We’re delighted to confirm further details on our WECA and National Highways keynotes at TRANSPORT Smart Class, South West England 2022, which takes place this Thursday 28th April at M Shed, Bristol:
“Ambition Needs Innovation” – The West of England is recognised nationally and internationally as a region that leads and drives innovation both within traditional sectors, such as aerospace, and across a diverse range of creative and digital sectors.
The West of England Combined Authority incorporates the three geographical areas of Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol and South Gloucestershire. It also supports the Local Enterprise Partnership, which is business-led, and covers the four West of England councils, including North Somerset Council. As the regional transport authority, WECA is responsible for transport strategies from walking, cycling and electric scooters through public transport and cars to freight. It also works with neighbouring authorities on regional schemes. With ambitious plans to transform the regions transport system, applying that centuries old tradition of innovation will be essential.
In this keynote presentation, Oliver Coltman – Programme Manager for WECA’s Future Transport Zone – will introduce a selection of solutions and services that are being trialled in the area as part of the national exploration of the Future of Transport, including a Mobility-as-a-Service platform, a Transport Data Hub, and Mobility Hubs. Running until March 2024, the FTZ Programme aims to demonstrate replicable transport innovations in collaboration with constituents councils, and public and private partners.
“Towards Intelligent Mobility to Transform Road Journeys and Drive Integration with the Wider Transport Network”– As National Highways is preparing for the future transport needs, a series of transformation programmes are progressing the strategic road network to meet the organisation’s ambitions around environmental sustainability, customer experience, safety and innovative digital solutions.
In this keynote, National Highways’ Future Technologies and Mobility Team Leader will discuss how National Highways is promoting the concept of Intelligent Mobility, following the 9 key future trends highlighted in their “Connecting the Country” report. These include demand trends (demographic and usage shifts; on-demand consumption; connectivity), infrastructure trends (smart assets; construction innovation; reducing impact, increasing resilience) and vehicle trends (electrification; connectivity and autonomy; mobility-as-a-service).
Dr Paraskevi (Vivi) Michalaki’s presentation will focus on the current research and trials to enhance journeys on the strategic road network, as well as the plans to deliver further advancements to enable end-to-end journeys, and improve integration with the wider transport ecosystem through collaborations (e.g. rethinking road space design with the local authority network) beyond National Highways’ roads.
M Shed is a world-class cultural landmark set on the historic harbour side in the heart of Bristol
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. Core themes range from on-demand transport and MaaS applications, EVs and e-mobility, micromobility, 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.
TRANSPORT Smart Class, South West England 2022 will host our speakers discussions on how the latest digital innovations can help overcome the transport and mobility challenges faced by burgeoning city-regions such as Bath, Bristol, Cheltenham, Exeter, Gloucester, Plymouth and Torbay, Bournemouth/Poole, Salisbury, Swindon, and beyond. In addition to our inspirational keynotes, the event will feature: Rapid fire innovator presentations delivered by leading technology experts and thought leaders – including Siemens Intermodal Solutions (IMS) UK’s Alex Stewart, Padam Mobility’s Jack Holland, The Green Transportation and Logistics Company’s John Grantham, Vortex IoT’s (Part of Marston Holdings) John Vinson – representing unique transport and mobility innovation themes and priority areas of application; Deeper-dive roundtable consultations with speakers and specialists to help hone delegates’ smart strategies and address some of their specific transport and mobility challenges; Further networking opportunities with peers and pioneers over breakfast, drinks and cooked lunch, and all at no charge!
Qualifying delegates include commissioning, procurement, trialling and partnering leads, senior influencers, strategic decision makers and planners from local authorities (e.g. city, borough, metropolitan, district and county councils); public and private 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, vehicle manufacturers, parking operators, prime contractors etc. Those with relevant credentials can REGISTER HERE to secure one of the last free places and join us for what promises to be an insightful half-day of collaboration and knowledge exchange!
Up to 5 innovators/solution vendors can participate at a Smart Class in an “Innovation Sponsor” capacity: Check out our Event Sponsorship page for full details on “Smart Class Innovation Sponsorship Packages” or contact us by phone or e-mail if you’d like to discuss this option further. Peruse our Testimonials page (or the individual Smart Class event pages on our website) for feedback from previous delegates, sponsors and supporters!
Feature Image Source: NikolayFrolochkin on Pixabay
