What’s next after Opal? New and innovative tech ideas to help boost ‘Future Transport’, according to the Baird government.
The New South Wales government has invited the world’s top tech minds to find the next big idea that will shake up transport in the state.
As part of an Australian-first program the state government calls ‘Future Transport’, the world’s most creative thinkers have been invited to throw their hat into the ring to help the state come up with an innovative successor to Opal cards, driverless cars and trains, ridesharing, Opal, smart phones and real time apps.
The NSW Government will host ‘Future Transport’, a 12 month program to uncover the trends and technologies that are meant to “revolutionise” the way the government and customers plan, build and use transport.
‘Future Transport’ will begin as a two day summit on April 18-19, 2016, bringing together thought leaders, IT specialists, innovators, entrepreneurs, futurists, transport leaders and academics from across the world.
The summit will also feature an ‘Industry Ideas and Innovations Lab’ where companies can register to pitch products and ideas that could improve transport and the customer experience.
The government has issued invitations to more than 150 leading thinkers and practitioners to join the summit. The final summit program, website and speakers will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
The 12 month ‘Future Transport’ program will also include opportunities for the community to get involved through online forums, a youth summit, and new partnerships with incubators to stay across emerging ideas and products.
Mr Constance said this summit will be the perfect platform to ignite innovative, creative and out of the box ideas that will transform transport for the better.
“While we’ve made good progress with open data, collaboration with developers, apps and better regulation, it’s no secret NSW has lagged behind the rest of the world and I am determined to turn that around,” Mr Constance said.
According to Mr Constance, the state’s population is going to increase by about two million people by 2031; as well as building new infrastructure, “we need to look at smarter systems and technology driven solutions to cope with demand”.
“We need to stay ahead of the game so it’s time we ask, what are the next big ideas? What are the next systems and technologies that are going to challenge us and shape the transport system in NSW?” he said.
