Australian ITS Summit and NeTC Forum running together

By Simon Chester on 24 March, 2015

Australia’s two leading annual intelligent transport systems conferences – the Australian ITS Summit and the National Electronic Tolling Forum – will be held at the Crown Conference Centre from 12 to 14 May with national and international guest speakers and more than 400 delegates expected to attend.

Hosted by Intelligent Transport Systems Australia (ITS Australia), the events bring together ITS industry leaders, government, transport businesses and users, and academics to explore ways to maximise the efficiency and improve the sustainability of Australia’s transport infrastructure.

ITS Australia chief executive officer Susan Harris said that the two annual events will be co-located and run simultaneously but will have separate themes and programs. “Combining the ITS Summit and NeTC Forum will deliver the most important gathering of ITS professionals in Australia in 2015,” said Susan Harris.

“An exciting benefit of co-locating our major 2015 events will be the large exhibition of ITS technologies displayed. It will be a one-stop-shop for engineers, planners and systems specifiers to update themselves on the latest technologies.

“The program for the ITS Summit and the NeTC Forum will be strong following an overwhelming response to the call for abstracts. Each conference has its own theme, speakers’ program, and breakout sessions,” she said.

Among the leading ITS thought leaders presenting at the combined event will be:

Scott Charlton, Chief Executive Officer, Transurban, Australia: Plenary Paper The convergence of consumer technologies.
Christian Rousseau, Director Corporate Strategy and Planning, Renault SA, France: European strategies for ITS.
Russell Shields, Chair, Ygomi, USA: Plenary Paper The Vehicle of the Future: How electronics will change the way you drive.
Peter Sweatman, Director University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and Director Michigan Mobility Transformation Centre, USA: Plenary paper The Road to 21st Century Mobility and Summit Paper Cooperative and automated vehicle trial update from Michigan.
There will also be updates from World Congress Board of Directors from ITS Europe (ERTICO), ITS America and ITS Asia Pacific.

Under the Implementing Connected Mobility theme, the ITS Summit will focus on new technologies, new applications and deployments of technologies, case studies and challenges and opportunities in the Australian market.

Key addresses will include:

Big Data and Transport by ITS United Kingdom Director and Xerox Services Solution Director, International Transport and Government.
Traffic Control systems Leveraging Cooperative ITS by Dr Young-Jun Moon, Korea Transport Institute.
ITS for Sustainable Mobility by SK Jason Chang, National Taiwan University.
Highlights from the 14th ITS Asia Pacific Forum held 27 to 29 April 2015 in Nanjing by Dr Xiaojing Wang of ITS China.

The NeTC Forum theme will be Mobility Solutions and the Customer Experience with topics covered including case studies on major national and international tolling projects, including innovations in tolling, cooperative ITS technology, congestion, and charging and processing systems.

Among the presentations focusing on innovation are:

Implications of the connected vehicle on the Tolling Industry by Larry Yermack of Wendover Consulting, USA.
TollAssist: What we are learning from rolling out a tolling system for mobile devices by Sun Toll’s Damien Morris.
Interference of Cooperative ITS and WIFI with Australian toll Collection Systems: An issue paper by ARRB Group’s David Green.
CityLink Tunnel Widening Update: Innovative use of existing infrastructure by Transurban’s Dave Clements.

Delegates interested in both sectors of the industry will get maximum value by attending the parallel sessions. Susan Harris said the NeTC Forum will be held on 12 and 13 May and the ITS Summit on the 13 and 14 May with shared sessions presented on the middle day.

“This is the first time we have held these major events together and they are being held earlier this year because Melbourne Australia is also hosting the 23rd ITS World Congress in October 2016,” she said.

“The World Congress will bring about 7,000 ITS professionals to Melbourne and, as our annual Australian events also attract large numbers of international delegates, we want to allow plenty of time for people to plan and fund their visit to the World Congress,” Susan Harris said.

The ITS Summit and NeTC Forum speakers program, exhibition and conference registration details are available here.