ERTICO News: Geneva Congress - The place to be for ITS enthusiasts

Date: 27 May 2008

The 7th European Congress and Exhibition on Intelligent Transport Systems and Services will take place in Geneva, Switzerland from 3-6 June. The event is organised by ITS Congress Association, on behalf of ERTICO - ITS Europe, in co-operation with the Swiss Federal Roads Office, the State of Geneva, the European Commission and the United Nations. In line with this year’s theme “ITS for Sustainable Mobility”, the event’s presentations will cover a wide variety of topics around cooperative mobility, ranging from ITS introduction to highly specialised technical sessions, and from political to technical debates.

The Opening Session on 3 June, chaired by Mr Matthias Rapp, will see key personalities from European authorities and Switzerland presenting their views on ITS and on this year’s theme of “ITS for Sustainable Mobility”. Keynote speakers Mr. Moritz Leuenberger, Swiss Federal Councillor, Switzerland, and Mr. Fotis Karamitsos, Director, European Commission, DG TREN, will be joined by Ms. Eva Molnar, Director Transport Division, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe – UNECE, Mr. Robert Cramer, Head of the State Department of Territory, Republic and State of Geneva, Switzerland, Mr. Ivan Hodac, Secretary General, European Automobile Manufacturers Association – ACEA and Mrs. Monica Sundström, ERTICO –ITS Europe Chairman who will welcome participants to the Congress.

In the Plenary Session, to take place in the morning of 4 June, high-level speakers representing the EU, the UN, national transport authorities and industry will take the floor for an exchange of views on ITS. Mr. André-Gilles Dumont, Professor of Traffic Facilities, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne - EPFL, Switzerland, will act as Master of Ceremonies.

Executive Sessions
In the Executive Sessions, high-level speakers from all over the world, from both private and public sectors, will share their rich experience and stimulate a lively debate on present and future developments of ITS.

This year’s Executive Sessions will be organised around 5 major themes:

• Sustainability of mobility
• Co-modality
• Case studies in Switzerland and Alpine Regions
• Traffic and transport management
• Paying for mobility

Topics to be discussed include multi-modal transport of passengers and goods, ITS for cooperative mobility management, multi-modal transport of persons and goods. In addition, the specific challenges of the Alpine Regions, such as management of increasing movement of goods through the Alps, and last but not least fee and fare collection with the objective of influencing mobility demand will also be explored.

Special Interest Sessions
Organised at the request of stakeholders developing and deploying ITS, these interactive, tailor-made sessions will offer fresh perspectives and insights into a wide variety of topics and projects. Many sessions will deal with vehicle-infrastructure and vehicle-user communication, including the Intelligent Car Initiative, Coping safely with new services in your car, Co-operative automotive and traffic environment (SAFESPOT), Security in vehicular communication, Intelligent speed adaptation, Co-operative Vehicle-Infrastructure Systems in Europe (CVIS), and first results on the Field Operational Tests. Sessions dealing with co-modality & pricing are another important part of this year’s programme, with topics including logistics and public transport, acceptance of mobility pricing measures, national road pricing initiatives, and challenges of urban road user charging. Maps and traveller services will feature prominently on the agenda of the Special Sessions too, with sessions covering location based services, solutions for map updating and map data feedback, and Traveller Information Services. Freight and logistics management is an area in which ITS solutions can bring significant benefits both in terms of enhancing efficiency and reducing the environmental footprint of goods transport. Sessions on freight transport include intelligent cargo for efficient, safe and environment-friendly logistics (EURIDICE), the future of interoperable road charging (RCI), and new national schemes for HGV charging in Europe.

Technical Sessions
These sessions involve presentations by international experts on a wide variety of ITS-related topics, encompassing all technical, economic, organisational and societal aspects of ITS. They aim to encourage and enable the exchange of information on every aspect of ITS deployment - ranging from improving the operational use of systems and services to research and planning to support new applications. This year’s Technical Sessions will be grouped around 11 key themes: ITS basics, maps and travel time, highway improvements, urban traffic, emissions and environment, special transports, Intelligent Speed Adaptation, information services, integrated management, ITS in Switzerland, and incident detection.

Closing Ceremony
The Closing Ceremony on Friday 6 June in the afternoon, chaired by Mr. Rudolf Dieterle, Director of the Swiss Federal Roads Office - FEDRO, will offer delegates the opportunity to come together and mark the end of an informative, inspiring and exciting event. Mr. Edgar Thielmann, Head of Unit at DG TREN will represent the European Commission, and Mr. Hermann Meyer, ERTICO CEO, will conclude the Congress. Participants will hear the highlights and conclusions from the different sessions, exhibition and ancillary events, before learning more about the plans for the 16th World Congress to take place next year in Stockholm, from Mr. Hans Rode, Congress Director, Swedish Road Administration – SRA. Finally, Mr. Yiannis Moissidis, President of ITS Hellas, Greece will present the plans for the ITS European Congress in Thessaloniki in 2010. 

Geneva 2008 – The place to network!

Meet ITS experts representing decision makers, researchers, and buyers of ITS solutions in Geneva, from Europe and all over the world.

We look forward to welcoming you in Geneva!

To read about the participation of ERTICO Partners in detail, please follow the link:

Partner Contributions Geneva 2008.pdf (930 KB)