Reflecting on my transit through Paris, I attended ATEC ITS France’s 50th anniversary, reminiscing about my time leading ITSFrance. From 2000, I expanded the network, focusing on local authorities and new stakeholders. My tenure culminated in enhancing the French presence at ITS World Congresses, fostering international relations. Post-ATEC, I continued to advance ITS initiatives, grateful for the knowledge gained and the leaders who guided me. Here’s to the ongoing success of ATEC ITS France and its community of experts dedicated to the public interest.
During my short transit in #Paris, I had the chance to attend (with nostalgia 😅) the 50th anniversary of ATEC ITS FRANCE – the French Association for the Development of Transportation, Environment and Traffic -, which also nationally promotes the Intelligent transportation systems (#ITS).
In 2000, I joined #ATEC to lead #ITSFrance, a network then quickly launched by Karen Hollington. In the next 5 years, I structurally developed this national ITS network by engaging new stakeholders such as IT and telecommunications companies but always with a strong focus on local authorities (decentralization context). I was in charge of thematic task forces, training technical days and events participation as well as the whole ITS #marcom. Accordingly, I was versatile as a Swiss army knife 🇨🇭 ! 😁
Closely with ERTICO – ITS Europe 🇪🇺, I developed international relations 🌍 and particularly the French 🇫🇷 presence at the ITS World Congress : from a first small booth at Torino 🇮🇹 (2000) to a large French pavilion at Chicago 🇺🇸 (2002), Madrid 🇪🇸 (2003) and especially Nagoya 🇯🇵 (2004) with a delegation comprises politicians. Each pavilion was then operated through a partnership with the governmental agency Business France – Mobilité et Infrastructures (ex #Ubifrance).
In 2005, I left #ATEC to join Groupe PSA‘s Tokyo office 🇯🇵 where I was in charge of research & studies (business intelligence) under the cooperation division, following my ATEC correspondent from Groupe PSA, bernard cousyn, who took the lead of this representative office two years ago. At this time, French carmakers had a quite strong presence on ITS topics …
At ATEC ITS FRANCE, a variety of sectorial experts gather “around the table” for a rational knowledge sharing and as much as possible with the purpose of general interest. Rather rare today with the growing influence of ideological misinformation, lobby groups and corporatism …
I am grateful to this organization where I learned a lot in the company of empathetic leaders such as President Georges Dobias (1936-2021) and Vice-President Charles Parey (1933-2005).
During this event, I happily met ex colleagues from the ITS community : Pierre CALVIN, Jean Coldefy, Patrick GENDRE, Pierre LEREBOULLET, Jean-Francois Janin, marc ellenberg and Jean Bergounioux.
Good luck to the current and friendly president Martial CHEVREUIL ! 🍀
Cc: Benoit AUGARDE, Alexandra Samy, Anissa MERABET, Julie Seguin
