Bringing together innovators and decision makers, the ‘Bike Biz Revolution’ conference saw its premiere last year. This year’s edition was online only but still delivered a comprehensive overview of current trends and developments.
Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and resulting travel restrictions, the Eurobike organizers decided to hold the 2020 ‘Bike Biz Revolution’ conference as an online-only event. The topics that high-profile speakers addressed were grouped in three blocks: Trends and outlooks on the future of mobility, the industry’s eco footprint and drive for more sustainability and a third block focussing on aspects of digitalization and trade.
Each of these blocks took a bit less than two hours, making for a full day of presentations to be followed online.
With one exception, all the speakers of this year’s Bike Biz Revolution events were holding their presentation through live streams.
In the first presentation of the conference, traffic researcher Carlo van der Weijer pointed at things that are unlikely to change despite the many recent innovations in terms of traffic. As the director of the smart mobility research department of Eindhoven University, van der Weijer pointed out conceptual shortcomings in terms of traffic.
According to him both parking and riding are still way too cheap, keeping innovative concepts out of the market. Autonomous vehicles will face serious problems in the complexity of urban traffic, while investments in bicycle infrastructure are still lagging despite proof of their efficacy.
The following two presentations gave some examples of urban mobility solutions. CIT Mobility’s Philip J. Douglas presented his employer’s project to get a fleet of cargobikes for sharing purposes moving. Stressing the need for reliable and easily serviceable parts, Douglas pointed at the convenience of cargobikes for last-mile deliveries.
Focussing on mobility rather than the transport of goods, Commodule’s Kristijan Maruste gave some insights into the importance of the aspect of connectivity in making last-mile solutions viable and easy-to-use for commuters. As of now Commodule is active in 45 countries around the world with a focus on connected and shared micro-mobility.
Opening the second block of presentations, Patagonia’s Alex Weller showed how this outdoor apparel specialist pioneered sustainability as a part of a brand’s philosophy. Weller stressed the importance of keeping the entire supply line in check and of listening to the needs and wishes of consumers rather than to resort to greenwashing pr stunts.
Film maker Kathrin Hartmann questioned the eco footprint of pedelecs to the point that she referred to them as mobility’s equivalent to Nespresso’s coffee capsules. Defending the bicycle industry’s efforts in terms of sustainability was Busch&Müller’s Sandra Wolf: She also pointed out the importance of the supply line and of the proximity of suppliers.
As for the digitalization and its impact on trade as the third block, n’fuse solutions Anne Guethoff stressed the importance of a clearly defined strategy and of consumer centricity in order to position a product on a competitive market successfully. Bike & Co Georg Wagner highlighted the importance of size in the digital sphere.
The investments necessary to be successful can easily overwhelm an individual retailer, and as a consequence cooperative approaches make a lot of sense. Last but not least velocollect’s Dr. Ulrich Gries shared his ideas on how retail is changing. Since online shopping is becoming more common than ever for older consumers, Gries stressed the importance for retailers of being present both in the real world and in the digital sphere.
Speaking on behalf of Messe Friedrichshafen, Eurobike show director Stefan Reisinger had this to say: “With the Eurobike Digital Days, our main goal has been to provide the bicycle business with an easily accessible platform for exchange under the given circumstances.
The positive feedback of both the speakers and the attendance shows that we were right to offer such a platform, and we are glad to see so many of our customers being open for such a new, digital format.”
For all those who missed out on Eurobike’s digital version of the ‘Bike Biz Revolution’ conference, all the presentations can be downloaded from the trade show’s website.