Logistics and the last – but arguably most important - mile

Brought to you by The Automotive & Transport Group

The competition is on for retailers to offer the widest variety of goods and foods delivered in the shortest amount of time. Indeed, now you can just tell your chatbot what you want and it could turn up within an hour!

Registration for this event is now closed.

About the event

What are the implications of this near instant fulfilment for the logistics organisations of today and tomorrow? Granted not everybody needs – or is prepared to pay for – such services but with ‘Click and Collect’ now a major advantage for the bricks and mortar retailers with fully robotised collect points not that far away things are indeed changing. Add into this vehicle platooning, autonomous vehicles and even delivery drones and the business of logistics is feeling the same massive changes as the automotive industry - move away from fossil fuels, move from ownership to usage, connected and autonomous – indeed many of these automotive industry changes will directly impact logistics.

This event will explore how the logistics industry is not only embracing these new technologies but being a catalyst for change to provide their customers with a competitive edge whilst driving an eco-agenda.

Limited FREE places for non-members: We are keen to engage with, and foster the next generation of technologists and engineers - we have limited FREE places for non-members who are under 35. If you would like to register for one of these places, please email Rachel

We have limited sponsorship and display table opportunities available for this popular event so if you are interested in maximising your organisation’s profile, please contact sponsorship@cambridgewireless.co.uk for further information

You can follow @CambWireless on Twitter and tweet about this event using #CWTransport.

Supported by Mills & Reeve LLP

Legal and intellectual property advisers.

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Agenda

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The information supplied below may be subject to change before the event.

12:30

Registration and networking with lunch

13:30

Introduction to the Automotive & Transport Group

13:40

Welcome from event supporter

Stephen Hamilton, Partner, Mills & Reeve

13:50

Last mile logistics – opportunities for innovation

Prof. Alan Braithwaite, Founder, LCP Consulting
This talk will cover the scale of the last mile challenge; innovation trends and opportunities; the policy imperatives – congestion, safety and air quality; and address the question of what it will take to make it happen?

14:15

Q&A

14:25

The future of drone delivery

Henry Fletcher, Senior Engineer, Cambridge Consultants
Rosie Wells, Senior Product Designer at Cambridge Consultants
Cambridge Consultants DelivAir drone delivery concept places packages directly into your hand - wherever you are. Using a novel, patent pending two stage GPS/vision based navigation system the drone locates the recipient via their smartphone, and delivers the package safely into their hands via a level wind winch system. This presentation looks at the thinking behind the project and the challenges presented in creating this proof of concept system.

14:50

Q&A

14:55

Autonomous Vehicles in the Last Mile

Zain Khawaja, Founder & Lead Technologist, Propelmee Ltd.
This talk will explore the challenges and opportunities of using autonomous vehicle technology in last-mile scenarios; review current approaches to tackling autonomous last-mile delivery, and Propelmee's technological and commercial approach in addressing this autonomy use case.

15:20

Q&A

15:25

Networking with refreshments

15:55

A new way to manage Kerb space

Neil Herron, Founder & CEO, Grid Smarter Cities
Neil Herron explains how our congested cities need a new way to manage their deliveries, introducing Kerb, an intelligent kerbside management tool that allows Hauliers the ability to book previously restricted kerb space through the provision of virtual loading bays.

16:15

Q&A

16:20

Urban last-mile deliveries - the car as a Delivery Service

John Davies, Senior Advisor, CarTap
This talk will explore CarTap’s Boot Collect service which takes the flexibility of click and collect even further by delivering orders straight to the consumer’s car. The project uses a smartphone app to enable consumers to have online goods delivered straight to their boot using secure keyless vehicle access technology.

