First virtual INIT User Group Meeting

Participants experience comprehensive information through innovative meeting concept

Karlsruhe, 05. June 2020

On 27 May 2020 INIT headquarters in Karlsruhe, Germany saw the first ever virtual User Group Meeting of the leading supplier of integrated ITS solutions. Two Livestreams, one in English one in German, informed customers ranging from the UAE to the US west coast about the latest developments with INIT. The following day they had the opportunity to discuss them with INIT experts and fellow transport professionals in virtual meeting rooms. In addition, a series of webinars during the whole month of June allows participants to go deeper into topics of their specific interest.

Proximity in times of social distancing

The User Group Meeting was originally planned to take place in Karlsruhe 26 – 28 May 2020, but the outbreak of COVID-19 made it impossible to stick to this plan. Nevertheless, INIT never considered cancellation. Consequently, a concept was developed that transferred all essential parts of an INIT User Group Meeting along with the full scheduled content into a virtual format.

Together. Designing. Mobility.

Part one was an Online Conference on 27 May. It provided an overview from INIT about the most important innovations and focused on the future of mobility as well as the solutions to get there. According to the meeting’s theme "Together.Designing.Mobility.” it dealt with the question of how public transport providers will be able to master the challenges of the upcoming years and how to shape the future of mobility with the support of their technology partner. Speakers examined various trends like digitalization, accessibility, efficiency, system evolution, intermodality and electromobility. The following day offered the opportunity to discuss these topics further with INIT experts and other participants in virtual meeting rooms.

June - a whole month of User Group Meeting

Many of the presented topics, and even more, will be explored further in webinars during June. The online events will offer INIT customers the highly appreciated expert information usually provided by the product focus sessions. 7 English and 8 German webinars will cover nearly all relevant topics currently discussed in public transport.

The complimentary compact seminar on electromobility will soon start as well in the form of webinars. As the time frame can be more flexible, now that there is no fixed meeting schedule to meet, it was possible to offer even more content than initially planned with the in-person User Group Meeting. The result is a series of 4 webinars in each language. A real benefit that INIT is able to offer their customers due to the virtual format of the User Group Meeting.

Technical setup for the Virtual User Group Meeting

Customers in mind

The fifth and last part of the comprehensive concept is the event portal. It represents the participant’s port of call and will feature all content until the end of September. Here customers can hear and see all presentations and webinars that were recorded in both languages. Again, a showstopper of the online format as it frees participants from restrictions of their personal agenda and time zone.

Creative conversion made it possible to offer a virtual User Group Meeting that exceeded all expectations as customer feedback confirms: “It felt like being on site” or “Given the current situation, I feel you couldn’t have done any better”. Nevertheless, customers and INIT alike look forward to the next “real” User Group Meeting, which is already scheduled for 5-7 October 2021 in Karlsruhe.

Contact

Andrea Mohr-Braun

Head of Department Corporate Marketing
INIT worldwide
Phone: +49 721 6100 113
Fax: +49 721 6100 399

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