ITS World Congress Heads to Birmingham: Organisers Open Call for 200 Expert Sessions

Birmingham will host the 33rd ITS World Congress next October, and Ertico-ITS Europe has just opened the submission window for the event’s Technical Programme. Around 15,000 delegates from roughly 100 countries are expected at the NEC, with 200 expert sessions waiting to be filled.

The Call for Contributions runs until 22 January 2027. Organisers want public authorities, researchers, engineers and industry players to bring findings, deployment stories and hard-won lessons to the stage.

Four Themes to Anchor the Debate

Contributors can pitch under four headings, chosen by the European and International Programme Committee together with co-organisers:

• Trustworthy and Resilient Systems: keeping transport dependable when networks fail or extreme weather hits
• Next-generation ITS: capabilities emerging from research and development
• Connected and Integrated Services: making separate legs of a journey, or links in a supply chain, work as one
• Deploying ITS at Scale: what it actually takes to widen adoption

Formats are flexible — panel discussions, research and technical papers, or poster presentations.

Key Dates: Birmingham NEC · October 2027 · 200 expert sessions · ~15,000 attendees from 100 countries · Submissions close 22 January 2027

Rita Bhandari, Ertico’s Senior Manager for Programme and Knowledge Integration, says the programme exists to put builders and users in the same room. Research opens new doors, she argues, while deployment experience stress-tests the assumptions behind it, and open discussion settles what should come next.

From Smarter Systems to Fairer Ones

Bhandari has watched ITS grow more interwoven. AI, connectivity, automation and digital services are pushing transport systems toward cooperation, which means looking past single technologies to how passenger transport, freight, infrastructure and energy overlap.

And the social questions no longer sit neatly apart from the technical ones. A service can be flawless for a user with a smartphone, a bank account and several travel options — and near-useless to someone without them. Independence, travel cost and access to work, education or healthcare all hang in the balance.

Her verdict on the biggest hurdle ahead? Making wider rollout deliver wider benefits. Technical performance is only part of the picture; cooperation between organisations, compatible systems, sustainable funding, operational skills and a feel for the communities being served matter just as much.

Why Birmingham, and Why the World Stage

CEO Joost Vantomme frames the current moment around speed: technology is advancing faster than our capacity to make sound transport decisions. AI and digitalisation let us anticipate problems and coordinate services, but they also deepen reliance on data, software and the organisations behind them. What happens, he asks, when information goes missing, a connection drops or severe weather takes out the network? And when efficiency improves, are emissions falling and journeys getting safer — or is there simply more traffic?

The West Midlands won the bid on substance, he says: industrial heritage, transport research and live mobility innovation sit side by side, with Transport for West Midlands rallying partners, government and industry behind the hosting effort. Automated mobility, ticketing and network management all have real-world examples nearby for delegates to inspect.

Unlike the ITS European Congress, which stays inside a shared regional frame, the World Congress pulls in systems and markets from far wider afield, run jointly with ITS America and ITS Asia-Pacific. A service that flies in one country may flop in another — and comparing those outcomes separates ideas that travel well from those chained to local conditions. Vantomme’s summary is blunt: innovation has no borders.

For presenters, Bhandari measures success by what follows the session — a follow-up conversation, a sharpened approach, a new collaborator. That, more than the slot itself, is the point.