Details
TRANSPORT Smart Classes show key buyer side stakeholders how they can deploy the latest digital technology-enabled solutions, data-driven strategies and best practices to tackle their transport sector challenges (e.g. around congestion, traffic flows, air pollution and emissions, noise, first and last mile mobility, customer experience, cost effectiveness, connecting transport networks, managing and maintaining assets & infrastructure) and deliver a transport system that will allow passengers and citizens to travel efficiently, safely and with minimal impact on the environment.
Qualifying delegates include commissioning, procurement, trialling, partnering and policy leads, senior influencers, strategic decision makers, programme managers and planners from local authorities (e.g. city, borough, metropolitan, district and county councils); public transport operators; regional transport partnerships, sub-regional transport bodies, combined authorities, integrated transport authorities and passenger transport executives; highways authorities and road operators; government and supporting national transport agencies; fleet operators, parking operators, prime contractors etc.
Core themes range from on-demand transport and MaaS applications, EVs and e-mobility, micro mobility, predictive traffic management, journey time monitoring, smart parking and enforcing CAZs and LEZs, to active travel and behavioural change, analysing people movements, new ways of visualising data, connected and autonomous vehicles, intelligent street lighting, real-time transport modelling, smart ticketing and fare collection, and ITS in a Covid and post-Covid world.
On Wednesday 22nd November we will be casting a spotlight over Central England, hosting our speakers discussions on how the latest digital innovations can help overcome the transport and mobility challenges faced by the burgeoning city-regions of the West and East Midlands (incl. Birmingham, Coventry, Derby, Kettering, Leicester, Lincoln, Northampton, Nottingham, Peterborough, Solihull, Stoke-on-Trent, Telford, Worcester, Wolverhampton etc), and beyond. Delegates will hear from industry movers, shapers and disruptors during initial rapid-fire thought leadership presentations, before moving on to in-depth consultations with experts and peers during the roundtable discussions. In addition, this Smart Class will feature up to 3 keynote presentations from ITAs, PTEs, major transport operators, agencies or local/combined authorities giving real world insight into their collaborative initiatives, digital journeys and adoptions of emerging, transformative technologies.
TRANSPORT Smart Class, Midlands 2023 will be hosted at Drapers’ Hall, Coventry, and follows on from the highly acclaimed editions that we hosted in Nottingham (2022) and Birmingham (2020, 2019 and 2018). This half day in-person event is free to attend for bona fide delegates satisfying our registration criteria.
Our previous Transport Smart Classes have attracted senior delegates from:
Previous presentations have addressed:
Testimonials and feedback:
Growth, Infrastructure & Development Team, Nottinghamshire County Council
“Excellent service by Mark and Harriet. Clearly passionate about giving the attendees a well planned, joined up event. The presentations were all highly valuable. Thorough enjoyed it, very well coordinated and the material covered was exactly right”
Head of Strategy, Midlands Connect
“Myself and others from the authority certainly found it very enjoyable and informative. Many thanks for the invitation. Please bear me in mind for future events as I am sure colleagues would very much like to attend”
Transport Planner, Leicestershire County Council
“A really worthwhile event to attend, a very valuable use of my time and a really good mix of delegates in terms of public/private organisations and transport authorities and operators”
Head of Intelligent Transport Systems, National Highways
“The Smart Class is a really good format for exploring a contemporary area of work”
Professional Lead, Transport Strategy, City of Wolverhampton Council
“Excellent event, very informative and easy to delve into each area further”
Public Transport Operations Team Leader, Nottingham City Council
“Thank you for the invitation. It was a pleasure to present”
Transport Innovation Manager, Coventry City Council
“Colleagues fed back the event was very valuable. Many thanks”
Place Strategy Manager, Nottinghamshire County Council
“All of the presentations were informative and gave insights into solutions being offered to address a variety of issues on the transport and carbon reduction agenda”
Senior Project Engineer – Forward Programmes Highways Strategy, Derbyshire County Council
“The presentations and roundtables were all valuable”
Highways Strategy Manager, Derbyshire County Council
“Thanks for having me. Myself and my colleagues found it very interesting”
Transport Development Officer, Leicester City Council
“Pleased to be involved. I found it a very interesting morning”
Smart Leicester Programme Manager/Smart City Programme Lead, Leicester City Council
“Very informative, well chaired, excellent time keeping, lovely lunch and venue. Thank you!”
