Columbus CEO Special Section | The Beta District: Innovation in Motion

THE BETA DISTRICT

INNOVATION IN MOTION

INNOVATION IN MOTION

LEADING FROM CENTRAL OHIO

The Beta District was created because community leaders in Dublin, Marysville and Union County recognized that the future of mobility hinges on collaboration. Together, they transformed Central Ohio into a living laboratory where partnerships between public and private sectors drive innovation, test solutions and deliver results with global impact.

In The Beta District, collaboration is not abstract. Public and private leaders convene to test ideas, implement real solutions and foster an environment where innovation thrives. The inaugural Ohio’s Future of Mobility event in May 2025 showcased how these partnerships accelerate progress and spark new opportunities for investment, talent and growth.

World-class fiber infrastructure runs through the U.S. Route 33 corridor, providing unmatched connectivity and real-time data exchange for companies and organizations. This network is the

backbone of The Beta District, powering one of the most active hubs for mobility innovation in the country.

It enables companies like Honda, innovators like Memorial Health, research powerhouses like Transportation Research Center Inc. (TRC) and public sector partners like the Ohio Department of Transportation's DriveOhio and more to innovate, expand and prove what’s next.

The Beta District shows what happens when communities, industries and academia move in the same direction. For business leaders, it’s proof that collaboration fuels growth, attracts talent and strengthens regional competitiveness.

Central Ohio has long been a place where big ideas take shape. The Beta District is charting new ground, giving businesses and communities a place to test, invest and lead for the world to see.

Doug McCollough Executive Director, The Beta District

Columbus CEO

The Beta District: Innovation in Motion

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Peter Tonguette

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The Beta District: Innovation in Motion, a supplement to Columbus CEO, is published by Gannett. All contents of this magazine are copyrighted © Gannett Co., Inc. 2025, all rights reserved. Reproduction or use, without written permission, of editorial or graphic content in any manner is prohibited. Publisher assumes no responsibility for return of unsolicited materials.

Life-Saving Technology

Tested in The Beta District

Startups. Partners. Breakthroughs. This is where big ideas get tested, proven and put to work.

Take ParaWave, a startup whose Shepherd.AI system connects with any drone or aircraft. Police and firefighters get instant aerial awareness and the clarity to save lives.

ParaWave is headquartered at the Automotive & Mobility Innovation Center (AMIC), a center of collaboration for The Beta District. How can we launch your big idea?

The Beta District gives bold thinkers like ParaWave the space, talent and resources to move fast when every second counts.

5 ABOUT THE BETA DISTRICT

6 MOVING SMARTER

The Beta District boasts a technologyenabled transportation network and 35 miles of fiber-optic broadband for businesses to conduct real-time research.

9 COLLABORATION AT SCALE: A REGIONAL MODEL

A council of governments oversight structure is reducing red tape and providing benefits for businesses along the U.S. Route 33 corridor.

11 WHY BUSINESSES CHOOSE THE BETA DISTRICT

Renowned test facilities, living labs and international connections are just a few of the assets companies find here.

14

CONVERSATIONS THAT MOVE THE FUTURE

Ohio’s Future of Mobility Conference drew an international audience to the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor.

About The Beta District

Imagine a place where your business can pioneer and test new technologies not just in your own facility, but along a three-county corridor with assets including a robust fiber network, data centers, advanced highway infrastructure and a community of like-minded organizations.

You’ve found it in The Beta District.

The Beta District is an innovation corridor centered along U.S. Route 33, stretching from the city of Columbus in Franklin County into Union and Logan counties. While it is home to a variety of industries and organizations, including Honda, Cardinal Health, The Ohio State University, Ohio University, ScottsMiracle-Gro and others, it isn’t an ordinary economic development hub. Transportation is where the district truly shines.

Its centerpiece, the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor, boasts 35 miles of high-tech highway between Dublin and East Liberty where businesses can test autonomous and connected vehicle innovations safely and in real-world conditions. A 432-strand fiber-optic network connects a system of in-road sensors and roadside units so companies can collect live testing data. The fiber network also is available for Beta District based companies in other industries to utilize.

Though the district’s roots only stretch back to 2014, when local government leaders formed a group to study collaborative economic development, it already has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in investment. But organizers believe The Beta District’s best days are yet to come.

Learn more at thebetadistrict.com.

