For the first time, the Intl. Sign Assn. (ISA) participated in a presentation at the American Planning Assn. (APA) National Planning Conference, held April 26-30 in Atlanta. APA approval for the session was aided because James Carpentier, ISA’s manager of state and local government affairs, is a licensed APA planner. The United States Sign Council (USSC) previously made presentations at this APA event in 2003 and 2008. ISA and USSC have been exhibiting at the show for several years.
The session, entitled “Effective Urban Wayfinding,” was presented Carpentier; William Vaught, Sky Design; Sachin S. Kalbag, Miami Downtown Development Authority; and Craig Berger, Fashion Institute of Technology. In addition to the educational offering, ISA shared resources with planners in the exhibit hall, as it and the United States Sign Council have done for several years. Five thousand planners attended the event.
Although this was its inaugural presentation at the national APA conference, ISA has been training planners around the country since 2011 with its “Planning for Sign Code Success” seminars and various webinars, during which planners can earn continuing education credits. Planners’ requests for urban-wayfinding information led to the creation of the “Urban Wayfinding Manual” published by the Signage Foundation, Inc., and an accompanying webinar series that ran last year.
“In the last few years, we’ve trained well over 1,000 planners on sign-code issues,” said David Hickey, ISA’s vice president of government affairs. “We also work with hundreds of planners each year on our ‘rapid-response’ trips to help communities develop reasonable sign codes. All of this has a direct impact on the sign industry and on creating stronger communities.”
ISA has scheduled at least six “Planning for Sign Code Success” sessions for the remainder of 2014. Houston, New Orleans, San Diego, and Hartford, CT have been confirmed.