More than three hundred public transportation professionals, government officials, industry vendors, and others attended the conference. The conference adopted the theme "Blazing New Trails: Rural Transportation's Next Mission" and encouraged participants to share insights on how rural transit and the intercity bus industry are finding new markets. Following an opening session, attendees broke into groups organized by topic category and worked to identify the most important issues facing rural transit in six areas. The issues they identified provided a "future vision"--A focus for the conference and for attendees in the next few years. The issues identified fall within the following categories: technology; service delivery alternatives; marketing; funding; human resources; operations; and research.