INNOVATION IN MOTION

Moving Smarter

The Beta District boasts a technology-enabled transportation network and 35 miles of fiber-optic broadband for businesses to conduct real-time research.

By Peter Tonguette

If you want to know where automotive and aerial technology are headed, The Beta District offers a unique real-world preview of coming attractions.

The district’s fiber-enabled 33 Smart Mobility Corridor offers an ideal setting to test “smart,” or connected, innovations, as well as autonomous vehicles. The district is not only a home base for big players in the automotive industry, including Honda Development & Manufacturing of America and Transportation Research Center Inc. (TRC), but also to more than 70 other automotive companies and suppliers.

The corridor was expressly conceived as a testing space. “It’s one of the most advanced proving grounds for the testing of smart mobility from a perspective of connected vehicle technology,” says Eric Phillips, the Union CountyMarysville economic development director and CEO of the Union County Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s a proving grounds in an open setting with a number of automotive assets, around TRC [and] Honda, of course,” says Phillips, adding that the

wealth of human capital in the region makes it well suited to develop and study breakthroughs.

“We have 3,000 engineering jobs; we have 14,000 automotive jobs, all in the corridor,” he says. “And we also have over 6,300 life science positions, as well. There’s a lot of technology, a lot of advancement going on from that perspective.” Combined with the presence of Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive Research in Columbus, he says, The Beta District boasts “a lot of assets and human power in this area to make things happen.”

In many ways, the heritage of the district can be found in the formation of TRC in 1974. Automotive manufacturers and suppliers have long sought the expertise of TRC, based in East Liberty, as they scrutinize components in pursuit of greater safety and reliability.

“Before there was a Beta District, there was TRC,” says Brett Roubinek, the company’s president and CEO. “Way back in the ’60s, Governor Rhodes envisioned creating this place that would bring a focus to safety research and drive Ohio

economic development at the same time. Fast forward to today, and I believe that is the core of The Beta District.”

The Digital Backbone of Innovation

The beginnings of The Beta District date back to 2014, when government leaders along U.S. Route 33 formed a group focused on collaborative economic development and land use. This led to the establishment in 2016 of the NW 33 Innovation Corridor Council of Governments, which includes Dublin, Marysville, Union County and the MarysvilleUnion County Port Authority. The same year, the Ohio Department of Transportation committed $16 million to build a fiber-optic broadband network along the corridor. Another game-changing investment came from a $5.9 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant to fund dedicated short-range communications infrastructure to enable vehicle testing.

Those investments signaled to business “that we’re willing to invest actual dollars and actual infrastructure

to make a lot of these concepts reality as it improves safety and efficiency for the transportation system,” says Andrew Bremer, managing director of local affairs at DriveOhio, an ODOT initiative focused on smart mobility.

DriveOhio, which was created by executive order in 2018, fields inquiries from private sector businesses looking to make breakthroughs in transportation technology.

“Any time a company wants to come and be involved in The Beta District, it’s a partnership,” Bremer says. “The Beta District works with DriveOhio for allowing certain devices or concepts [in] The Beta District [or] on [the] U.S. 33 Smart Mobility Corridor. Those continued conversations with The Beta District and DriveOhio, as well as [a] particular company, result in improvements to particular products, or a technique, or a way of doing things.”

ADAS … assists the driver with vehicle operations such as acceleration and steering throughout the entire route, whether on expressways or surface roads, to the destination the driver inputs on the navigation system,” says Bob Nelson, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co. “Developing next-generation ADAS is especially challenging in urban areas, where there are various types of people sharing the road, and where turning at intersections is frequent.”

The creation of the 432-strand, 35mile fiber network provided the “backbone” to support what became known in 2020 as The Beta District, Phillips says. “You … allow for future testing and become a hotbed for companies in this sector,” he says.

For example, by making use of the corridor, TRC can amass data relating to traffic, how vehicles react to different road situations and weather, and how such information can be relayed both to the driver and into the infrastructure. “What is really cool about the 33 Smart Corridor is it is essentially this extension of on-road testing that is equipped with different technologies,” says Taylor Manahan, executive director of services at TRC, who sees the corridor as a supplement to the company’s closed environment testing. “[A vehicle] can leave our front doors and head on this 33 Smart Corridor to continue their testing on the on-road portion to help holistically look at that verification and validation process.”

