Infinitive Group’s CEO and Co-Founder, Ben Craze, chaired a couple of panels at Smart Rail in Amsterdam this past week. The topic of the first panel was “Procurement, maintenance, and smarter trains”. The following presentations were given:
- Preparing new trains for launch – Paul Boyle, Head of ERTMS, Virgin Trains East Coast
- How advanced rolling stock technology can streamline and improve freight rail operations – Jens-Erik Galdiks, Head of Rolling Stock Technology, SBB Cargo
- The rise of the smart train – Lars Dannecker, Development Expert and Big Data Architect, SAP & Robert Madl, Global Partner Executive, Cisco
- Taiwan High Speed Rail Smart Operation – James Shi, Director of Operation Division, Taiwan High Speed Rail
- PANEL DISCUSSION: Making railways smarter – Paul Boyle, Head of ERTMS, Virgin Trains East Coast, Jens-Erik Galdiks, Head of Rolling Stock Technology, SBB Cargo, James Shi, Director of Operation Division, Taiwan High Speed Rail, Lars Dannecker, Development Expert and Big Data Architect, SAP & Robert Madl, Global Partner Executive, Cisco
The topic of the second panel was “Using Data and Technology to Optimise Maintenance and Operations”. The following presentations were given:
- Utilising data to improve customer service – Yasunari Nakajima, Director, Paris Office, East Japan Railway Company
- CASE STUDY: The Swiss way to capacity optimisation for traffic management – Daniel Achermann, Senior Expert on Traffic Management Systems, SBB
- Technology to enable smarter working methods – Mikko Vuoristo, Head of IT, Train Operations, VR Group
- CASE STUDY: Digital transformation best practices at DB Cargo – Fabian Stöffler, Vice President Asset Digitisation, DB Cargo
- CASE STUDY: Uber Movement – how can data benefit planning? – Marius Macku, Senior Associate, Public Policy and Government Relations, EU, Uber
- PANEL DISCUSSION: What needs to be done for the rail industry to utilise data effectively? – Fabian Stöffler, Vice President Asset Digitisation, DB Cargo, Mikko Vuoristo, Head of IT, Train Operations, VR Group, Daniel Achermann, Senior Expert on Traffic Management Systems, SBB Yasunari Nakajima, Director, Paris Office, East Japan Railway Company, Marius Macku, Senior Associate, Public Policy and Government Relations, EU, Uber
Also in attendance for the full conference was Adam Bradley, another Infinitive Group co-founder. Chris Blackburn (also a Co-Founder) managed to attend for one day after returning from a trip to the US.
Overall the conference was excellent with many great speakers and fantastic networking opportunities. We tip our hats to Louisa and the team at Smart Rail and we look forward to the next one!