16:30

Panel session with all speakers

17:00

Final Q&A

17:10

Event wrap up

17:15

Event close

Speakers

John Davies - International Trade Adviser – Technology, Department for Business and Trade, Director, Strategy 4 Technology Ltd, Thematic Group Co-Leader, United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC)

John has carried out a unique mix of strategic and operational roles with placements in the USA and Europe and partnerships in Asia. Over recent years much of his private sector and Government activities has been in the area of mobile and wireless communications, digital media, Smart Cities, Cloud and Big Data and M2M/IoT as well as emerging and disruptive technologies. Helping technology start ups in the UK and internationally sourcing technology and partners as well as provide due diligence in areas of M&A and stock listings. Operating as a UK Government Advisor John has briefed both UK and International Government Ministers and Departments on Smart Cities and respective technologies and applications. This has included providing international workshops, mentoring and consulting at senior levels. John has designed and ran awareness and implementation workshops for international companies and led international delegations to overseas markets, the most recent to Singapore and Malaysia in partnership with InnovateUK. John is an active member of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Smart Cities. John will be engaging with potential new international companies and organisations, and supporting CW member companies.

Henry Fletcher

Engineer with over 5 years’ experience in multidisciplinary engineering projects. Specialist in mechanical engineering. Experience in aerospace and marine engineering firms. Founded and led technical direction of precision agriculture start-up, now shareholder and advisor. Experience leading mechanical and multidisciplinary teams and solving diverse technical challenges including industrial automation, robotic vision, seals in beverage and consumer cleaning products, global transit intermediate packaging and specialised drone modifications.

Stephen Hamilton - Corporate Finance Partner, Mills & Reeve LLP

Stephen Hamilton is a partner at Mills & Reeve; he helps businesses to achieve their commercial objectives, focuses on corporate finance for companies and other commercial clients. Stephen has significant experience in advising in relation to capital markets (both main market and AIM) including fundraisings, initial public offerings, mergers & acquisitions and corporate restructurings. Recent work includes an £80m takeover offer, several AIM fundraisings, a £28m recommended takeover code offer structured as a scheme of arrangement, two £300m+ bond issues, the £100m dual track trade sale and AIM IPO for an advanced manufacturing company. He is a member of the Quoted Companies Alliance Legal Technical Committee. Stephen also has an interest in the laws relating to the testing and use of autonomous vehicles. I have consulted with general counsel from major automotive manufacturers and suppliers, responded to calls for evidence from the UK Government, have been quoted by the media and have been invited to discuss the subject at the House of Lords.

Henry Harris-Burland - VP, Marketing, Starship Technologies

Henry joined Starship in 2016 and now leads the Marketing and Communications team. Henry has a mixed entrepreneurial and corporate background after founding and then selling an events company in the UK, and then moving to Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for over three years in Global Product Communications. His passion for anything on wheels has now led him to the rapidly changing world of robotics and delivery robots.

Neil Herron

Neil Herron is the founder and CEO of Grid Smarter Cities - an eco-system of smart solutions connecting communities and people with transport, parking, goods, services, discounts and offers. It is about making lives easier for everyone and making cities smarter, efficient and inclusive. He has led Grid through the London Stock Exchange Group’s ELITE programme for emerging high-growth companies, as well as ensuring their 15th placing in the IP100 League table. Grid have also won an unprecedented 7 Innovate UK funded projects, including most recently a ‘first of a kind’ (FOAK) project looking to revolutionise the cities kerb-space with virtual loading bay concept, for which Neil is the named inventor, including the two patents that sit behind the technology. ‘Kerb’, as its now known, acts as Real Time Dynamic, Intelligent Kerbside Management Solution for Cities. Kerb allows commercial vehicle operators to opt to book and pay to park/load unload on previously unavailable kerb space in high density, urban areas or to extend loading periods in time restricted locations. Neil is a serial entrepreneur developing new propositions and SME businesses in the smart city space. He is also ITS UK representative on the national British Parking Association Forum alongside the Freight Transport Association and local authority representatives and is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smart. He has 20 years’ experience in running delivery fleets and over ten years’ experience in improving parking policy and operations. He was also a key contributor to the Transport Data Revolution report on Intelligent Mobility for the Transport Systems Catapult and a member of the APPG Smart Cities group.

Zain Khawaja

Zain has a Master of Engineering (MEng) from Oxford University with a specialisation in Computer Vision and Robotics. Zain has led the development and integration of Propelmee’s proprietary autonomous vehicle technology for complex scene perception, dynamic path planning, real time obstacle avoidance and autonomous maneuvers handling in complex urban environments. Zain is an author on Computer Vision IP patents filed in the U.S. for Propelmee, including the ‘Autonomous Vehicle Corridor’ patent, which articulates a framework for deriving rich scene understanding from infrastructure based perception and seamlessly integrates with vehicle on-board perception in aid of autonomy.