Connected Communities

Today, The Beta District encompasses far more than the Smart Mobility

Corridor. “When we started this project, it was all about the 33 corridor only [and] testing the interstate light highway between TRC and the OSU campus,” Phillips says. “It evolved where Honda then came to us and said, ‘This is outstanding, we love this concept. … [But] we would like to have a possibility of testing in streets where we have buildings blocking views or buildings blocking radio waves.’ ”

Thus began Connected Marysville, an initiative that includes a network of more than 30 camera-equipped traffic signals that communicate real-time conditions to onboard units in motorists’ vehicles. “In Marysville, all of its signals are smart,” says Phillips. “Not only can [a camera] provide you a picture of what’s going on, [it] can also make determinations based upon what the camera actually sees. It can actually provide you intelligence … which is pretty remarkable.”

Also tested was emergency vehicle preemption, a system designed to alert drivers to the presence of nearby first responders that might be outside their line of sight. “You can actually get a warning in your car that would tell you, ‘Emergency vehicle detected in this area. Be on the watch.’ ” Phillips says. “That’s what Honda was testing.”

Officials from Honda point to multiple innovations that have been studied in the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor, including next-generation advanced driver assistance systems it plans to roll out on some electric and hybrid vehicles around 2027. “Honda’s next-generation

Safe Swarm, which enables wireless communication between vehicles to reduce traffic congestion and avoid collisions, also was researched on the corridor, Nelson says.

Connected Dublin has leaned into next-level mobility, too, with the deployment of smart traffic signals and intersections; the city is also testing smart technology on roundabouts.

Such success stories continue to draw companies to The Beta District to evaluate their own innovations. For example, Dutch company Technolution/TNL has tested traffic optimization in the district, Phillips says. “They tie all the [traffic] signals together to improve the flow of traffic to make certain all the signals are synchronized,” he says. “When you’re able to do it from a laptop in an office and control how traffic is flowing, [it] is different than just manually synchronizing streetlights to change as cars go through an area.”

DriveOhio joined forces with Bosch in utilizing cameras along the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor. “We use those cameras to detect wrong-way drivers, and we were able to partner with Bosch to make concerted improvements with those cameras and how they perform,” Bremer says. “Activities along The Beta District and the Smart Mobility Corridor do have the potential to live outside of that corridor and influence products that are used statewide.”

Looking Ahead

Much of The Beta District’s success has come on the ground, but the future

INNOVATION IN MOTION

looks increasingly lofty as advanced air mobility is tested in the corridor.

“ODOT has been using drones for quite a while for our own operations to support ground infrastructure,” says Breanna Badanes, managing director of communications and policy at DriveOhio. “We can use drones for things like bridge inspections, survey work, even construction and traffic monitoring.”

Going forward, drones may revolutionize other areas, including health care. For example, drones could deliver medicines, medical equipment and, perhaps someday, blood and organs from one point to another, Badanes says. But testing comes first. “If something needs to be tweaked or adjusted from there to be able to scale it to a sustainable operation, we can start in communities like The Beta District to do that initial

implementation,” she says.

With defense technology company Anduril Industries set to open a billion-dollar hyperscale manufacturing facility in Central Ohio, a new wave of companies could soon arrive to take advantage of The Beta District—precisely the impetus behind a corridor designed to adapt to changing needs and uses. “[DriveOhio was] created by executive order … to remain flexible, to try and stay at the pace of this innovation, rather than some of the other states that are big in technology—say, California, for instance, that [have] to go back to their legislature any time some other development or an innovation happens,” Bremer says. That mission carries over into its work with The Beta District.

But mobility-focused businesses aren’t the only beneficiaries of the district’s numerous assets. Its fiber network

is being commercialized to benefit other industries. For example, Memorial Hospital in Marysville now utilizes the fiber system, which is tethered to a pair of data centers, to securely back up its information. “The Union County fiber loop … has been a great benefit to Memorial Hospital,” says Andy Chileski, chief information officer and vice president of diagnostic services for the hospital’s parent company, Memorial Health. “It provides us a secure, highspeed, redundant connection to the world-class data centers in Ohio.”

By any measure, The Beta District already has made Central Ohio a smarter, more connected region—in multiple ways. “There’s a lot of opportunities for companies that want to test,” Phillips says. “It’s tying that public and private sector together, and also [the] university. You have that triple helix.”

Smart traffic signals at the intersection of South Main and Sixth streets in Marysville

Collaboration at Scale: A Regional Model

A council of governments oversight structure is reducing red tape and providing benefits for businesses along the U.S. Route 33 corridor.

