I love storytelling. There’s a challenge in taking something complex and finding the thread that connects it all. Using that thread to create a story that makes people want to engage with the topic is what I love most about marketing.
I joined Genfare at a critical turning point in its history. For more than 45 years, Genfare earned its reputation as the premier supplier of American-made fareboxes. We’re incredibly proud of that legacy, and it remains an important part of our future.
I am proud to have led Genfare’s marketing department through the public launch of its transformation, Today, Genfare is full-solution fare collection partner that brings together IoT-enabled smart hardware and cloud-based software backed by payment processing, data collection and analysis, and an expert suite of services.
With that evolution comes a more complicated story to tell. There’s no shortage of technology and terminology in our industry, and it can be difficult to see how all those pieces come together, much less what they mean for the people running a transit system every day.
The echo at EXPO
At APTA EXPO, the cloud became the thread that helped us connect it all. Across our expansive booth, our product offerings came together as one ecosystem, allowing us to demonstrate tangible connectivity and highlight what it can actually do for an agency.
Our booth told stories of how this works in the real world:
- A connected farebox becomes a source of operational data.
- A ticket vending machine can communicate its health remotely.
- Device information can help maintenance teams identify potential issues earlier.
- Data that once lived in different places can come together in Genfare Link, giving teams across an agency a shared view of their fare collection system and better information to make decisions.
- IoT and the cloud become less about technology terminology and more about making everyday operations easier.
And people leaned in.
There was a buzz around the booth throughout EXPO, and we heard so many kind words about the experience the space created. As someone who spent months thinking about how to tell this story, what I appreciated most was hearing people reflect it back to us. They saw the connections and understood why they mattered. They came ready to talk about what all of it could mean for their agencies.
Those conversations also reinforced how we’ve been talking about modernization: moving forward doesn’t have to mean starting over. Agencies have infrastructure they rely on, established operations that work, and riders who need the freedom to pay in different ways.
Modernization should build on that foundation, adding technology that helps them do more with the investments they have already made in fare collection. That’s why Genfare’s modular approach is designed to allow capabilities to be added over time as agency needs evolve.
A conversation worth continuing
A special thank you to Mastercard for joining us to create a space where agencies could bring their questions about open payment directly to the experts. To everyone who visited the booth, attended a session, asked a question, or simply stopped by to see what was new: Thank you for leaning in.
We loved telling this story. We’re even more excited to keep building it with you.
Are you ready for what’s next? Let’s modernize without compromise.
