Record number of sessions organised during the ITS World Congress 2006

Creation date: 19 October 2006

A range of executive, special, technical and interactive sessions were organised at the 13th World Congress and Exhibition on Intelligent Transport Systems which took place in London on 8 – 12 October. In total, more than 230 sessions were organised – an all-time record.

The congress was opened by a range of senior Ministerial and other VIP speakers from around the world. European speakers included Mr Jacques Barrot, Commissioner for Transport and Mrs Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media. In her speech, Commissioner Reding focused on the Commission’s recently launched Intelligent Car Initiative.

A special session was also organised on the subject on 10 October. The Intelligent Car initiative, which was launched at the beginning of 2006, promotes the development of smarter, cleaner and safer vehicles. It coordinates the work of citizens, Member States and the industry in support of research and development in the area of intelligent cars and facilitates the take-up and use of research results to create awareness of ICT –based road safety solutions. 

The special session featured a broad range of presentations by a series of high-level speakers, including Fabrizio Minarini, Head of Sector in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Information Society and Media, Arnold van Zyl, CEO of ERTICO – ITS Europe and Ulf Palmquist, Director of EUCAR.

In total, the European Commission’s Directorate General for Information Society and Media organised 10 sessions, all of which were very well attended.

Commissioner Reding delivering her speech via video