By Laura Newpoff

The Northwest U.S. Route 33 corridor that stretches from Dublin to Marysville and through Union County is one of the most innovative ecosystems in the country. It hosts global brands such as Cardinal Health, ScottsMiracle-Gro and Honda Development & Manufacturing of America. More than 70 automotive companies call the region home, as do the nonprofit Transportation Research Center Inc. (TRC), Nestlé, OhioHealth, the Ohio State University, Ohio University and Columbus State Community College. Marysville’s 33 Innovation Park is home to the Automotive & Mobility Innovation Center (AMIC), a tech incubator operated by Lextant.

To leverage this powerful blend of industry and academia, a group of representatives from different community governments along the corridor began

meeting in 2014. Their discussions focused on how they could work together to help companies continue to innovate and drive economic development across their shared region. In 2016, they formed the NW 33 Innovation Corridor Council of Governments to oversee the creation of the fiber network and so that multiple agencies could collaborate to accelerate innovation and remove silos and red tape.

When the COG won the highly competitive $5.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to outfit the region for connected vehicle testing, it was a watershed moment. That in turn fueled a series of developments and investments that have created a worldclass ecosystem of smart infrastructure and living labs.

In 2020, the COG, which includes

THE BETA DISTRICT LEADERSHIP

• Doug McCollough, Executive Director

• Terry Emery, Chair, NW 33 Innovation Corridor COG; Marysville City Manager

• Megan O’Callaghan, Vice Chair, NW 33 Innovation Corridor COG; Dublin City Manager

• Eric Phillips, Secretary, NW 33 Innovation Corridor COG; Executive Director, Union County-Marysville Economic Development Partnership; CEO, Union County Chamber of Commerce

• Bill Narducci, Member, NW 33 Innovation Corridor COG; Union County Administrator

• Keith Conroy, Member, NW 33 Innovation Corridor COG; Vice President, Hicks Partners

Dublin, Marysville, Union County and the Marysville-Union County Port Authority, formally branded this innovation hub as The Beta District. Doug McCollough, who was hired as the organization’s first executive director in July 2024, says the COG model continues to work well today.

“Three districts have come together to function as one innovation ecosystem,” he says.

“The Beta District provides a shared platform for pooling assets like the [35 mile] regional fiber loop, the transportation corridors and economic development resources, avoiding duplication and maximizing impact. Otherwise, these governments would be working separately as they had been doing for many years.

INNOVATION IN MOTION

The COG provides a business-friendly model so companies don’t have to navigate separate government silos. This allows them to plug into the district as a whole.”

COG Vice Chair and Dublin City Manager Megan O’Callaghan says the COG was designed to be flexible and business friendly so private companies can engage with multiple public leaders through one entity to speed up deployment of their projects.

“A great example is instead of each community building its own isolated fiber network, we all share the regional fiber loop,” O’Callaghan says. “That means it is more cost effective, scalable and more attractive to businesses that now don’t have to deal with each individual community government separately.”

COG Chair and Marysville City Manager Terry Emery says the COG model “ensures that businesses can focus on innovation, supported by shared assets like the fiber infrastructure. That is really what ties The Beta District together.” This shared network allows organizations working on projects to be on the cutting edge of technology and move data with the speed and reliability that’s needed for vehicles and infrastructure to talk to one another in real time.

The Connected Dublin and Connected Marysville smart mobility projects rely on access to the fiber

network to collect data that is making street operations in these communities safer for residents.

Moving forward, McCollough’s goals include expanding the district’s Business Advisory Group to make sure more companies have a seat at the table to guide regional projects. He also plans to strengthen industry and research partnerships involving universities, Battelle and the Ohio Aerospace

Institute. Other goals include promoting the district on a national and global scale and engaging residents so they are aware of how projects benefit local communities.

“I’ll be working to raise the profile of The Beta District,” McCollough says, “so it’s known not only as an innovation zone but also a deployment zone where technology moves from the lab to the street.”

Business Advisory Board member Chris Berry, CEO and founder of Dublinbased automotive software and services company Echelle Resources, says McCollough has done “an outstanding job leading and elevating The Beta District in Ohio.”

“His vision and commitment to innovation have transformed the district into a hub for technology, mobility and community partnerships,” he says, “driving meaningful progress for our region.”

