Brendan Conway
Chief Marketing & Communications Officer
Milwaukee County Transit System
- One word to describe yourself: Honest
- Alma Mater: Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa
- Favorite book: “Devil in the White City” (I went to high school in the area the book takes places in and it’s fascinating to think that all happened not long ago in those same neighborhoods)
- Favorite TV show: “The Wire”
- Favorite movie: “The Sting”
- Favorite hobbies: Running, reading to my three children, cheering for the White Sox
- Fun fact about yourself: I’m one of eight children (4 boys, 4 girls)
- Favorite Transit System (outside of the one you work for) and Why: Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). I grew up in Chicago and used transit to get around, visit downtown, go to events in Grant Park, etc. I’ll always have a soft spot and fondness for public transit in Chicago.
Turning the tide on negative attention around public transportation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is Brendan Conway, Milwaukee County Transit System’s (MCTS) chief marketing & communications officer. The background in journalism has given him the skills to find the stories within MCTS that resonate with the community, while piquing the interest of the newsrooms across the city.
While MCTS had been focused on doing its job of moving people effectively, Conway’s mission was to proactively shape the way it is viewed, so that the community sees it as the integral part of the community that is so much more than the bus one is caught behind at the red light.
One of the recent projects was that after about 100 years of using paper fare media passes, MCTS was going paperless. He worked with staff creating a plan that they started executing December 2015 to educate the community. While staff prepared for the worst for the transition come February 29, the transition went without a hitch. Of the 150,000 rides a day, in that one week they had less than 10 calls about it.
Conway has taken the lead on bringing MCTS to the social sphere with the reach of Facebook posts increasing nearly 1,000 percent and an increase in Twitter impressions of 120 percent.
He planned, implemented and led communications around contract negotiations with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998, including a three-day bus operator strike and the successful contract resolution and currently is leading the communication around the planned $40 million bus rapid transit line.
“We’re not just the bus company … People, without us, they’re not getting to work, they’re not getting to school, they’re not getting to their doctor’s appointments. We saw some of that with the strike last year, how critically important we are, not just our riders, but to the vitality of the entire community.”
Fun Fact: Conway was a television news reporter for nearly 15 years.
