Oct 21st, 2016, 03:08 AM

Autonomy Paris

By Alice Preat
Image credit: Alice Preat
An overview of the first urban mobility festival in Paris.

Autonomy, a Paris-based company founded in 2015, consists of a team of entrepreneurs that specialize in event production, marketing and urban planning. Their goals in hosting this first-of-its-kind event, as stated on their website, were to "showcase urban mobility as an evolving ecosystem, a product of the natural collaborations between citizens, policy makers,  and innovators." They also explain that they intend to host this festival every year, in a "dynamic urban venue," during which they will bring together various members of the urban mobility field (including exhibitors, visitors, and partners) in order to "get our cities moving." According to Autonomy, there are major global stakes in urban mobility, to which multinational corporations and innovating startups will tend by joining forces in creating a market that is predicted to jump from 1.5 to 25 billion dollars in the next decade. They speak of this fusion as "the fourth revolution". 


Image credit: Alice Preat

Their very first event, called the Autonomy Festival, took place in Paris's Grande Halle de la Villette from Thursday, October 6 until Sunday, October 9, and did, in fact, bring together 150 exhibitors, over 20,000 visitors, and about 100 speakers. This event was party supported by OuiShare, an organization and think-tank that works with digital transformation, collaborative economy, and emerging communities. The Grande Halle de la Villette being 26,000 square meters, the space was organized into several "neighborhoods," named after Paris neighborhoods, and had many signs and maps throughout the warehouse to facilitate the experience for visitors. Although the exhibitors and conferences were the two main attractions of the event, the visitors who came to see the innovative commercial products were not necessarily the same crowd as those we came for the conferences, seeing as visitors only had to pay for a ten euro ticket, as compared to a 150 to 250 euro ticket to have access to the conferences.


Image credit: Alice Preat

Since this event was made to showcase both social and political movements in relation to urban mobility, but also new technologies and products to help implement these movements in everyday life, many brands and companies were exhibiting products, ranging from basic hoverboards and Segways to bikes, cars, robots, electric vehicles of all kinds, and even clothing and apps. As many of these products were vehicles, there was a "test arena" in the center of the exhibit space, where commercial representatives were stationed, constantly riding electric vehicles and helping out eager visitors. Although everyone today has come across the infamous hoverboard, Segway and electric bike, there were many innovative products featured that had never been seen before. Many of these products were quite fast, aesthetically pleasing, and—to the surprise of some visitors—some were even affordable.


Image credit: Alice Preat

This arena, as well as the booths selling the products, such as Wee Bot and Inmotion, were set up around the perimeter of the space, as well as on the second floor, leaving the center for the main stage and conference room. There was another test track outside of the Grande Halle, longer and better structured, to which visitors could bring any product for a test run. Although a number of visitors seemed to be enjoying the vehicles, when asked about these products, Thomas, 27, said, "They seem really fun, and I like the concept, but I don't know that I would spend this much money on something like this... This is Paris, you can just ride a regular bike to work." However, multiple commercial representatives, such as Isaac Bouni, seemed to say that these products sell very well. According to him, Wee Bot already has a revenue of one million euros.


Image credit: Alice Preat

Though these technological advances are very important tools for urban mobility, it seems that the bulk of the event rested upon the conferences. Split up between five locations—the Auditorium, the Stage, the Studio, Lab 1 and Lab 2—58 conferences or workshops were held throughout the festival, some simultaneously. The largest conferences were held in the Auditorium, either by multiple speakers who usually sat down with a host, or a keynote speaker. Conferences discussed a certain topic related to urban mobility in today's world, such as "Open Data to Open Roads" or "Turning Transit Hubs into Cultural Hotspots." During these conferences, professionals and experts working in startups, organizations and corporations, as well as politicians and decision-makers discussed their views and strategies to improve urban mobility in urban cities. The Stage only held one conference, called "Investors in the Spotlight," and served as demonstration stage for the remainder of the event. The Studio was usually where roundtables were held, though keynote speakers held talks there as well. Finally, all of the workshops were held in Lab 1 and 2, in which professionals and visitors would discuss ways and solutions in which urban mobility could be increased in cities such as Paris. Although some talks were held in English, the majority of them were held in French, as the majority of the guest speakers were French professionals. 


Image credit: Alice Preat

To the pleasure of visitors, the festival also featured a food market, multiple lounging areas and a childrens' area. The event also featured many pick-up activities, such as a drawing board by SNCF. Overall, it seems that the event was a success, as it attracted such a high number of visitors, speakers, exhibitors and journalists. The event will be continued next year, in the hopes to create a collective discussion and movement to make our cities less polluted, better connected, and better shared.