After enjoying the moderation of our webinars by Carlo van de Weijer and Paul Hutton, we are very pleased to announce our new moderator starring in the webinar on the 24th of November: Rachelle Harry. Rachelle Harry has been a journalist for transportation and logistics magazines since 2016. She was deputy editor of Intertraffic World magazine from 2016 to 2018 and supported the editor in the making each issue. We shortly introduce her to you.
What makes the traffic technology industry so interesting to you?‘At the moment I write for the air freight and logistics sector, but at the time while I was working with the Intertraffic team I got to learn a lot about the industry. At Intertraffic Amsterdam, but also during my visits to Intertraffic Istanbul. I have had the privilege to experience tests with autonomous vehicles and got to know a lot about how certain traffic camera’s work, the existence of smart motorways and other latest innovations within the sector. What makes this all so interesting is that I deal with traffic every day. Even though we live in a different time now, I have been driving for ten years and mobility is one of our basic needs. It has been really interesting to learn all about the challenges we are facing, putting those technologies into place, into real life and benefit me personally.’
What or who inspires you?‘One person that really stands out to me is the founder of MaaS Global, Sampo Hietanen. He basically created the concept of mobility as a service. I got to interview him in person as a really engaging character with ground-breaking ideas. He was so passionate about it. I watched it grow from concept into a real company that is fully operational in few countries now.’
What do you hope to learn yourself during the webinar on digital infrastructure to cater for more data flows?‘I look very much forward to moderating it. It would be really interesting to hear what the speakers have to say about the matter, ask questions directly about it and also learn from it. Obviously speakers tend to be the experts in the fields; they know information before anyone else. I hope anyone listening to the webinar will get to hear this information first and pitch a question too.’
‘Personally I am really curious about the impact the Coronavirus will have on mobility in the aftermath. I think people will be using their cars a lot more rather than in public transport for the next ten years even. Even after we have a vaccine people might keep avoiding train or bus. This will cause traffic congestion for example.’
‘Currently in the UK there's definitely been a strain on public transport by people using it less and so prices are going up. While cutbacks in staff will decline the quality of service. I think it will be a battle to get people to want to use different modes of transport other than a car if the cost is too high and service is not delivering. I am intrigued to see what solution data flows in infrastructure can offer to tackle such challenges.’
‘I've worked in webinars before and I've been behind the scenes. Most important is to ask the right questions and answers, myself and from the audience. Secondly, it is my job to make the presenters aware of their time so I will try to bring it back to the subject and make sure we save enough time for questions from the audience.’
What is your opinion on sharing data?‘I think it’s great. Obviously some people are anxious of their data being shared due to the privacy aspect, but as long as you are behaving yourself and you are not committing any crimes you are fine. Data flows are there to improve efficiency, travel times and traffic flows.’
24 November: Join our webinar with Mastercard, West Midlands 5G and Kapsch
Digital infrastructure to cater for more data flows. Register now
