ITS WC 2015

ITS WC 2015

ITS WC 2015 Bordeaux Trip Report
 
The 22nd ITS World Congress was held in Bordeaux, France from October 5-9, 2015.  The theme of the conference was “Towards Intelligent Mobility, Better Use of Space” and it featured over 400 exhibitors and more than 12,000 attendees from around the world, a record for attendance at a European World Congress.  
 
There were over 270 sessions that featured speakers from around the world focusing on topics that included the following streams:
  • Space Technologies and Services for ITS
  • Cooperative ITS Deployment Challenges
  • Multimodal Transport for People and Goods
  • Urban Trends Driving ITS Changes
  • Solutions for Sustainable Mobility
  • Automated Roads, Automated Management, Automated Driving
  • Are Big Data and Open Data Transport’s Silver Bullets?
  • Other Cross-Cutting Topics
 
The breakdown was as follows: 
  • 23 high-level policy sessions plus the Ministerial Round Table looking at ITS and Climate Change
  • 85 Special Interest Sessions
  • 125 sessions dealing with technical or scientific papers
  • 18 sessions looking in detail at actual project achievements
  • 7 Stakeholder Workshops
  • 3 General Public Sessions
  • 8 National ITS Association “Corner Sessions”. 
 
In addition, there were Plenary and Executive sessions that focused on ITS and societal change, Space for intelligent mobility, personal connectivity leading to connected mobility and Cooperative ITS for Safety and Mobility. Also nearly 40 associated events including simultaneous meetings and workshops.  
 
The Congress was held at the Bordeaux Conference Centre and the plenary and executive sessions were held at the nearby Palais des Congrès.  The two facilities were a short walk apart along the shores of the picturesque Lac de Bordeaux.  Both facilities could be easily reached by attendees’ use of a city-wide tram system using an app-based free pass provided by the local transportation authority.  An autonomous vehicle shuttle was also provided for attendees’ transit between the two facilities that was well utilised.
 
The exhibition was held in the 25,000 square metre Hall of the Conference Centre that featured a very strong presence from most major European transportation industry participants and exhibits from Ertico member countries from across Europe.  The exhibition was well attended by the 3,500 plus delegates as well as local and regional attendees from France and surrounding countries. 
 
ITS Canada shared a 100 square metre booth with ITS America and featured member participation by 8 ITS Canada member exhibitors:
  1. Cellint
  2. City of Montreal
  3. GIRO
  4. IBI Group
  5. International Road Dynamics
  6. MDI Conseils et Technologies
  7. TechnoMontreal, a consortium of 18 companies from the ICT community in Montreal
  8. Telenium Inc.
  9. TrustPoint Innovation Technologies
 
The Canadian attendees reported strong turnouts at the stand and also considerable interest from attendees.  The stand also featured a built-in meeting space area that enabled exhibitors to meet with potential clients and other business contacts without having to stray too far from their respective booths.
 
In general, the Bordeaux World Congress afforded Canadian attendees and exhibitors ample opportunity for interaction and promotion of their products and services.  The feedback received from all of the Canadian delegates was very positive.
 
The technical and executive papers presented at the World Congress were of very high quality and most have been posted at a web site accessible by the attendees.
 
The City of Bordeaux and the Aquitaine Region of France were excellent hosts for this 22nd ITS World Congress and they have set a very high standard for the upcoming Congresses in Melbourne in 2016 and Montreal in 2017.
 
ITS Canada would like to acknowledge the financial and participatory support provided by our member organizations that attended the Bordeaux Congress.  We also gratefully acknowledge the financial and organizational support by the Canadian government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Development and specifically by its Global Opportunities for Associations program.
 
Robert G Shirra
Managing Director
 
November 1, 2015
 

ITS WC 2015

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