Book excerpt: The conference was organized as a national forum to provide information on new approaches to financing all modes of transportation, to share success stories, and to stimulate discussion on the merits and drawbacks of new techniques, which are known collectively as innovative finance. Innovative finance in transportation is a diversified set of public- and private-sector actions that move beyond the traditional federal-aid and state-aid funding processes. Nearly 500 federal, state, and local government officials and private-sector representatives attended the conference. Conference participants grappled with the growing inadequacy of traditional funding sources and how to find new means to finance the continued maintenance and improvement of the nation's transportation infrastructure.