BETA DISTRICT PARTNERS

PUBLIC SECTOR/ GOVERNMENT

• City of Dublin

• City of Marysville

• DriveOhio (Ohio Department of Transportation)

• Logan County

• Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission

• Smart Columbus

• Union County

• U.S. Department of Transportation

PRIVATE SECTOR/ CORPORATE

• AECOM

• Accenture

• AGC

• Augustwenty Inc.

• Avaap

• Bosch

• Cisco

• DartPoints

• Deloitte

• Derq Inc.

• Ease Logistics

• Echelle Resources

• Expedient

• Forward Momentum

• Hicks Partners

• HNTB

• Honda Development & Manufacturing of America

• MH Corbin

• Michael Baker International

• MinebeaMitsumi Inc.

• Modular Assembly Innovations

• MurphyEpson

• NMB Technologies Corp.

• Oliver Wyman

• OmniAir

• P3Mobility

• ParaWave

• Parsons Corp.

• Perrone Robotics Inc.

• PNC Bank

• Solclusion Energy Group

• STV Inc.

• T-Mobile

• Taft Law

• Transform Labs

• Trihydro Corp.

• Verizon

• Vessel

• Visibility Marketing

• The Wendy’s Co.

• Woolpert

• WSP

NONPROFIT/INDUSTRY

ORGANIZATIONS

• One Columbus

• Rev1 Ventures

ACADEMIC/RESEARCH

• Battelle

• Lextant

• NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

• The Ohio State University

• Ohio University

• Parallax Advanced Research

• Transportation Research Center Inc. (TRC)

Why Businesses Choose The Beta District

Renowned testing facilities, living labs and international connections are just a few of the assets companies find here.

By Laura Newpoff

Echelle Resources is an automotive software and services company that develops and validates the technology that powers next-generation automotive experiences and improves vehicle performance and reliability. The goal is to help manufacturers bring smarter vehicles to market with speed, precision and confidence—driving the evolution of mobility.

The company’s location in Dublin is an ideal place to serve its automotive industry customers. As part of The Beta District, it is in close proximity to major automotive manufacturing, the Automotive & Mobility Innovation Center (AMIC) in Marysville and more than 70 automotive companies that call the region home. It also has access to local colleges and universities, talent pipelines, municipal partners and

anchor companies that are open to co-development opportunities.

“It’s a strategic location that allows us to get to our customers and partners quickly,” says Echelle’s CEO and founder, Chris Berry. “Being able to get test cars so quickly and do proof of concept work on the drive back allows us to gather data quickly and take those findings back to our engineers, who can continue to innovate and pivot quickly if they need to.”

The company’s location also gives it a front-row seat to the living lab known as Connected Dublin, which is an ecosystem for businesses to pioneer new technologies, including smart mobility pilot projects. This includes the nation’s first connected roundabout, a smart parking lot and a network of technology-enabled traffic signals and intersections.

“These kind of real-world, sandbox environments are ideal for artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and audiovisual use cases,” Berry says. “It adds up to faster pilot projects, public-private collaboration and real-world test beds that shorten time to value. As we get more into the V2X [vehicle-to-everything technology] space, partnerships with municipalities like Dublin will allow us to see what kind of data they are collecting and then, perhaps, we’ll be able to implement that into our solutions.”

Another major draw to operating in the district is the 35-mile, 432-strand fiber collaborative along U.S. Route 33 and Industrial Parkway. This loop network allows automotive, R&D and manufacturing facilities to test smart transportation and autonomous

INNOVATION IN MOTION

vehicle technologies on a highway that carries up to 50,000 vehicles per day. It instantaneously links researchers and traffic monitors with data generated from wireless roadside sensors, which provide traffic counts, weather and surface condition monitoring, and incident management improvements.

Businesses also can take advantage of the AMIC, which serves as a flexible platform for public-private innovation by connecting companies with a rich ecosystem of partners, test beds and workforce pipelines. Nearby in East Liberty, Transportation Research Center Inc. (TRC) is North America’s most advanced automotive proving ground, serving the world’s leading transportation companies.

Collaboration with international companies also is a draw to working in the district. Honda Development & Manufacturing of America is a major corporate anchor, and 60 Japanese companies have operations here, according to Eric Phillips, the Union County-Marysville economic development director and CEO of the Union County Chamber of Commerce. Other global companies such as Switzerlandbased Nestlé have facilities in the region, including a quality assurance

center in Dublin and an R&D product development center in Marysville.

