The first day at Intertraffic was filled with meeting old friends and making new ones. First of all, the show is huge. Over 850 exhibits will be seen by 30,000 attendees over the four days. Fantastic.
The Intertraffic folks have an interesting way of asking folks to appear on their seminar program. They put my name on the program then sent an email asking if I would serve as moderator on a couple of the panels. I was happy to do it.
Highlighting the event was Mauritz Borjeson from Easy Park. He gave a tremendous presentation on where the world of parking and transportation is going and then how companies like his provide apps that not only help people find parking, but also provide data for cities to quickly see where their enforcement isn’t working, what areas always have available parking, and assistance in rate setting. He did it all without so much as a nod toward his company. Well done, Mauritz.
Around the four sessions, I was able to meet and chat with a number of folks including Gary Neff from Park Assist, Khristian Gutierrez and Devin Patel from Passport, Iliara Riva from HUB and consultant Michael Klein. Peter Guest and his wife Jane dropped by the booth and held forth while we made calls on exhibitors nearby.
I had a most interesting talk with Tom Sivak, new CEO of Designa.US. I frankly don’t remember meeting him, but he remembered me (seen you around trade shows). I have been soundly criticized by my staff for not remembering people’s names. Its one of my many faults. Its not that I don’t care, I just don’t seem to have the memory space. I will remember Tom. He is an impressive guy.
I also met with Laurence Bannerman and Adolfo Deltodesco of Aipark, the Italian Parking Association. If there is anyone in Europe who is “Mister Parking,” its Laurence.
Astrid asked me to tag along for a meeting with Nokia. I wasn’t sure why we were meeting with a smart phone company but Matthias Jablonowski and Jochen Apel of their Nokia”s Global Transport Segment sat me straight.
This division of the high tech company provides infrastructure communications for smart city applications (sensors in street lighting, traffic signals, and a hundred other things). They don’t make the sensors, or the computers at the other end that collect and process the data. They make the routers and infrastructure that carry the data from one place to another. Its extremely important since if that fails, all the rest is useless. Interesting guys from an interesting and important company.
Its warming up a bit. Today was in the 40s with no wind, the past two days have barely been above freezing with a sharp wind chill factor.
More tomorrow from Amsterdam
JVH
One Response
It’s interesting seen how the world will change in a few years