Respected colleagues and friends!
Now some time has passed since we met at the NLTM/IN conference in Reykjavík in June and I hope that you have had time to congest all the great messages and ideas that we received through the numerous presentations given.
Undoubtedly, many of you are still on vacation, anxious to return to work. And when you do you urge you to set aside some time to review the slides from the presentation, use them to inspire yourselves and others in your workplace in the planning and work to come. Most certainly I will.
We have placed a copy of all the presentations here on the website so you can download them for reviewing. I suggest to you the wise words of Bernt Reitan Jenssen from Ruter to "borrow" all these good ideas globally – and adjust them and apply them locally!
I look forward to seeing you at the next InformNorden conference in Malmö 2011 and at the Nordisk Lokatrafik conference in Copenhagen 2012.
Greeting from sunny Iceland!
Reynir Jónsson 2010-07-19
From the Secretary General's desk – June 2010
The Conference in Reykjavik June 9-11 was a great success.
In my days I have attended quite a number of conferences but I can honestly say that I have never heard so many positive words on the overall impression of the ongoing event. I think that there were several reasons for this.
Firstly it was good program. The sessions dealt with interesting subjects and due to many excellent speakers the delegates found things to think about and ideas to bring home. I can't say anything about the other part of the conference but in the InformNorden sessions there were great engagement from the delegates and the discussion could have continued had we have more time at our disposal.
Secondly, thanks to the cooperation with Nordiskt Lokaltrafikmöte, the multitude of delegates and the width of their accumulated experience was impressive. There were delegates from authorities and operators, politicians and civil servants, planners, developers, marketing and information people, manufactures, sales people, hardware and software experts, vehicles and other infrastructure and representatives from universities and most other type of organisations that together makes Public Transport. This made discussions and talks both broad and deep.
Thirdly the organisers succeeded in giving the whole event a very nice atmosphere and people were feeling relaxed and in a good mood. The conference dinner was just great, the lunches among the exhibitioners were splendid. There were many occasions for a good laugh and also great excursions after the final session.
I would like to give our sincere thanks to all those who made this possible, working hard many months before the conference in the organisation committee, the speakers for their devoted and interesting contributions, and also all of you delegates not only for coming but also for your engagement and for participating with your knowledge and experience.
You can find the presentations from the InformNorden part here on our website.
Next year in September we meet in Sweden, in Malmö. we will do our utmost to give you some interesting and rewarding days.
Magnus Arnström 2010-06-22
Welcome to Reykjavik!
It is a great pleasure for me to present the programs for the 2010 Nordisk Lokaltrafik conference and for the 12th annual InformNorden International conference. This year the conferences will be held jointly here in Reykjavík, Iceland, and hosted by Strætó bs., Greater Reykjavík Transport.
The reason for the joint conference is that the Nordisk Lokaltrafik conference is held bi-annually in each of the five Nordic countries
and this year it is our turn again since ten years ago. The same applies for the annual InformNorden International conference, it is our turn to host the event. Therefore, the steering committees of both conferences decided it was both wise and sensible to join the two into one ambitious conference.
As some of you may have noticed, we Icelanders have experienced some turbulence in our financial system and economic downturn during the past two years or so (trying to be a bit modest here). However, as ancient oriental philosophy states, then „every threat opposes an opportunity“ often imaged in the Yin-Yang sign.
Your opportunity lies in the fact that the purchasing power of your local currency – by complements of the devalued Króna - enables you to seize this opportunity and enrich your stay here in our beautiful country. So bring your spouse, friend or family along and enjoy the friendly atmosphere, first-class accommodation, beautiful surroundings
and nature. For us the opportunity involves attracting increasing number of foreign visitors and currency, which again strengthens our economy.
Whatever the future will bring I want you to rest assure that we are still willing and able to provide the perfect venue for this joint conference as ever before. So , we simply welcome the twin-sisters „Yin and Yang“ to Iceland.
Being a bit of a rookie in the Public Transport business I must admit that I feel a bit scared by the huge experience and wisdom that some of you will bring to the conference. How can I contribute to it?. On the other hand I sense the opportunity to mix my different background and experience with yours to discover something new and exciting – as I managed to do during our last InformNorden conference in Copenhagen last September.
We have chosen to address the conference with the words: „Then! Now! What‘s next?“ as I expect that we will discuss „the good old days“, „the challenges of the future“ along with the „latest technology“. However, in my mind the nature of modern public transport has not changed that much the past hundred years or so, even though the transport means and technology has improved. I mean, we still travel
by train, bus or ferry?
So, wandering into the past and mixing it with the present – I wonder what lies ahead? Will the future continue the way it is or will we soon experience a dramatic change in the nature of how we produce and deliver public transport because of quantum leaps in IT technology, use of alternative fuel and advanced engineering? I am convinced that the different lectures covering a wide range of interesting topics and issues will shed a light on all of these questions and thoughts.
We look forward to seeing you in June!
Warmest regards,
Reynir Jónsson, MD Strætó bs.
From the Secretary General's desk – January 2010
Magnus Arnström at the 2009 conference in Copenhagen |
New Secretary General and an exciting conference in Reykjavik in June
After 11 successful years Anders Kåbjörn said thank you and good bye to InformNorden. He did an excellent job and we will all miss him. He started it all and had the position as Secretary General from the very beginning.
It was with great pride I accepted to replace Anders. I also come from Gothenburg and at the time when InformNorden was started I was at least indirectly involved as a colleague to Anders. I have been working with public transport for more than 30 years. I have been on the authority side as well as on the operators. I have also been developing and selling real time systems and worked as an international transportation consult. I have my heart in public transport and I realise the enormous potential in using IT to make the public transport attractive and competitive.
I also have been very fond of the idea to cooperate and work together. I think that InformNorden is an absolutely excellent example of what can be done if we start to exchange views and experiences with people around us working in the same field as we. We, in the Nordic countries, may not be an example in every respect but we are good at cooperation. InformNorden has for more than a decade organised yearly conferences on IT and PT which have been highly appreciated and usually attract an international audience.
In the last four InformNorden conferences I have had the privilege to act as moderator and I will continue to do so this year in Reykjavik. This year we will have a joint conference with the Nordisk Lokaltrafik organisation. Not only is Island a beautiful and fascinating place to visit, I can also tell you that the joint program is most interesting. There will be three smoking hot parallel sessions filled with interesting presentations and discussions. If you in some way are part of the public transport community you must come to Reykjavik 9th to 11th of June.
Magnus Arnström 2010-01-31
Danish newsletter dedicated to InformNorden
Danish Public Transport Network is an association with the mission of promoting information, dialogue, networking and sharing of experiences for professionals in the public transport industry in Denmark. Promotion of international experiences and activities on public transport is a connected objective for the network. Their recent newsletter, Kollektiv Trafik, is dedicated to this year's InformNorden conference.
Download the newsletter (external link - in Danish)
Torbjørn Barslett - 2009-10-30