This Friday, the Wisconsin Bike Fed is holding its annual Wisconsin Bike Summit. The Bike Summit is a full-day event giving an opportunity to network with people from all over the state who have interest in making bicycling better.

Learning what people in cities across Wisconsin are doing to create better bicycling makes local efforts more effective. We all share similar challenges, so it is extremely useful to discover what has and hasn’t worked in other locales.

Part of the crowd at last year’s Wisconsin Bike Summit

The program for the Bike Summit includes five sessions, each of which has four parallel presentations. There will also be two keynote speakers during lunch. Themes include transportation bicycling, mountain bicycling, road bicycling, community building through bicycling, bicycle advocacy, bicycle equity and the importance of engaging effectively with communities of color, bicycling’s role in recreation and tourism, funding opportunities for bicycle accommodations, and more. Those interested in making bicycling better will find inspiring and informative presentations, regardless of their specific interests.

This year’s Bike Summit will take place on Friday November 6 in the Warch Center at Lawrence University in Appleton. This is the first year that the Bike Fed has held the Bike Summit away from Madison, so hopefully there will be a greater representation from those living in the central and northern parts of the state.

The Wisconsin Bike Summit will provide many informative and inspiring presentations on a variety of topics

Registration starts at 8 AM and sessions run from 9 AM through 5 PM. The day will end with a reception from 5:30 – 8 PM at the nearby History Museum at the Castle where the highlight will be an exhibit entitled Shifting Gears: A Cyclical History of Badger Bicycling.

The registration fee of $45 includes all of these activities, including lunch and the reception. The Bike Summit is open to anyone, whether your job involves making bicycling better in your community or you are a Poky Pedaler simply interested in hearing about the experiences of others around the state.

The Wisconsin Bike Summit webpage on the Bike Fed’s website has much more detail about the day’s events as well as information about how to register.

I have gone to several Bike Summits over the past few years, and I always find it stimulating and educational. You can read my impressions from last year’s Bike Summit in this PPSP post. I am looking forward to attending once again this Friday. I hope Poky Pedalers consider taking part in this fun day full of interesting discussions about bicycling.

I plan on posting a summary of my Bike Summit experiences on the PPSP blog. So for those who cannot attend, look for my write-up next week to learn about several of the many efforts being made across our state to make bicycling better.