TISA Steering Board presents a strategy for the coming years; President and Treasurer elected at the General Assembly meeting

 

TISA – the Traveller Information Services Association – held its eighth annual General Assembly yesterday. Thomas Kusche, Senior Editor of the German Broadcaster WDR, was re-appointed as TISA President for another two-year term. Olaf Meng, Senior Product Manager at Garmin was elected as Treasurer. Mr Meng takes over the treasurer role from Dave Francis (INRIX).

 

The new Steering Board was then approved by the General as follows:

– Thomas Kusche, WDR (President)

– Olaf Meng, Garmin (Treasurer)

– Jacques Naves, Michelin (Chair Content & Services)

– Teun Hendriks, representing Clear Channel (Co-chair Technical & Standards)

– Dave Francis, INRIX (Co-chair Technical & Standards) Theo Kamalski, TomTom (Chair Products)

– Christine Lotz, BASt (Public Authorities representative)

– Hermann Meyer (ERTICO representative)

– Christian Vogg (EBU representative)

– Matthias Unbehaun (Executive Director)

 

Thomas Kusche and Matthias Unbehaun took the opportunity to present an outline for a TISA future strategy. The work on the TISA strategy was initiated by the Steering Board and is now being developed further, involving the entire TISA membership. Steering Board members took the floor to comment on various strategic topics. The following lively discussion proved that the timing was just right and that membership interest is high to contribute to shaping TISAs future.

 

“TISA is a membership driven organisation” Thomas Kusche stated, “and as such it should encourage even more the participation of all Members in the activities of TISA. In particular, we will increase activities to strengthen our outreach in other regions, such as Asia or the Americas”. This will be a main focus for the forthcoming years. Another strategic topic includes a stronger involvement in the field of Cooperative ITS. TPEG deployment consultancy provided by TISA should facilitate the introduction of new products to the market and inspire new business models. Further, seamless multi-modal travel information will move closer into the focus of TISA.

 

On the same day, the TISA Achievement Award was presented to Martin Dreher of Bayerische Medientechnik (Germany). “Martin joined Bayerische Medientechnik in 1999 and from that moment on, he has been very much involved in the development of both TMC and TPEGTM. He is one of the main drivers behind the editorial system METAS, and the TPEGTM on AIR technology is another one of his ingenious ideas. He is one of the most engaged and qualified participants in TISA processes” the newly re-appointed President Thomas Kusche stated when presenting the award to Mr Dreher.

 

The TISA General Assembly is held every June in Brussels at the ERTICO premises.