polisMOBILITY2023 – conference to focus on action at municipal level

Next year, from 24 to 26 May 2023, polisMOBILITY will return to Cologne’s trade fair grounds to present a conference programme dedicated to the urban mobility of the future. The trade fair event, which is the only one of its kind in Germany, will focus on municipal solutions to support the mobility transition, both in its exhibition spaces and at the conference.

On four stages in two halls, across all three days of the trade fair, the polisMOBILITY Conference will cover the entire range of issues in which the mobility of the future will take shape in the interests of sustainable urban and regional development offering a good quality of life. Broken down into six themes, both the exhibition and the conference will delve deep into the relevant questions and solutions in the context of the mobility transition at the interface with the energy sector and the advancing digital transformation.

With international contributions to the programme and renowned experts and decision makers involved, the conference will provide opportunities to engage in meaningful dialogue on the specialist topics beyond the boundaries of individual industries and sectors. As a result, trade visitors can both learn about and contribute to the breadth and depth of the various topics.

Designed to address the relevant key issues, the conference offers a host of ways in which to gather information, gain insights and debate the matters of the day. These range from lectures to panel discussions to interactive formats in which participants can make a constructive contribution to the expert agenda-setting and opinion-forming process.

Key conference partners
The following companies, associations and institutions have already confirmed their participation in the conference programme: Working Group of Pedestrian- and Bicycle-Friendly Cities in NRW (AGFS), German Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt), German Federal Association for eMobility (BEM), Association of German Cities, Cargobike jetzt, EIT Urban Mobility, Hubject, Association of German Transport Companies (VDV), German Association of Local Public Utilities (VKU), Women in Mobility, German cycle trade association Zukunft Fahrrad.

The involvement of the polisMOBILITY conference partners includes making key contributions to the programme and providing advice on content. They underscore polisMOBILITY’s profound expertise in the field and its unique position as a platform covering all aspects of the mobility and energy transition in the context of urban and regional development.

The six themes addressed by polisMOBILITY 2023:
The Municipal Mobility Transition theme is concerned with matters of local mobility in urban environments, cycling policy and parking management, as well as planning considerations relating to mobility concepts and mobility management at municipal level.

The Local Public Transport and Mobility Services category is dedicated to interlinking cities and their surrounding areas and to the modal shift, with a special focus on making ecomobility and intermodality more attractive.

The Last-Mile Logistics topic area will shine a spotlight on implementation and operator models in the urban mobility and logistics sphere that help to ensure that essential services can be provided in a sustainable way that does not generate excessive traffic.

polisMOBILITY will also examine the systemic impact of Vehicles and Drive Technologies, especially in the context of the decarbonisation of transport, the market ramp-up of e-mobility and promising new drive technologies such as hydrogen-based solutions.

Urban Sector Coupling is one of polisMOBILITY’s core themes, focusing on ensuring the effective coordination of the energy transition and the shift to sustainable transport systems. The potential of neighbourhood solutions for achieving a decentralised transition and the challenges of integrating these solutions into the grid will be among the main issues explored.

The digitalisation megatrend runs through all of polisMOBILITY’s themes and will therefore be intrinsic to all parts of the programme. The conference will also cover additional topics, including digital infrastructure, booking platforms, data economy and data management, and AI in the urban environment.

polisMOBILITY sees itself as a transition partner for towns, cities and regions. That is why the event also seeks to address strategic questions about the ability of municipalities to take action and about cooperation between federal government/state government/municipalities and public–private partnerships in order to empower towns, cities and municipalities to assert their authority and strengthen their role in determining matters relating to the mobility and energy transition.