LA CoMotion 2018

Last month in Los Angeles, I was proud and delighted to co-host the second installment of LA CoMotion, the first of its kind (in America at least) auto show for everything that isn’t a car, ranging from electric bicycles to scooters to autonomous shuttles, to good old fashioned buses, to “hover skates.”

More than 1,400 CEOs, policymakers, and experts from all over the world – along with several thousand Angelenos – flocked to the Arts District of Downtown LA for three exceptional days of insightful conversations, great speakers and exciting demos. Nearly 200 start-ups and early-stage companies in the mobility field were present at LA CoMotion this year, along with public officials from over 100 municipalities across the US and across the planet.

For my part, I was delighted to co-host the main stage events, as well as moderate the opening discussion (embedded above) between Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante, Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Kadri Simson, Avis Budget Group CEO Larry D. De Shon, and UITP Secretary General Mohamed Mezghani.

I was also fortunate to interview BMW Group board member Peter Schwarzenbauer (below) about his plans for MINI (where I’m the “urbanist-in-residence”) and BMW’s multi-billion dollar push into electrification. I also moderated Woods Bagot’s workshop on “More LA” (more on that here) re-imagining Los Angeles’ glut of parking spaces. All-in-all, it was a busy week – and I had strep throat the entire time, to boot.

LA CoMotion will return for a third annual installment on November 14-16, 2019. Until then, please enjoy the highlights video at bottom, which features a cameo of my green trousers (more below).