TISA members gather in Cologne for General Assembly and Committee Meetings

Following the Committee meetings in Berlin in March, the TISA General Assembly (GA) and Committee Meetings now took place in Cologne, Germany, on 12 and 13 June. A rich agenda was presented during the two-day meetings, starting the report from the Executive Office, TISA’s President keynote speech and discussing matters requiring the decision of the GA.

After a warm welcoming by Elmar Pott, Head of Radio Management General Affairs at WDR, the meetings proceeded with the award ceremony, during which András Csepinszky (NNG) received the 2018 TISA Achievement Award and Paul Kompfner was awarded the TISA Fellow Award. Other important highlights were the re-election of Thomas Kusche-Knežević, from WDR, as TISA President and Andreas Goršak, from JVCKENWOOD, as TISA Treasurer.

Particular focus was given also to two keynote speeches, one delivered by Chris Pendleton from Microsoft, who presented Azure Maps during the first day, and the second one given by Emil Dautovic, who introduced Mapillary during the second day. The meetings ended on 13 June with the TPEG3 workshop to discuss three different use cases on Automated Driving (AD), which is indeed the main focus and new challenge on which TISA is focusing. The overall outcome of the Cologne meetings was not only driven by the extensive discussions, presentations and exchanges of thoughts; this was also an important occasion for TISA members to meet in person.

“This was a good occasion to meet TISA colleagues, especially competitors. You compete in the market, but in TISA we work for a common goal. This time it was even more exciting because we are exploring the new exciting sector of Connected and Automated Driving”, commented Alessandro Taddei from Infoblu.
“It is good to see and meet TISA participants. Usually you only see names on documents, standards and other materials, but having these meetings gives us a chance to talk in person and share ideas. Everything ran smoothly and I am satisfied of the outcome of these two days”, said Andreas Erwin from TomTom.

Participants to the General Assembly and Committee Meetings left Cologne with consolidated and new ideas, benefitting from the fruitful outcome of the work carried out.

“I appreciated the location, it was professional and beautiful. Germany is always a good choice when it comes to meet colleagues, in this case, TISA colleagues and General Assembly participants. It was a good occasion to meet new members and new people and this time we were about forty participants. It was also an excellent occasion to meet our clients”, commented Olaf Meng from Garmin.

The next TISA Committee Meetings will be held in 4-5 September 2018 in Brussels at ERTICO and 4-5 December 2018 in Toulouse hosted by Continental.