Less than 10 months to Next Mobility Exhibition 2024 preparations are in full swing to define the focus of the project and build a calendar of events aimed to analysed the issues and the potential of the collective mobility sector. NME Scientific Technical Committee chaired, once again for this edition, by Professor Pierluigi Coppola (Polytechnic University of Milan, Department of Mechanics) will propose the focus of the three-day event in Milan, based on which the exhibition will be developed. A committee in which Italian trade associations (Agens, Anav and Asstra) sit together with numerous other stakeholders representing the entire transport sector.

The presence on the committee of the three presidents of the employers' associations, which together represent 95% of the Italian bus transport market, is a distinctive value for an exhibition that has immediately become a sector reference point.

“We are experiencing a time of great epochal and systemic changes, and the mobility of people is no exception. Public transport has to deal with the energy transition and the digital transition, which, thanks to the funds made available by the Italian National Reform Programme (NRRP), have been greatly accelerated.” - states Arrigo Giana, President of Agens - “This is a challenge we cannot lose, we have the opportunity to change and improve the service provided to citizens first and foremost.  Moreover, companies that focus on innovation will also be able to compete on a European level. But to achieve all this, companies must be in a position to work as a system and be part of the industrial network. We are convinced that the incoming edition of Next Mobility Exhibition will be the platform for dialogue between transport companies, suppliers and institutions”.

Along the same lines, ANAV raises the question. “Next Mobility Exhibition is a key opportunity for the development of the entire collective mobility system, which generates an annual turnover of around 10 billion euro”, states Nicola Biscotti, President of Anav. “Our association represents the entire bus transport sector currently called upon to meet a demand for which private transport is still dominant. As certified by a Rina’s study, which we presented last June, the total number of buses in circulation in the country accounts for only 0.7% of climate-changing emissions, while the implementation of the modal shift objective included in the National Reform Program (NRRP), i.e. transferring 10% of private motorised mobility to collective mobility, would achieve double the result, i.e. a 1.7% reduction in total climate-changing emissions. This is why we are convinced that opportunities such as the Next Mobility Exhibition are important for promoting and relaunching our industry”.

A sector that creates value says Andrea Gibelli. “ASSTRA actively participates in national and international trade fairs and events that strive to promote collective mobility as a preferable transport solution”, says Andrea Gibelli, President of Asstra. “Public transport is the backbone of sustainable mobility, a sector that creates value for territories, a key player in the country's ecological and digital transition process. In this phase of the country's existence, the exchange and in-depth analysis typical of trade fairs are extremely important for interpreting change and getting the NRRP projects off the ground, a unique opportunity to respond to the new lifestyles and mobility needs of Italians”.