Schedule (Preliminary and Subject to Change)

Grand Hyatt DFW, located inside DFW Airport Terminal D, is steps from TSA checkpoints and offers direct access to all terminals.

Tues., Oct. 29

11:00-2:45 pm Registration – Gateway Foyer

11:30-1 pm Leadership Committee Lunch – Private Dining Room at The Grand Met restaurant at the Grand Hyatt

1:00-2:30 pm NATSO Foundation Board of Directors Meeting (Open to members of the NATSO Foundation Board only.) – Meeting Room: Africa

2:45-3:45 pm How Can Truck Stop and Travel Leaders Future-Proof Their Business? – Gateway Ballroom
Speaker: Arjun Chakravarti, Cogknition
Arjun Chakravarti is Managing Partner of Cogknition, a strategy and analytics firm based in Chicago. In his outlook for the U.S. economy, he will discuss the impact of shifting employment, inflation, and policy trends on consumers’ financial health over the next 6 to 18 months. He’ll connect these trends to strategic implications for convenience retail, sales strategies and food service applicable to the truck stop and travel center business. 

4:00-5:00 pm Executive Briefing on Global Fuel Markets: Fast Forward Focus Exec Topic – Gateway Ballroom
Speaker: Greg Priddy, Center for the National Interest
What is happening in the global fuel market that travel centers need to know? In this executive-level briefing, a fuel expert will share the outlook for petroleum supply. Political instability, conflicts, and sanctions in major oil-producing regions can disrupt supply chains and lead to uncertainty in the oil market. As we enter an election, changes in the geopolitical landscape could have a profound impact on the industry’s fuel supply. Gather the information truck stop and travel center leaders need to know as they plan their business strategies for 2025.

6-8:30 pm Cocktail Hour and Networking Dinner – Gateway II Foyer & Gateway Ballroom

Wed., Oct. 30

8-8:45 am Breakfast and Table Discussions: Travel Center Industry Trends – Gateway Ballroom
Faciliators: Christine Schoessler, COO, NATSO; Amy Toner, Executive Director, NATSO Foundation
Conducted in March and April of 2024, NATSO’s professional driver survey targeted owner-operators operating one to nine trucks and company drivers. The study explored drivers’ thoughts, habits, and preferences concerning the travel center’s parking lot design, habits when parked, why they stop where they stop, and more. Christine Schoessler, NATSO’s COO, and Amy Toner, executive director of the NATSO Foundation, will present the data at a high level and guide the audience in table discussions on what the trends mean for their business.

9:00-10:00 am Hydrogen for Heavy Duty: Travel Center Industry’s Burning Hydrogen Questions – Gateway Ballroom
Speakers: Mike Roeth, NACFE
Last year’s Fast Forward Focus participants unearthed many questions on hydrogen. Who are the key players emerging in the hydrogen space? What equipment, safety measures, and driver needs are important to understand?  What are OEMs monitoring as they look to scale up production?  Hydrogen is emerging as a contending fuel to meet regulatory demands for new technology to reduce tailpipe emissions in the heavy-duty sector. While some industry advocates and researchers are confident that the costs of trucks and hydrogen production and distribution will be reduced through scale and innovation over time, what is the timeline that travel centers can expect for this to become a reality? Mike Roeth, executive director of NACFE, will answer these questions and more on Wednesday morning. 

10:15-11:15 am As Trucking Embraces AI to Optimize Routes What Does it Mean for Travel Centers?: Fast Forward Focus Exec Topic – Gateway Ballroom
Speaker: Jeremie Myhren, OnRamp
Automation is becoming more common in the trucking industry as companies see what technology can do to boost performance and efficiency. AI route optimization tools help drivers save time, fuel, and resources by assessing multiple factors when selecting routes, including distance, traffic conditions, delivery windows, and historical data. What does this mean for truck stops and travel centers? Route optimization is a critical aspect of the trucking industry. What will it look like in the coming years as AI rapidly advances?

11:30-3:30 pm NATSO Board of Directors Meeting – Meeting room: Central America