’s parking tome “The High Cost of Free Parking”.  Apparently the book is on back-order everywhere.
After waiting two months and hearing absolutely nothing from the University of Chicago Press  I canceled my order with them (can you believe that I actually had to phone them: they let you order online but have no online order management?!).

Anyway, I returned to Amazon and found a few used copies of the book available for sale.  I bought one for $55, nearly the full price.  I had it shipped to our Indianapolis office where I’ll pick it up next time I’m in town.

So that’s the latest chapter of my book saga.  I'll keep you posted.

Online parking games

Now for some fun stuff.

Computer games are big, big business.  Sales of video games, game consoles, and online gaming subscriptions have grown and grown.  Some folks now claim that the computer game industry has actually exceeded that of Hollywood movies.
But there are also plenty of free online games that don’t count in this total.

Why would I even mention this?

Because some of those games involve parking!

Parking games.

Awesome!

So in the interest of wasting your valuable time check out the new links to the left:  I have searched far and wide across the vast realm of the Web just for you.  These games are all free, found online, and involve some form of parking.  Note that these require a free Adobe/Macromedia Flash plug-in for your browser in order to play.

(If you know of any other online parking games let me know or post 'em in the comments below).

Enjoy playing.  Oh, and if your boss catches you playing parking games at work... do like me:  claim that it's valuable Research. ;-)

Comments

[Blake Laufer]

That's a good question. I don't know of too many publicly traded parking companies. Central Parking and Standard Parking come to mind, of course, as being listed on the NYSE. However there must be a zillion other exchanges that list parking companies.

For fun I did a Google search and came up with Hoovers. At this site I was able to do a keyword search for "parking" using the following link. Obviously this is not an exhausive search, and excludes parking companies that don't have "parking" in their names, but perhaps it's a starting point for you:

http://www.hoovers.com/free/search/simple/xmillion/index.xhtml?query_string=parking&which=company&page=1&go_x=18&go_y=6

Good luck in your search!

[M duemmel]

looking for a list of parking related stocks to follow and obtain. Thanks

[Blake Laufer]

Danny,

That's a good question: What *exactly* is it that I do?

I have a joint role at T2 Systems as Chief Technology Officer and also Vice President for Research and Technology. I kind of see it as having three parts:

The first part is research. I investigate products, technologies and policies that affect parking operations so that T2 can provide the right products and services for our customers. I work with our product managers in this regard.

The second part involves leading T2’s technical development team. This team is responsible for integrating our software (application development team) with weird hardware like handheld computers, point-of-sale stations, and related parking equipment.

The last part involves some travel to parking trade shows, technology trade shows, and occasional speaking engagements, and setting the long-term goals (strategy) for T2's technical direction for product/platform development. This is the schmoozy piece.

As you can see it’s a very unstructured job, without concrete deliverables. In a single statement: I'm trying to predict the future of technology such that it applies to parking.

I hope that helps!

[Danny]

I love games that involve parking im really good and parking perfection and #2, so what exactly is it that you do? Im curious.

Danny