Environmental Protection Team Leader, Warwick District Council
“Love the structure of concise talks – gets rid of the uninteresting info and keeps the attention – then the opportunity to speak with them all afterwards. Excellent event”
Parking & Traffic Control Management, Warwickshire County Council
“Related well to my ongoing projects”
Transport Planning Project Officer, Warwickshire County Council
“Great opportunity to see real examples of tech in use and ask the daft questions – Very enjoyable”
Head of Strategic Infrastructure and Economy, Worcestershire County Council
“Well organised, great location and good brand of delegates”
Contract Manager, Birmingham City Council
“I attend a fair few industry events as you might expect and this was certainly one of the best ones I’ve been to”
Head of Commercial Management, Railway Operations, HS2
“A valuable learning opportunity, very interesting and enjoyable, and all the roundtables were insightful. I learned a great deal from the day and came away with some great ideas to research and chase up”
Transport Manager, Derbyshire Community Transport, HCT Group
“I found the afternoon very helpful; a carefully curated audience, very well managed, and a warm friendly organisation to work with”
Ex-Head of Digital Transformation & Transport Data Policy, Department for Transport
“Spot on content! Thanks again and see you again next year!”
Value Chain Delivery & Development Manager, Highways England
“All excellent!”
Sustainable Transport Coordinator, Nottingham Trent University
“The roundtable segment encouraged really dynamic discussion between experts and novices”
Innovation Manager, WMG, University of Warwick
“Great event”
Sustainability West Midlands
“Great to see you going from strength to strength to strength. The format delivers an engaging and useful experience; intelligent discussion on the roundtables; well worth attending!”
Transport Sector Lead, West Midlands Open Data Forum
“Thanks again for the opportunity to attend the event. It was both enjoyable and informative”
Market Development Lead, Smart Mobility & CAV, TRL
“Great event last week and I will be sure to look out for future sessions, especially in the Midlands. Your classes are a fantastic way for me to build my network and keep up with industry innovations”
Senior Project Manager – Infrastructure, Aecom
“The smart class was really interesting. Thank you!”
Environmental Consultant, Aecom
“An excellent use of time that repaid my travel and overnight expenses several times over”
Director, Association of Transport Coordinating Officers
“Really enjoyed. It was expertly run and I particularly liked the roundtables. I hadn’t experienced quite that format before but it worked really well”
Associate, Policy & Strategy Division, Integrated Transport Planning
“All presentations provided useful and interesting insights”
Transport Planner, Mode Transport Planning
“Really interesting event, good networking opportunities and great debate on roundtable discussions”
Divisional Director, Pell Frischmann
“Really interesting presentations and roundtables were a valuable opportunity to discuss real world issues. Great morning – Thank you!”
Principal Transport Planner, Rodgers Leask
“All of the presentations were valuable as they covered different points”
ITS Engineer, WSP
“Had some really useful conversations, which have already resulted in what looks like some potentially collaborative work”
Project Coordinator, Living Streets (Innovation Sponsor)
“A very useful and collaborative event”
Marketing Team, Marston Holdings (Innovation Sponsor)
“Delighted to be part of it; interesting presentations by all, and very useful roundtable discussions in the smart classes format”
Transport Lead, ODI Birmingham (Innovation Sponsor)
“Really enjoyed speaking at this event. Smart Classes are must attend events for local authority officers looking to see the latest innovations in the transport market”
Head of UK Business Development, Padam Mobility (Innovation Sponsor)
“A very interesting event”
Marketing Manager DACH, UK & Nordics, Padam Mobility (Innovation Sponsor)
“The event was a great opportunity to meet our targets”
Marketing Acquisition Manager, Padam Mobility (Innovation Sponsor)
“Really enjoyable day and thought provoking sessions from fellow presenters”
Principal Engineer, Project Centre, Part of Marston Holdings (Innovation Sponsor)
“With my colleagues from Padam Mobility, I attended the Smart Classes event in Nottingham last week. I really enjoyed the discussion with all the experts and gained many useful insights during the roundtable discussions. Thanks for organising this kind of event!”
Business Development Manager, Siemens IMS (Innovation Sponsor)
“I enjoyed presenting at this Midlands conference yesterday and hosting the roundtable discussions. It was good to share how Sustrans has moved from having a GIS team to becoming an organisation that uses GIS daily and how that has transformed our work. It was also good to discuss how important it is to engage with people…For us, digital engagement is a tool rather than an approach. Early and meaningful engagement is going to be vital as cities introduce transformative change through Mini Hollands and liveable neighbourhoods. Thank you for the rich roundtable discussions: lots of interest in the National Cycle Network and our GIS data. Fascinating presentations and lots for me to reflect on! Thanks for the opportunity. It was a really interesting morning”
Director: England Midlands and East, Sustrans (Innovation Sponsor)
“Many thanks for hosting this excellent event”
Business Development Manager, Videalert (Innovation Sponsor)
“Thanks for another great event today!”
