How did you drive staff adoption and build a culture of innovation during deployment?
Speaker: Johnathan Lewis, Innovation Division Director, Miami Dade Aviation Department
That’s a great question. What I tried to do was take a hub-and-spoke approach. We’re a big organization, and there were many opportunities where the private wireless network could provide value.
Whenever someone came to us needing assistance, and we saw an opportunity to leverage the private wireless network, we would help them. Through that engagement — and through the resulting word of mouth across the organization — more people began to hear about the capabilities and started asking, “Hey, can we use this for our project?” And the answer was often yes.
That organic curiosity is how the momentum built. We went from 10 radios, to 20, to 50, and now we’re at 111 radios inside the terminal — and still growing. Outdoors, we have radio coverage in several areas as we move toward ubiquitous coverage across the entire campus. That’s how it all happened: one project at a time, showing someone what was possible.
For example, in the past, if someone needed sensors for passenger queue monitoring, the process would typically involve running 35 cables, shutting down security checkpoints, doing the work overnight, pulling permits — and then six months later, with costs between $150,000 and $200,000, the project would finally be done.
Now, with private wireless, the conversation looks completely different. We can simply ask, “When can we schedule it?” Someone says, “Next Friday at 7:00 a.m.,” and we’re up and operational. That speed and simplicity made teams excited, and that excitement fueled adoption.