“There are a lot of assets along the corridor, and the workforce is pretty top notch,” Phillips says.

“It’s a unique combination of assets,” says Doug McCollough, executive director of The Beta District.

“When you combine the cutting-edge infrastructure, the fiber loop, connected intersections, the AMIC and the TRC, the globally competitive workforce and the governance structure, it’s attractive to the business community. And it allows businesses to innovate faster with access to real-world conditions for real-world deployments, not just simulations.”

Another benefit, he says, is the opportunity to join the Business Advisory Group. “It’s a seat at the table with public leaders, global companies and peers in mobility, technology and advanced industries,” McCollough says. “You can position yourself next to the big engineering firms, auto manufacturers and consulting companies. It’s an opportunity to be a part of a community that will shape how innovation benefits not just businesses, but also residents and our region’s long-term growth.”

There are a lot of assets along the corridor, and the workforce is pretty top notch.”

Eric

Phillips, Union CountyMarysville economic development director

Lextant delivers clear insights for innovation strategy and design, giving you the foresight to lead your market, not just follow it. We help you see the future of your industry through the eyes of your customer, enabling you to build a roadmap and craft experiences for sustained market growth.

Where the future of mobility takes shape.

Located in Ohio’s fastest growing county and Marysville’s 33 Innovation Park, AMIC is where mobility leaders connect, collaborate, and grow.

From startups to industry giants, members gain access to training, networking, labs, and event space—all designed to accelerate innovation. Surrounded by more than 70 automotive companies along the US-33 corridor, AMIC offers the ideal launch point for testing and deploying the future of smart mobility.

To learn more, visit amicohio.org or growunioncountyohio.com .

INNOVATION IN MOTION

Doug McCollough, executive director of The Beta District, speaks to attendees.

Conversations That Move the Future

The Beta District’s inaugural Ohio’s Future of Mobility Conference brought together more than 150 attendees and over 90 organizations for a dynamic three-day exploration of mobility, innovation and collaboration along the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor and beyond.

Held May 13-15, 2025, at the Automotive & Mobility Innovation Center (AMIC) in Marysville, the event served as an international gathering point for those shaping the future of how we move, connect and grow.

With more than 50 expert speakers, immersive tours and insightful breakout sessions, the conference spotlighted the transformational work being done in The Beta District and the surrounding region.

The conference kicked off with a full day devoted to the power of cross-sector partnerships. Presenters included Robert Bell, co-founder of the Intelligent Community Forum; Paul Hoekstra, USA mobility business unit director at Technolution/TNL; and John Horack, Ph.D., professor and Neil Armstrong Chair in Aerospace Policy at the Ohio State University. Horack emphasized the convergence

of mobility innovation across land, air and space—and what that means for regional economies, community well-being and the next generation.

Conversations throughout the day made it clear that innovation doesn’t happen in silos: It requires aligned priorities, shared data and strong public-private ecosystems.

On day two, the focus shifted to showcase how ideas take root and come to life through mobility applications and workforce readiness. Highlights included breakthroughs in advanced air mobility, such as examining the potential of drones and eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) vehicles for cargo, transit and emergency services. Ground mobility innovations featured electric vehicle infrastructure, smart traffic systems and connected vehicles.

Jan van der Wel, founder of Netherlands-based Technolution/ TNL, provided a global perspective, highlighting how European mobility solutions can inform and inspire efforts in the United States. His insights reinforced the value of international collaboration and knowledge exchange.

The final day of the conference took participants out into The Beta District for tours at Honda’s Marysville Auto Plant and Transportation Research Center Inc. (TRC). These experiences brought to life the region’s unique capacity for real-world testing, validation and deployment of mobility technologies.

TRC’s SMARTCenter showcased why The Beta District is leading the way in connected and autonomous vehicle research. With more than 500 acres of closed track testing space, the center supports both public and private sector R&D, making it a cornerstone of the innovation ecosystem. The Honda tour illustrated why the company is a global leader and has been the catalyst for attracting 70-plus automotive suppliers to the area.

Ohio’s Future of Mobility Conference was a celebration of progress, a forum for fresh thinking and a launchpad for new ideas. From elected officials and engineers to researchers and entrepreneurs, participants’ insights sparked important conversations that will continue to shape the future of mobility, infrastructure and innovation in Ohio and beyond.