ITS European Congress 2014

16-19 June 2014
Helsinki, Finland - Messukeskus, Expo and Convention Centre
The ITS European Congress and Exhibition, Europe's largest ITS event, is a unique networking  appointment that brings together high level personalities from the automotive industry, road transport operators, EU decision makers, and service providers from over 50 countries worldwide.

The ITS European Congresses are organised every year when Europe doesn't host the ITS World Congress and gather between 1500 and 2000 professionals in the field of ITS. In 2013, the ITS European Congress was organised in Dublin and hosted participants from 55 European countries as well as US and Japan.

Distinguishing itself by the high number of participants and the unparalleled quality of its exhibition and programme, the 10th ITS European Congress will be hosted in Helsinki from 16 to 19 June 2014.

The motto of the ITS European Congress 2014 is “ITS in your pocket – proven solutions driving user services”. The 2014 event will focus on: new mobility apps for consumers and businesses; smart transactions (ticketing, infrastructure, insurance, travel, parking); multimodal network operations; logistics and public transport; cleaner mobility; and automated vehicles. Over 100 sessions have been organised including 3 Plenary and 8 Executive sessions which will gather top speakers from European governments and private companies. Those sessions will look into the following topics:

• Smart ticketing and parking
• Logistics
• Automation - the next step after connectivity
• Business model and ITS - Turning ITS into investment and presentation of international business cases
• Extreme weather conditions (not only winter and snow, but also heat, flood, etc.)
• International cooperation with Russia (including the Russian days)

The exhibition (http://www.itsineurope.com/its10/index.php/sponsors-and-exhibition/floorplan) will be one of the great attraction of this year congress. The 4000 smq will host  50+ companies including Q-Free; T-Systems; Siemens; Imtech; Sanef ITS; Teleste; CGI; Go-Swift; Vaisala; and Vitronic and organisations such as: ERTICO; TISA; ITS America and ITS Canada; ITS Russia; ITS France; ITS UK; and ITS Deutschland, plus many Finnish and Scandinavian companies including Semel, Noptel, FARA, and BLIP SYSTEMS.

Also, for the first time ITS Helsinki will have the Commercial Theatre sessions. The Commercial Theatre, located in the centre of the Exhibition area, will house 3 different types of activity: Commercial Paper Sessions, Special Interest Sessions in the ‘Industry Insight’ Stream, and Commercial Presentation Sessions. Any registered attendee can attend any Session taking place in the Commercial Theatre. These Sessions present near-market material activity aimed at generating or improving a specific product, device or idea for the market, with a particularly strong commercial or deployment flavour. All Sessions are presented to a more commercial audience than usual, specifically targeted to exhibition participants and visitors, in an interactive format. All these Sessions are listed in the Congress programme.

In terms of demos, many participating companies will have some interesting showcase of their latest products and services. ITS Helsinki will also host the iMobility Challenge eco-driving competition. On the first day of the Congress (16 June) the European project iMobility Challenge organises a public day where members of the public can come and test for themselves latest intelligent vehicle technologies. The event will take place right outside the Congress centre. Demonstrators will include technology providers and auto manufacturers who will demonstrate advanced driver assistance systems and new in-vehicle applications made possible thanks to vehicle connectivity.

ITS Helsinki will also feature the "ITS in your pocket - App Contest 2014" awarding the best traffic applications for smartphones that can ease mobility in cities as well as in rural areas. The App contest has so far received many entries. Competitor companies are from Finnish cities - Tampere, Porvoo, Espoo, Helsinki, Oulu, Kouvola, as well as from London (UK), Rome (Italy), Gyor (Hungary), and Shkoder (Albania). The competition is divided into two tracks: “Ideas’ for development and “Products & Services’ already existing. The deadlines are 20 March for track 1 (Ideas), and 7 May for track 2 (Products & Services).

Both tracks will accept proposals that provide solutions to improve transport safety, efficiency and sustainability, make transport systems more comfortable and should focus on the user needs.

The winners in three categories Multimodality, Sustainability, and Innovation will be announced after the opening of the Congress on 16 June 2014.

The 10th ITS European Congress is organised by ERTICO - ITS Europe and the European Commission, and hosted by ITS Finland, the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the City of Helsinki.