On Tuesday October the 14th, Florence attended the Franco-British Transport Conference 2014, co-organised by the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain and the Franco-British Council.
The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Meeting the challenges for the City of tomorrow’. The conference gathered over 200 participants, ranging from City officials (Paris, London, Strasbourg), private sector leaders from some of the transport industry’s giants (Renault, Bolloré, Alstom, TomTom, Eurostar among others), major consultancies (Deloitte) and financial institutions (HSBC).
The Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin, Secretary of State for Transport, delivered the closing address. He chose to talk about the evolution of transportation systems in London and Paris, emphasising how much the two capitals can learn from each other. Broadening the discussion to the Digital Revolution in Transport, Secretary of State McLoughlin very wittily declared: ‘my Smartphone is my preferred mode of transport’, hinting at the 5,000+ mobility apps currently existing in London.
Both panel presentations (‘Financing urban transport: bringing public and private investors together’ and ‘The city of the future: innovative solutions for the digital age’) were very insightful and led to interesting discussions about the future of cities, and the important role of smart(er) transportation systems.
This event was a great opportunity to present 21c’s Smart Mobility European Projects, OpenTransportNet and the European Cloud Marketplace for Intelligent Mobility to a group of curious transport stakeholders during networking breaks, as well as strengthen 21c’s connection to the French Embassy in London. Read through the discussions and ideas exchanged, using #FBtranspconf