IRF Geneva takes centre stage at Movin’ On event in Canada

The Challenge Bibendum organised by 720 Michelin for the past 20 years had now become “Movin’On”

Organised in Canada on 13th-15th June 2017, with this new focus, the event had attracted 4,000 participants from the transportation industry from 31 countries around the world. 1201 IRF Geneva was represented by its executive director, Susanna Zammataro.

The event opened under the big rooftop at Montreal’s Arsenal amidst a welcome from the Michelin CEO and president Jean-Dominique Senard and the Montreal mayor Denis Coderre. Politicians, innovators, and industry leaders subsequently shared the floor during the three-day event to discuss challenges that the mobility sector faces today as well as the  ones it should anticipate in the future. A host of solutions and the realm of possibilities were also debated.

IRF took the centre stage for a panel discussion between Zammataro (IRF Geneva) and Olivier Biancarelli (Engie) on, “Rethinking the City of Tomorrow: Solutions in Infrastructure”. In the discussion, Zammataro underlined the importance of investing in data, both in terms of collection as well as the analysis of data. Quoting Saampo Hitanen - CEO of MaaS Global and the father of the concept of “Mobility as a Service” – she mentioned some of the salient features of this digital tsunami that the transport sector is currently experiencing. She also highlighted the many questions that still need to be answered.

Good governance and the transformation of regulatory structures to frame the action of new operators - like for example 8279 Uber - were some of the points she also touched upon. Legislators are currently experiencing some difficulty in keeping pace with the technology developments the sector is witnessing and outdated regulations can really slow down the pace of innovation and transformation. She commented that political leadership and passionate mayors were certainly crucial in significantly transforming cities as well as influential people for continuity.An important message that Movin’ On has succeeded in putting forward is the clear support of the Board which is all for innovation and solutions for sustainable mobility. Meet the people behind Movin’ On, take a sneak peek at what it looked like, learn and discuss the key messages it has put forward during the next IRF World Meeting in New Delhi (14th- 17th November 2017). The latter will continue the mobility debate initiated by Movin’ On and with the next edition in Montreal on 30th-31st May and 1st of June 2018.