ITS World Congress opens in Hamburg

Hamburg, 11 October 2021: “Experience Future Mobility Now”: This is the slogan under which Peter Tschentscher, 1^st Mayor of Hamburg, opened the 27th ITS World Congress today. From now until Friday, 400 exhibitors from all over the world will present the newest developments in smart mobility, connected transport systems and smart logistics in the reopened CCH and exhibition halls.

More than to 10,000 guests are expected at the world’s largest industry event. The goal of the ITS World Congress, which will admit only vaccinated or recovered individuals, is to let everyone experience innovative mobility concepts. At the free Public Day on Thursday, there will be a special and varied stage programme and lots of live presentations for interested members of the public.

Angelos Amditis, Chairman of ERTICO: “Our goal is to provide the ultimate showcase of mobility systems and services deployment. The Congress offers an ideal platform for the global ITS Community to keep pace with the incredible evolution of the industry, discuss on the future of mobility, experience innovative mobility concepts and their implementation in a real environment. In these terms, Hamburg is exemplary. The city offers a unique and modern perspective on the topic of ITS that should be shared with the whole world.”

Peter Tschentscher, 1^st Mayor of Hamburg: “Hamburg is showing off the mobility of the future at the ITS World Congress. This includes autonomous driving in real operation, smart traffic management on the streets and the rails, and digital services that make our mobility simpler, more efficient and more environmentally friendly. We welcome more than 400 exhibitors to Hamburg, who bring with them ideas and technology from all over the world. At the ITS Congress, they will experience a city that faces the challenges of the future and actively drives the mobility transition.”

Anjes Tjarks, Hamburg Senator for Transport and Mobility Transition: “The goal is clear: people in Hamburg should profit from the ITS Congress and the projects it introduces for the long term. This is why we are further developing the ITS strategy and our goals for 2030, and we want to take advantage of the opportunities offered by digitalization to protect the climate and contribute to the mobility transition. This is how we will make Hamburg a digital model city for the smart mobility of the future.

Six fields of action – 42 Hamburg ITS anchor projects

Driving through the HafenCity in the HEAT minibus, traffic light forecasts in real time on your phone, drones helping with port security and with health care – these are just four examples of how the mobile city of tomorrow could look and which will be on display at the ITS World Congress in Hamburg. The Congress is an important milestone on the way to the implementation of the ITS strategy conceived by the Hamburg senate in 2016, which extends to 2030.

By then, Hamburg wants to achieve its goals in six fields of action. They include “automated and connected mobility”, “mobility services”, “digital port and logistics solutions”, “smart infrastructure”, “new services from new technologies” and “sustainable solutions for city and citizens”. The fields of action are also the focus of the five-day programme of events. Hamburg is the model city for mobility and logistics solutions in metropolitan areas, which different parties from the city, business and science are working on together. In preparation for the ITS World Congress 2021, 42 anchor projects were selected from Hamburg’s about 175 ITS projects. They were chosen because they can make a great contribution towards achieving the goals of the ITS strategy and represent an important foundation for other ITS projects. The anchor projects can be experienced on-site during the ITS World Congress.

New products, ideas and innovations in the exhibition halls

400 exhibitors will present their ideas and solutions related to intelligent transportation systems in Hamburg’s exhibition halls. Domestic and foreign technology groups, digital companies, automotive manufacturers, system providers from the transport sector and companies from the areas of software development, telecommunications and corporate development will all be represented. Various associations and organisations are also presenting strategies and solutions. The exhibition areas are in halls B3, B5 and B7.

You can discover what the German government, the federal states and their individual authorities are contributing to the mobility of the future in hall B4. Technical presentations complement the exhibition programme: ideas in practice can be experienced in demonstration hall B2. There, many developments will celebrate their public premieres in the spacious 4,000-square metre demonstration area. New developments will also be shown in the start-up area in hall B3. This is where young companies have a platform to present their business ideas and participate in pitching sessions and panel discussions.

Experts from around the world will have specialized discussions in hall B6. The opening and closing events as well as all panel discussions will take place in the reopened CHH. The international specialist programme is financed by agencies from the areas of science, business and politics. Taking into account the important role of the Port of Hamburg, two special global forums will take place for the first time – one on “Mobility as a Service (MaaS)” and another on freight and logistics.

Four mobility transition demonstration tours

The ITS World Congress 2021 will also take place outside the grounds of the convention centre. From Monday to Friday, intelligent traffic solutions will showcase their practicability as part of four mobility transition demonstration tours.
https://itsworldcongress.com/technical-demonstration-tours/

ITS bike tour

An ITS bike tour specially conceived for the Congress will take visitors by bike to see a number of different traffic projects created as part of Hamburg’s ITS strategy and during the preparations for the congress.

Public Day on Thursday, 14 October 2021

The 2021 ITS World Congress will open its doors to all interested people on Thursday, 14 October 2021. In addition to a top-class stage programme with presentations by physicist, moderator and science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar and astrophysicist and emerging astronaut Dr Suzanna Randall as well as a “Science Slam”, the Public Day offers many opportunities to learn about the topics of mobility, transportation and traffic through discussions, project presentations and the diverse technical demonstrations. The morning stage programme hosted by NDR moderator Yared Dibaba is aimed especially at pupils and students interested in modern mobility.

The interested public can register for the ITS Public Day on 14 October free of charge under the following link: www.ITSweltkongress.hamburg

Mobility from a young perspective
The goal of the Congress is also to include young Hamburg residents: over the past few months, young people have developed their own perspectives for the mobility of tomorrow as part of an idea contest at Hamburg’s schools. These ideas and results from projects carried out in cooperation with Hamburg’s universities will be presented at the ITS World Congress. In addition, young reporters will report on the topics of the Congress on the Instagram account @itsyoungmobility under the hashtag #itsyoungmobility.

https://itsworldcongress.com/its-young-talents/

All information about the ITS World Congress can be found here
https://itsworldcongress.com/

Further information and images can be found in our press area
https://itsworldcongress.com/press-room/

Video interviews and podcasts

“talkFUTURE! The Hamburg mobility talk” on the ITS Hamburg 2021 YouTube channel

Media Contact Hamburg Marketing GmbH
Guido Neumann
Head of Media Relations
Tel: +49 40 300 51 580
guido.neumann@marketing.hamburg.de