Director, Videalert (Innovation Sponsor)
Speakers
“Reimagining Public Transport in the West Midlands” – As Head of Network Transformation at Transport for West Midlands, Steve Hayes is responsible for implementing the future transport network for the UK’s second largest city region, commissioning schemes that convert TfWM’s ambitious strategies into action on the ground. He is leading the West Midlands’ work to assess options for bus service reform, implementation of Demand Responsive Transport solutions, transition of the region’s bus fleet to be fully zero emission by 2030 and early stage development of the region’s major bus priority programmes.
In this keynote, Steve will talk about “why we need to reposition public transport to make it a much more attractive choice to those who live and work in the region”…
“I will explain what is in our ambitious Bus Service Improvement Plan, how we plan to deliver it and how it is planned to reverse years of decline in patronage. This includes how the implementation of Demand Responsive Transport is intended to make public transport a relevant choice for many more people”.
“Moving Away from Fossil Fuels for Travel and Transport” – Tim Bellenger is the Transport Strategy Manager at Nottingham City Council, working on multi-disciplinary and multi-modal innovative transport projects.
Tim’s keynote will explain how Nottingham is tackling the challenge of climate change, whilst also supporting economic growth, and the levelling up agenda to address issues of health inequality and community cohesion.
Nottingham has a multi-faceted programme of transport innovation, through electrification of the vehicle fleet, introduction of e-bike and e-scooter hire, high level data collection and analysis, a Workplace Parking Levy, a Workplace Travel Service, extensive bus, cycle and walking investment, contactless payment options, a Mobility as a Service hub, car club and personalised travel planning through the TravelWell programme of Active Travel Social Prescribing.
This is against the backdrop of significant social inequality, low but rising car ownership, cash and resource constraints within the local authority, and the need for Air Quality Management in a number of locations, in a constrained city environment.
“EV Charging Infrastructure and Smart Ticketing in the Midlands” – In this keynote presentation, Midlands Connect’s (MC) Head of New Technologies, Bharat Pathania, will present the actions and steps MC are taking to accelerate the EV infrastructure in the Midlands and help Midlands LTAs to adopt a region wide integrated ticketing solution for public transport.
As a Sub-National Transport Body, MC is leading both regionally and nationally on the electric vehicle (EV) and integrated ticketing agenda whilst working with partners including 22 Midlands Local Authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships, National Highways, Network Rail, HS2 and DfT.
“Understanding Every Journey in your Region” – BT Active Intelligence, a unit within BT Digital’s Data & AI Team, can provide an understanding of every journey in your region through the use of mobile network data.
In this innovator presentation, Nathan Watt will showcase how innovative insights can offer comprehensive information on multimodal journeys:
“This includes not just the routes taken, but also additional factors such as demographic details. By harnessing the power of mobile network data, we are able to provide superior quality data, a more representative sample, and ultimately, more insightful findings. Our aim is to demonstrate how this technology can enable your understanding of transportation patterns in your region”.
“Creating Places – Enabling Active Travel” – In this presentation, Martin Philpott (Regional Head of Design and Engineering for the Midlands) and Laura Smith (Senior Project Manager, Behaviour Change and Engagement – West Midlands) will outline Sustrans’ innovative approach to developing and activating greenways:
“Access to green space is now acknowledged to help reduce stress, anxiety and depression and gives us a different perspective of the world around us. The greenways that we deliver, and our approach to bringing communities with us, allows us to link aspects of our lives together. Our greenways have won awards, the contractors who we work with on them have won awards. Engineers understand highways, vehicles and all the equipment that goes with our urban living. Our approach isn’t complicated, our Engineers understand highways – but they also understand that creating greenways and green spaces requires a different approach, where we can bring the natural world back into our lives.
We also know that community activation of new/improved infrastructure in essential. The journeys users make need to start and stop somewhere, and how we develop and implement those connections are equally as important. People need to feel safe for all aspects of their journey and ensuring that we don’t just finish at the roadside is as essential as the quality of the greenways themselves”.
“Wokingham Borough Council – How a Strategic Partnership Introduced Borough wide Moving Traffic Enforcement” – Marston Holdings and Wokingham Borough Council worked in partnership to implement moving traffic enforcement schemes across the borough in a bid to improve road safety, and improve air quality.
The Council began drafting their designation order just eight weeks before the tranche 2 deadline. After their Part 6 powers were granted, they were still able to design, implement and enforce the schemes quickly and efficiently with lessons learnt on the way.
Marston Holdings Strategic Account Directors Richard O’Malley and Paul Costello will share valuable insights from this local authority case study.
Agenda
- 8:30 am - 9:00 am Registration, Networking and Continental Breakfast
- 9:00 am - 9:30 am Introduction and Opening Keynote
- 9:30 am - 10:40 am Expert Presentations
- 10:40 am - 11:00 am Keynote Speaker 2
- 11:00 am - 12:40 pm Roundtable Discussions and Consultations
- 12:40 pm - 1:00 pm Keynote Speaker 3
- 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Close and Lunch Networking
