Change doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Learn how Offstreet’s Higher-Ed Account Manager Bre Walkeden helps universities transition from paper permits to digital workflows—one small step at a time—and why practical training, trust-building, and early wins lead to faster adoption and massive time savings.
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When Bre Walkeden, Higher-Ed Account Manager at Offstreet, talks about rolling out new technology on campus, she doesn’t sugarcoat it: change can be hard. Especially in university parking, where many team members have been in their roles for decades and have built deep familiarity with the systems and processes they’ve always used.
“A lot of people have been in the department for 10, 15, even 20 years,” Bre said. “Some have been there 30 years and are comfortable sticking with the processes they know.”
That resistance to change is what makes Bre’s role so critical. She spends her days helping universities move away from paper permits and manual workflows and into digital-first operations. And she knows it’s not just about launching a new tool - it’s about building trust, lowering anxiety, and showing teams how easy the change can actually be.
For many schools, “going digital” sounds like a giant, one-and-done overhaul - rip out the old system and replace everything at once. That’s enough to make even the most forward-thinking team hesitate.
“The misconception would be that it has to happen all at once,” Bre explained. “Going digital could take a month, a year, two years. It’s really about the appetite for change your team has.”
Instead, she guides schools to start small. Maybe it’s a single department permit program or a specific set of events on campus. But what surprises many teams is how quickly momentum builds once others get a taste of something easier.
“Parking teams are often surprised at the internal buy-in they get,” Bre explains. “They plan to start off small, but then both teams and departments love how simple Offstreet makes their lives, and suddenly the rollout happens a lot faster than planned.”
What begins as a cautious pilot often turns into a campus-wide shift, driven not by mandates, but by demand from colleagues who want in.
Bre has strong opinions about training, too: keep it practical. Instead of hour-long videos or thick manuals, she prefers a hands-on approach.
“Usually it just takes one short training session for parking teams to get the basics of Offstreet,” Bre says. “From there, we set everything up together. It’s really hands-on — we learn by doing. That’s a huge part of what makes teams feel confident so quickly, because they’re working through real-life examples with us.”
During LSU’s rollout, the whole team joined the very first kickoff call — a sign they were ready to dive in. Bre walked them through real scenarios on their own computers, asking them to independently work through setting up permits, then to share screens so everyone learned together. The result? More than 4,000 permits were processed in their very first month.
“Everybody came to the very first kickoff call,” she remembered. “I feel like everybody was excited about it — and by the end, they were all power users.”
Of course, not every school starts with the same energy. “I have had some teams who were openly hesitant.”
“But then they get into the product and are pleasantly surprised,” Bre laughed. “It went from, ‘Is this gonna be another thing we have to deal with?’ to, ‘This actually makes our lives easier.’”
“I’ll never forget a university that was hesitant to push it out,” Bre recalls. “So they only did a small rollout for their admissions tour. But after seeing zero complaints from guests and over 1,300 registrations in the first month, they quickly realized Offstreet wasn’t another burden — it was the start of something bigger.”
The best part of Bre’s job? Watching the “aha” moment when a team realizes just how much time they’re saving.
Thinking back on the many universities Bre had the chance to work with, it was eye-opening to see how painfully manual the old visitor permit process was. One example stood out to her: “A department would email a request, the parking team would generate a PDF, send it back, and hope the guest remembered to print it. Then repeat for every single visitor.”
After implementing Offstreet, it was exciting to see their reaction: “Oh my God, this is amazing. It saves us so much time from what we were doing,” Bre recalled.
If Bre could give one piece of advice to a nervous parking manager, it would be simple: let the product speak for itself.
“Show your team the actual product,” she said. “Sometimes the proof is in the pudding. Or talk to one of our existing clients about their implementation — that goes a long way.”
She also stresses making the process fun and collaborative. “We do make it fun,” Bre said. “We’re a fun team, and I think it’s a fun product. Having your goals clear and your own timeline really helps, too. And the more people you get involved, the more champions you have.”
So why is now the time for universities to embrace digital parking operations? Bre points to shifting expectations.
“Even your guests or customers — they want a digital-first solution. They want it to be quick, seamless,” she said. “If your team can stay on top of that, I think it reflects really well on the school. It shows you’re modern.”
For Bre, change management isn’t about selling technology. It’s about guiding teams from hesitation to confidence, from “we’ve always done it this way” to “we can’t imagine going back.”
Or, as she puts it best:
“We learn by doing. That’s what makes people successful. Once they see how easy it is, the fears start to melt away.”
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