EPOMM Newsletter July 08

	Dear reader, the 12th ECOMM now lies behind us. In this issue we would like to present some highlights of this conference and assist you in the navigation through the presentations and other documents that can be found on the website here. We also present a first outlook onto the next ECOMM that will take place in Donostia/San Sebastian in Spain. We are continuously striving to improve the ECOMM conference - and we can demonstrate some results: With 413 visitors from 26 countries this years ECOMM in London was the best visited of all time, Also unprecedented were the 35 parallel sessions with workshop character, of which 11 parted from the traditional structure of three presentations followed by discussion. The best employers, implementing mobility plans and the best public authorities, supporting mobility plans in their communities were awarded EPOMM awards for the first time. Another first was the evaluation of the conference by the delegates - the results of which will help to improve the next ECOMM. A great thank you to the organisers of this ECOMM!
Where to find everything on the ECOMM 2008
	All presentations have been compressed or converted to be under 5 Megabyte for easy download. In some sessions there were no presentations - as these sessions had a different character. We recommend a few highlights: The opening speech by Stephen Potter containing an interesting outlook on the potential of various sectors of transport to save carbon emissions. The closing speech by Robert Thaler reporting on the very effective top-down approach of the Austrian Ministry of Environment in supporting mobility management in Austria (that joined EPOMM last year). The closing speech by Karl-Heinz Posch reporting on the state of the art and the task force on mobility management of EPOMM. The task force document can be downloaded here. All presentations and other documents relating to the ECOMM 2008 are downloadable here.
The next ECOMM: Donostia/San Sebastian
	The next ECOMM will take place in San Sebastian, which is called Donostia in the basque language. It is a magnificent place - in a beautiful setting on a bay and an island, complete with three large city beaches, and a backdrop of green hills. Donostia / San Sebastian possibly is the foremost city in Spain with regard to sustainable transport: it has a high number of bicycle paths, a city bike rental system, an excellent public transport system with busses and a local railway network. It also has an interesting cultural background as bilingual city and a candidacy as European cultural capital for 2016 - have a look at the nice video. The venue for the conference will be in the award winning Kursaal, right in the city centre and right on the beach. How about a coffee break watching the surfers? In San Sebastian you can see them riding their bikes. Accessibility is not as good as London, but a 1hour bus ride brings you to the world class airport of Bilbao providing excellent connections to all of Europe. The themes of the conference have already been decided upon: Main theme will be the cost/benefit of mobility management. This is a recurring theme and of course of high interest for any organisation financing mobility management. As the EPOMM member states are looking to achieve a more standardised evaluation of mobility management and as there are several national and EU-projects on this theme, EPOMM and the ECOMM organisers have decided to make this the central theme of the next ECOMM. Subtopics in San Sebastian will be: Mobility management and urban planning / local access Mobility management and health/obesity Mobility management and the renaissance of cycling Mobility management and winning back public spaces (car free days, shared space) Mobility management and leisure & tourism
EPOMM Awards
	This year was the first time the Pan European Workplace Mobility Plan awards (for short EPOMM awards) were awarded. The award scheme was initiated and supported by COMMERCE, the EU-project funded by Intelligent Energy Europe. There were two award categories: Employers: for employers implementing workplace mobility plans within their organisations Public Authorities: for public authorities supporting the implementation of workplace mobility plans within their municipality or region Category Employers As the International Transport Forum (ITF) had the same idea about awarding companies for carrying out mobility plans, ITF and EPOMM cooperated for the Employers category - and the prize was awarded jointly with the ITF, in Leipzig at the Transport Forum as well as in London at the ECOMM. The winners were: SMT Microelectronics from Grenoble, France - see their submission here. Special prizes were awarded for outstanding examples of mobility plan implementation to: Stansted airport,UK, as large employer. Download submission and presentation. Inficon, Liechtenstein, as small employer. Download submission and presentation. The Borough of Lambeth from London, UK, as public authority implementing a mobility plan within their own organisation. Download submission and presentation Category Public Authorities The winners were: Grenobles Alpes Metropolitan region together with the Chamber of commerce from Grenoble. Download submission. Shortlisted were: The city of Zurich. Download submission The "West Trans" subregion consisting of six boroughs from Western London. Download submission The Brussels Capital Region. Download submission
State of the Art of MM in Countries
	EPOMM presented the State of the Art of Mobility Management in Europe, in which 14 experts from 14 Western European countries delivered 10-15 page reports on the State of the Art of Mobility Management in their countries, in this way providing a unique, up to date overview of the situation in Western Europe. The reports can all be downloaded here, and the presentation is downloadable here. Next year, these papers will be updated and completed with reports from other countries in Europe.
The Evaluation of the ECOMM
	This year was the first time where the ECOMM was evaluated by the delegates. 80 delegates delivered the following information: Almost all attendants found out about ECOMM either by word of mouth (colleagues, networks) or through electronic means like e-mailings or the internet - as a consequence, ECOMM will no longer produce any leaflets for its marketing - saving costs and resources! ECOMM is a network event: this was the foremost reason for attending the ECOMM, but professional growth and programme content were also important. Between 60 and 67% rated the conference registration, organisation and information "excellent". The dinner, awards and reception achieved between 48 and 58% of the mark "excellent". So only small margins for improvement remain. The parallel sessions were not rated down to each session, but here too the overall marks were excellent: 51% gave the mark "very good" and another 41% gave the mark "good". Not everything was perfect: for the panel discussion, the dominant mark was "neutral" (37%) "only" 54% thought they were "good" or "very good". Next year we will do more in depth evaluation to determine the best speakers.
Talked about
	It seems that electric vehicles and especially electric bicycles are rapidly gaining a market share. In the Netherlands, sales have tripled in the last 3 years, despite the fact that these bikes are quite expensive (around 2000 Euros on average (see article in Dutch). Here is also an interesting article on developments in China.