TISA hosted their annual General Assembly with Awards and keynote speaker

TISA hosted their annual General Assembly on 21 June in Brussels at the ERTICO premises. The agenda was long with the achievements of the past year, and with a presentation of the activities of the three Committees (Product, Content and Service as well as Technical and Standardisation) and their Working Groups and Task Forces.

This annual meeting is a way to reflect on successes, but also to recognise the exceptional contributions of individuals. This year, the TISA Achievement Award was given to Leif Rystrøm, from the Danish Road Directorate, for his high contribution to the development of TPEG in Denmark and his active and continuous involvement in the TISA ITS Directive Working Group. TISA president, Thomas Kusche, handed the award with a few nice words: “Leif Rystrom is a major contributor to TISA discussions for many years. Being part of TISAs ITS Directive Working Group, he helped shaping many TISA position papers and provided detailed input with his long experience in the ITS realm. We all do highly estimate Leif’s modest manner and reliability.”

Theo Kamalski, former Regulatory Affairs Manager at TomTom, received the TISA Fellowship Award, which is granted to individuals for their outstanding contributions to the development and deployment of TTI services and products. TISA fellows may provide advice on strategic, technical and operational matters and have lifelong access to TISA meetings, events and documents. “Theo Kamalski is one of the godfathers of Travel Information. From the very first moment he was involved in the develpoment of RDS (Radio Data System). He contributed in the decisively in TMC development and has therefore huge merits in making this technology a world-wide success. Bringing TPEG to fruition was the biggest challenge within TISA. He very much deserves being awarded as Fellow of TISA after such an outstanding professional career and exceptional contribution in the Traveller Information and Services Association.” said Thomas Kusche.

The GA concluded with an inspiring keynote presentation by Prof. Pim van der Jagt, Managing Director at Ford Motor Europe, who presented Ford’s vision on the future of mobility.

The GA and Committee Meeting presentations  are available for TISA members on TISA Intranet.