Transport is, and always has been, an ever-changing industry. But the pace of change in recent times has been frenetic, if not a little dizzying. Decarbonisation, air quality, integration and connectivity, regulatory change, automation, big data, capital funding challenges, innovative revenue streams and entirely new modes of personal and goods transport – all big overarching themes. It can be hard to know where to look sometimes but there is the certainty that standing still is not an option.
Future transportation
For those of us who have worked in the transport industry for many years, there has in the past been the risk of “siloing” between transport modes and the risk that valuable knowhow and experience on everything from safety to powertrains to system architecture is locked behind the walls of single modal thinking. As modes of transport and transport systems become ever more connected and complex and as the ways that people expect to travel, and for their goods to travel change, those walls have been crumbling rapidly. Modern transport professionals and transport lawyers, like their clients in the transport sector, necessarily have adopted a multi-modal outlook.
However, the challenge now for the transport sector is increasingly that it needs to look beyond its conventional boundaries to both understand and to address some of the biggest challenges it will face ahead. How to decarbonise; how to offer better, cleaner, more accessible and affordable transport; how to reduce congestion and impact on places, and how to fund it all. Here the transport sector is increasingly recognising the necessity and power of interactions with the likes of the energy, technology, data, finance and built environment sectors. It is an amalgamation and exchange of ideas, expertise, personnel and skillsets which is coming to define the multi-disciplinary requirements of successful modern transport projects and services. The transport sector cannot operate and address its current challenges within its own silo.
Interchange Conference 2023
For all these reasons and more, Burges Salmon is proud to be a launch partner for the inaugural Interchange conference at the Vox in Birmingham on 18-19 April 2023. The conference brings together stakeholders from across the transport, energy, built environment, technology and finance worlds to explore and accelerate the changes needed to deliver mobility infrastructure for the future and for all.
With a particular view to addressing net zero and decarbonisation, Burges Salmon additionally hosts the event’s Energy Hub on 18 April including panels on the following crucial themes:
- Strategic thinking – The energy and transport links for decarbonisation.
A systems-level discussion on the interaction between energy and transport in decarbonisation and how each sector can support the other to decarbonise
Chair: Ross Fairley, Partner, Burges Salmon
Claire Miller, Director of Tech Innovation, Octopus Electric Vehicles
Michael Hurwitz, Partner, PA Consulting
Lilli Matson, Chief Safety, Health and Environment Officer, TfL
Liam Lidstone, Business Leader Infrastructure and Engineering, Energy Systems Catapult
- Scaling the adoption of hydrogen and alternative fuels.
Are we ready for hydrogen and alternative fuels in ships, planes and heavy goods vehicles? What are the requirements and challenges for each mode and is there potential to share fuel production/generation and infrastructure across modes?
Chair: Dr Wolfgang Schuster, Executive Director, Ecosystem Innovation, Connected Places Catapult
Ian Collier, Lead Business Development Manager, Protium
Andy Clarke, Director for Integrated Transport, Costain & British Aviation Group board member
- Electrification and electric vehicles.
Infrastructure and energy to support the EV transition – where are we compared to where we need to be? What have we learnt and what are the key blockers and enablers for success?
Chair: Chris Lewis, Director, Burges Salmon
Andrew Nosworthy, Commercial Director, Osprey Charging Network
Liz Garlinge, Strategic Customer Projects Director, National Highways
Paul Gambrell, Team Leader – ZEV and Energy Integration, Oxfordshire County Council
Dominic Gibbeson, Partner, Infrastructure Strategy & Investment, PA Consulting Group
- Where is the money coming from?
Panel discussion with private investors on how net zero opportunities across energy and transport stack up and increasingly look like good investments.
Chair: Stuart McMillan, Partner, Burges Salmon
Peter Radford, Investment Manager, Amber Infrastructure
Mike Kean, UK Managing Director, Rock Rail
Robert Minter, Director, UK Infrastructure Bank
Simon Cordery, EV Charging Hubs , TTL Properties
- Energy demands from transport in the medium and long-term.
Where is the electricity coming from and how will it get to where it is needed?
Chair: Charlotte Robinson, Senior Associate, Burges Salmon
Jacob Briggs, Senior Consulting Analyst, Cornwall Insight
Kester Jones, Connection Strategy Manager, National Grid
Marianne Costigan, Head of Private Wire, EDF Renewables
Gopal Ramchurn, Professor of Artificial Intelligence, University of Southampton and founder Empati
We look forward to a successful event and sharing some of the outputs and insights from the event afterwards. However, if you would like to be part of the conversation and join us on the day, please see: Register with Interchange