The 14th ITS European Congress opened its doors on Monday 30 May with the prestigious Opening Ceremony. The host city of Toulouse presented their Aéropostale and Smart Mobility film and participants received a warm welcoming from Mr. Jean-Luc Moudenc, Toulouse Mayor, Director-General for Infrastructure, Transport & Mobility, Mr. Marc Papinutti, Mrs. Adina Valean, European Commissioner for Transport and Dr. Angelos Amditis, ERTICO Chairman. Under this year’s theme, Smart and Sustainable Mobility for all, Mr. Chris Bockman, Moderator and Master of Ceremonies introduced the Executive Discussion Panel under the topic: Intelligent Connections for a Smarter City and Future with the Vice President of Qualcomm, Mrs. Anne-Lise Thieblemont, Head of Innovation at SWARCO, Mrs. Laura Coconea and President of ITS Portugal, Mr. Pedro Barradas, the next host city of the 15th ITS European Congress. Last but not least, Astrophysicist, Dr. Sylvestre Maurice held a very special inspirational speech about driving a Rover vehicle where no man has ever walked: Mars. Watch the entire Opening Ceremony.
After extraordinary work and cooperation between the organiser, ERTICO-ITS Europe, co-organiser, the European Commission and the host city, Toulouse Metropol, the ITS European Congress was a great success. For three days, participants enjoyed up to 100 sessions in the technical programme, and with an area of more than 25,000 sqm, ITS Congress participants experienced more than 14 demonstrations and technical visits.
The ITS Congress also hosted a lively exhibition with 60 stands and more than 100 exhibitors showcasing big ideas and smart mobility innovations from industry leaders around Europe. This offered both delegates and visitors the perfect place to network and learn about the latest developments. Click here to view the confirmed exhibitors of this year.
This year, the ITS Congress welcomed 24 Startups from 18 countries in the designated exhibition area called the Start-up Hub as well as a dedicated programme organised by ERTICO’s Start-up Initiative. The Start-up Hub provided a platform for young entrepreneurs to promote their business ideas, participate in pitching sessions in the Exhibition Auditorium and benefit from networking opportunities in designated areas. On the first day of the Congress, ERTICO Start-up finalists participated in the pitching contest and on the second day, Joost Vantomme, ERTICO CEO presented the Overall Start-up Awards which offered the winners the possibility to attend and pitch at the ITS World Congress in Los Angeles, 18-22 September 2022. The winner of the Top Start-Up Award as well as the Technology Innovation Award at Pitching Contest went to Angoka, founded in 2019 by four serial entrepreneurs, with the mission to protect the future of Smart Mobility and Smart Cities. The Market Innovation Award went to Asimob (Advanced Services in Mobility SL), a technology company created by a group of entrepreneurs to improve the safety of current road users and Autonomous Vehicles of the future. Mobiqu, working to designing and developing next-generation modular box systems for the pharma, medical, food, and retail industries, earned the third and last Product Service Innovation Award at the ITS European Congress 2022.
Another real highlight for this year’s Congress was the European Startup Prize joining the Congress’ start-up activities in the Exhibition auditorium and the three winners from Monday’s pitch session delivered pitches to investors via live streaming on Tuesday morning.
High-Level European Decision-Maker met at the ITS Summit
Around 80 Ministers, Mayors, Industry Leaders and Senior Representatives of National and Local Governments from 20 countries met in Toulouse on Monday 20 May to review how intelligent and green mobility can contribute to sustainable growth and a better quality of life environment for all citizens. The ITS Policy Summit was a key highlight of the 2022 ITS European Congress. Read more about the ITS Summit results and the official Press Release here.
The Official Press Conference
At the end of the first day, Monday 30 May, the official Press Conference was held with an esteemed panel of ITS thought leaders, presenting their vision of the future of smart and sustainable mobility. Mr. Jean-Claude Dardelet, Deputy Mayor of Toulouse Métropole opened the Press Conference and presented France’s role in European Smart Mobility as well as the local perspective on the topic. Hereafter Dr. Angelos Amditis, ERTICO Chairman, presented a brief summary of the ITS Summit results while Herald Ruijters, European Commission, Director of Investment touched upon the responsibility ahead for the next-generation of the Green New Deal and the importance of the discussions taking place the this year’s ITS Congress. Stefan May, CEO, Continental France, also an official Congress Partner, expressed his gratitude for being invited to this year’s Congress and underlined the value of welcoming companies’ perspectives and contributions to innovative mobility solutions. Finally, ERTICO CEO, Joost Vantomme concluded the Press Conference with a few remarkable words, ‘We are thrilled to be at this Congress with all of you, and this panel is an excellent example of bringing together and connecting smart mobility partners and stakeholders in the ecosystem‘.
On Wednesday, 1 June, the exhibition was ready to welcome the general public to experience smart and sustainable mobility in the epicentre of emerging technologies and upstream developments at the ITS European Congress. The host city of Toulouse invited children, parents, and high school students, among many other to enjoy an outstanding program that covers various aspects of future mobility, including the possibility to build a LEGO brick cycle path together with friends and family. Visitors could also take part in a drawing competition to design future air transport solutions and discover different types and functions of drones and even try piloting one. There were also opportunities to create a fresco using cards to understand carbon footprint challenges of individual transport solutions, witness real traffic accident conditions and understand the importance of using car security belts.
The ITS European Congress came to an end on Wednesday 1 June. Three awarded winners were announced by Lisa Boch-Andersen, Director of Congress, Event and Communications at ERTICO. The Best Session award, hand-picked by the audience through the ITS Congress App, went to the Technical Paper Session (SIS) 10: Integrated mobility and modal shift 2, organised by the Hamburg Hochbahn. The second award for the Best Research Paper was defined by expert judges who reviewed all papers. Which were required to describe work leading to new learning that advances the state-of-the-art, either by adding something new or addressing a known weakness. The paper’s reviewers noted ‘Provides good concepts on using research to develop a policy framework; and addresses a real gap in metropolitan planning for sustainable urban mobility’. Co-designing sustainable urban mobility roadmaps was the winning Research Paper, awarded to Juliana Carvalho and the team at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal.
The third and last award for the Best Technical Paper, also judged by the experts stated ‘Although this was a small project, the results are generally valid and transferable. The study conclusions are of practical relevance as well as a guide to solution developers.’ The award went to Maurizio Arnone and Andrea Rosa for their paper on Digitalization of logistics in Piedmont, Italy.
The ITS European Congress in Toulouse, sponsored by 11 commercial partners, included three full days of innovative technologies for mobility solutions that were covered by 18 official media partners and more than 60 press registrations. Once again, the ITS Congress served as a platform for scientific excellence, business cases, advancing deployment and showing the achievement of the ITS European Congress to all stakeholders.
Watch the highlight videos of the week to experience the future of smart and sustainable mobility again.
Watch the Closing Ceremony.
