Another Report from Andy in Shanghai
InterParking Shanghai 2010 is being held in conjunction with an ITS show at the Shanghai Exhibition Center. The opening ceremony that featured a live marching band, city and state officials as well as international visitors. The expected attendance of over 6,000 people at the exhibition and 400 at the supporting conference should be quite a coup. There was one booth that showed a parking guidance system and another that had a space detection system, all other parking booths (approximately 25 in total) were focused on Automated and Mechanical Parking in various forms. These systems were shown in either as simple stack parking systems (adding one car directly over another) to full garage systems.
Booths ranged in size from a 3mx3m to huge two story affairs that included automated parking systems and a BMW as a test car. At the end of the first day the exhibitors seemed pleased with the turn out. I had the opportunity to meet with many of the manufacturers all of who are excited about the prospects of their products but those with the most experience dealing with international issues were concerned about regulations in foreign countries and how those countries (especially the US) view automated parking systems as part of building codes. These companies believe strongly in their products but also are focusing on where they can be the most successful. We head back to the show and conference today.
International Parking Association
I am also in Shanghai to attend the yearly meeting of the International Parking Association. This group of associations (from China, Taiwan, Korea, Canada, and Australia) meets approximately once a year to talk about the major issues facing parking in their respective parts of the world. The association from China is a group of parking manufacturers who meet once a month to discuss industry problems and positives. Representatives from this group informed me that 170,000 automated parking structure spaces were built in China last year and they believe that number to triple in the next three years. The infrastructure growth in this part of the world is phenomenal and with China purchasing more cars than any other country in the world, parking is going to play a major part. As part of the meeting one of the Chinese manufactures (XIZI-IUK) hosted a wonderful banquet. It was quite the affair with incredible food and a wonderful group of people.
More Tomorrow
AVH
