URBIS SMART CITY FAIR and FUTURE MOBILITY 2022 Recapitulation

URBIS SMART CITY FAIR of smart solutions for cities and municipalities and FUTURE MOBILITY expo took place at the Brno Exhibition Centre from 20 to 22 September. This combined event was a ‘zero season’ of a new concept focused on transport and mobility. Its period of holding was aligned with the European Mobility Week; in the context of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the URBAN MOBILITY DAYS conference was held on the expo premises. The URBIS and FUTURE MOBILITY fairs occupied Hall A1 and the adjacent open areas. Demo City was located in outdoor areas, where exhibitors demonstrated their exhibits in practice.

A conference focused on smart solutions and transport topics

The backbone of the URBIS and FUTURE MOBILITY events was a three-day conference. Its featured topics covered mobility, smart solutions for municipalities and cities, and latest issues – such as the energy crisis. Wednesday's programme in the FUTURE MOBILITY block included a conference entitled Current Trends and Challenges in Urban Smart Mobility organised by the Association for Transport Telematics. The conference programme included over ten workshops.

Innovative solutions for cities, municipalities and transport

Both in Hall A1 and in the outdoor areas at the Demo City, exhibitors presented smart solutions for the municipal sector and transport. An autonomous minibus, a last mile delivery robot, electric vehicles for passenger and freight transport, and vehicles for the municipal sector were presented. Exhibitors offered digital solutions and components for municipal and transport infrastructure. In the Demo City, visitors found, among other things, cargo bikes and micro-mobility devices to try out. Electric cars and electric motorcycles were also available for visitors to test. A functional intersection controlled by an intelligent traffic system was installed at the Demo City, where it was possible to monitor the preferential passage of vehicles.

Clean Mobility Day

The last day of the URBIS and FUTURE MOBILITY 2022 fell on the European Car Free Day. The organisers joined in with the Clean Mobility Day, when the exhibition centre was opened to visitors free of charge. The purpose of this event was to educate in a fun way and motivate the use of alternative and clean means of transport. In addition, the Demo City also featured a bike polo playground and bike races were organised on this day, including cargo bike races.

"The Ministry of Transport actively promotes innovation in transport and the development of new concepts that can bring solutions to many of today's burning problems in the transport sector, related to urbanisation and the natural evolution of society. As a result, transport is no longer seen as a means of getting from one point to another but is increasingly seen in the broader perspective of the services associated with it. At the same time, its further development will be influenced by the trend towards autonomous driving, which in many ways is already a technological innovation ready to become part of everyday life. In the near future, the transport sector can be expected to transform towards a gradual deployment of automated transport systems and vehicles. Data-connected cooperative and autonomous vehicles represent a significant and unavoidable innovation not only for the automotive and telecommunications industry but will significantly affect the future functioning of the entire transport and logistics system," stated Václav Bernard, Deputy Minister of Transport of the Czech Republic, at the opening of the URBIS trade fair.

"I am glad that a new and attractive topic has appeared at the exhibition centre. Mobility is increasingly important and all cities, including Brno, are constantly facing many problems related to transport. I believe that the visitors will bring home valuable information from the conference programme," concluded Petr Kratochvíl, Councillor for Transport of the Statutory City of Brno, in his keynote address at the opening of the FUTURE MOBILITY block.

"The topics presented here are very interesting and affect not only the life of municipalities, but also of all of us. The topic of mobility has a high potential for the future. I also welcome to the expo the participants of the Urban Mobility Days conference, which was held alongside the URBIS and FUTURE MOBILITY trade fairs," remarked Tomáš Moravec, CEO of BVV Trade Fairs Brno, referring to the connection with the European Mobility Week.

"URBIS is a showcase for us, where we have the opportunity to save a relatively large amount of time and meet up with our foreign partners. It is also an opportunity for us to intensify the exchange of experience between cities. We are pleased that the family of Brno exhibitors has been enriched by municipal companies that have on their shoulders the application of smart solutions in practical life. They have already got used to the fact that URBIS is an opportunity for them to gain new contacts. It is an innovation week, they can be open and ready to draw inspiration and do something different. It also showed that despite the local elections and an exceedingly difficult post-election period for trade fairs, key players at national and European level came together. We welcomed four international delegations to our stand. We evaluate the expo very positively, it was successful, and we are looking forward to the next season," Jakub Rybář, Head of the Cooperation and Development Department of the Brno City Hall, commented on the attendance of the City of Brno at URBIS.

The next season of URBIS SMART CITY FAIR and FUTURE MOBILITY will be held from 19 to 21 September 2023.