As an entrepreneur-in-residence for Itron Idea Labs, I was excited to be able to represent our organization at the recent LA CoMotion Leadership Conference in Los Angeles, Nov.15 - 17 . This three-day global forum, co-hosted by LACI (the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, which is an Itron-sponsored organization), brought together more than 1,000 elected officials, smart city thought-leaders, transit operators, public utilities, and transportation innovators and stakeholders from both the public and private sectors — all committed to realizing a new urban mobility paradigm and fulfilling the Paris Agreement.

Keynotes, expert panel discussions, workshops, test drives, demos and vendor exhibitions covered a range of topics like autonomous vehicles, digital mobility, electrification of the transportation sector, electric vehicles (both commercial and private), first/last mile-focused micro-mobility products (e-bikes, e-scooters — and even e-roller blades), and a host of mobility-related public policy, equity and social issues.

The future of transportation — connected, autonomous, shared and electric — will transform urban mobility, reshape cities and improve the quality of life for everyone. E-mobility will have a huge impact on the future of the grid, the utilities-of-the-future paradigm, urban infrastructure (how will all these public and private e-vehicles get charged?) and the transition to renewable energy. Blockchain-based (distributed ledge technology) information flows will provide the standardized, trusted, efficient, interoperable and immutable platform for transactions among all stakeholders and users.

To learn more about the LA CoMotion Leadership Conference, click here.