Rosie Wells

Designer with over 7 years’ experience in the design development for consumer and industrial markets. Working in integrated multidisciplinary teams, I focus on understanding consumer needs and requirements and design solutions to suit. I make sure the end user/key stakeholder is considered throughout the development process to enable commercially successful products and services.

SIG Champions

Andre Burgess - Strategic Partnerships, Security and Resilience, National Physical Laboratory

NPL’s nominated SIG Champion, Andre Burgess runs Strategic partnerships for the Digital Sector at NPL where he is also leading on its activities in CAV R&D as well as the development of new testing infrastructure for future integrated communications networks. Andre has a long experience in product and service innovation in the TMT sector, including NTL (now Virgin Media) and Three. He subsequently established a successful business designing and deploying disruptive digital end user products and services. More recently he turned his focus on the energy and environment sector, working with distributed generators, housing providers and local authorities, to develop innovative data centric services to optimise localised energy generation and affordable smart home services. With a mission to ensure data can be trusted and shared openly in the future, he joined NPL in 2017.

John Okas - CCO, Real Wireless

John has worked in wireless and telecommunications throughout his career. Initially with Motorola and Racal in engineering and product marketing roles. He was a founding director of NTL (now Arqiva), initially as Business Development Director building and managing the complete commercial organisation. He also managed the R&D Group which developed one of the first commercially available MPEG video compression systems. Then as Managing Director - Telecommunications he was responsible for growing NTL's wireless business using NTL’s extensive tower portfolio and nationwide field operations capability and entering the fixed telecommunications and satellite services markets. Moving to Pell Frischmann, the consulting engineers, he started a telecommunications business and was involved in several large transportation projects including the Highways Agency's NRTS Project which updated the communication systems on the strategic Road Network and he first got involved in smart metering. Currently as CCO for Real Wireless he undertakes business strategy and development activities, as well as delivering various projects. Recent projects include assessing the implications of the sunset of 2G and 3G networks in the UK and analysing various aspects of smart metering in the UK. He takes a strong interest in the evolving NTN and M2M markets and the evolution of energy communication networks.

Tom Robinson - CPO, Conigital

Tom has worked in the software and advanced technology industry for over 35 years with 25+ years in automotive. During this time Tom has provided leadership in several world class automotive consultancies including Pi Technology, Ricardo, Applus IDIADA and Conigital. For 6 years Tom supported InnovITS (UK Centre of Excellence for Tranport Telematics and Sustainable Mobility) as a non-executive director, helping promote the establishment of UK ITS capability. He has championed and directed several world class innovation programmes in the ITS field including TfNSW’s Ute, EU’s SARTRE, InnovITS FaCITS, TSB’s ERTOC and Innovate UK’s MuCCA, CONNECTOR and MACAM projects.  Tom is currently working at EVIE Autonomous, a technology company developing and offering level four off-highway self-driving technology systems that can be installed into any vehicle.  In 2022 EVIE acquired the assets and IP of Westfield Autonomous Vehicles, adding the world’s most successful autonomous PRT platform (as run at Heathrow airport) to EVIES matchless CAVONIX autonomous vehicle stack. As CPO at EVIE, Tom is helping drive the future towards CAV.

Nigel Wall - Director, Climate Associates Ltd

Nigel has been involved with connected vehicle research since 1992 when he led BT’s mobile data research team – initially using modems on first generation analogue TACS mobile phones! Since 2001 he has provided consultancy complex-systems, with a primary specialism in connected vehicles. He acted as the Monitoring Officer for twelve of the Connected and Autonomous Vehicle research projects supported by Innovate UK and the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. Climate Associates provides consultancy on delivering pragmatic sustainable systems and services, based on life cycle assessments where wholesale replacement of current systems with lower footprint solutions may not be the most sustainable option.

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Mills & Reeve, 24 Monument St, London, EC3R 8AJ

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