Our very first virtual meetup: Transport Tech London.

Yesterday Tommy Bright and I attended the Transport Tech London Virtual Meetup, and I have to say it was great! In some ways, I think I took more from it then I might’ve done ‘in real life’, and certainly managed to take more notes which helped me in writing this. As well as the networking, there were some fantastic talks from leading sustainability and transport tech thinkers. I learnt a lot, felt inspired and met some really lovely people in the industry.

A few of the key takeaways I took were:

Tom Blaksley explaining the fascinating ways What 3 Words can impact the planet (I have to admit, I had only used it to find my friends in crowds at Glastonbury 😬 ) It seems obvious, but the world’s addresses were made for years gone by, not the navigation and mobility apps of today and definitely not the world of tomorrow. He explained how 7 million minutes are lost trying to find delivery drop off locations every single day! That’s 13 years a day... half a billion dollars a year wasted on gas! And that’s just one of the ways it can help, along with finding accessible entrances, sharing the best camping spot on a mountain, automotive voice navigation and even just finding the right Church Street when there are 12 to pick from in one City!

Tom Knights from Strava Metro also shared some fascinating thoughts on how big data is impacting the future of active transportation planning – imagine a London where there are more bikes than cars. Not everyone's utopia, but certainly is for a lot of us! Strava are on a mission to empower communities to make active transportation accessible, efficient and safe for everyone; what a great mission to be on! 

Daniel Davey then got us to take a step back and consider the factors changing the way we travel, and how sustainability is an outcome of the many things that are changing in today’s world. The emergence of the passenger economy over the last decade, and how the passenger economy is a shared economy, made possible through the converging factors of "connectedness", urbanisation, mobility-as-a-service and regulation. What’s next?

Grace Packard – shared some fascinating insights from a more academic perspective. How do we understand sustainability; delving into the economic, environmental and social definitions, and considering how technology is offered support by sustainability and how the desire for sustainability drives innovation; technology and sustainability really are mutually reinforcing.

Thanks to all of the other brilliant speakers Hans Manku, Susan Claris, Steve Evans and to the individuals I met at the networking, who kindly shared their wisdom and experience with me so freely.

If you are looking to host your own event, the platform we were on was called Remo and it made for a very authentic event experience, I would definitely recommend it.

Russell Phillippe and Mike James did a great job hosting such a brilliant event; we’re definitely looking forward to the next one. Thanks again!