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In last year's President's Report, I referred to 2020 as a year like no other. Little did we know that 2021 would bring more of the same hardships and would be a year all too similar to the one that preceded it. Despite the immense challenges we've all faced this year, I have been astonished by the sheer amount of work produced by our industry over the past two years. One need only look at the incredible range of finalists in this year's ITS Australia Awards to see the volume of outstanding and innovative work that our industry has delivered throughout the pandemic.
Though we have not had much opportunity to meet in person over the past 12-months, I have had the opportunity to catch up regularly with my fellow members of ITS Australia in Zoom meetings, webinars, and conference calls. The indomitable spirit and energy that has been demonstrated by all of you who work in Australia's Intelligent Transport Systems industry is truly remarkable. I hope that for each of you, the fellowship we enjoy in this industry has been a beacon throughout the difficult times we have lived through recently. It certainly has for me.
Now, we stand at the precipice of 2022 and much progress has been made. Our nation has quickly become one of the most vaccinated in the world, and the experience of those nations that lead us in their pandemic response suggests that we have much to look forward to in the coming year.
With that in mind, ITS Australia has assembled a bustling calendar of in-person events throughout 2022. We cannot wait to get back amongst our members, and when we do so, we want to do so safely. Our industry provides essential services, and those services cannot be delivered without a healthy workforce. The entire team at ITS Australia is proud to be fully vaccinated so that we can support the outstanding and vital work our industry does every day. We encourage all of our colleagues to do the same.
The past few years have seen a pronounced evolution within our industry. Concepts and technologies—that were nascent only very recently—have become critical preoccupations of our industry. ITS Australia has undertaken an exhaustive review of our three-year Strategic Plan, designed to promote ideas and technologies to deliver safer, better and more sustainable transport in Australia in support of our changing and maturing industry.
I encourage everyone to look through the new Strategic Plan to learn how ITS Australia will support the industry over the next few years.
After a bumpy journey, ITS Australia delivered the 17th ITS Asia Pacific Forum to great success in April. Despite the challenges associated with delivering the event online, 904 delegates participated in the Forum. Those delegates were principally from Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific Region, but we were also joined by attendees from the United States and the UK. Throughout the 4-day event, ITS Australia delivered 70 sessions across six program streams, with an additional 62 on-demand sessions available to delegates. In total, 3,244 hours of content was viewed by delegates during the Forum.
In September, we held Mobility 2021, also an online event. Mobility 2021 was attended by 156 delegates and featured 69 speakers and 76 presentations. Over the two-day conference, 776 hours of content was live-streamed by our delegates. Excitingly, Mobility 2021 featured a broad and diverse range of delegates. 29.5% of delegates were women, 70.5% were men. The event featured strong international participation, with attendees joining from Brazil, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.
All recorded content from both the ITS Asia Pacific Forum and Mobility 2021 has been made available on the ITS Australia Portal for viewing by members and event delegates.
After delivering a vast number of webinars and digital activities in 2020, this year, we focused on using our webinar program to expand and deepen our relationships with our friends and partners across the globe. We held our ITS2 series of webinars with ITS (UK), MAX webinars with our partners in the MAX: Michigan Australia Exchange in Mobility and will be closing out the calendar year with one with ITS Taiwan. Across these webinars, we got the opportunity to learn from global experts on a diverse range of topics, including vehicle electrification, active travel, connected and automated vehicles, and transport data sharing. In addition, we continued to host our ITS Tech Talks in which our members teach some of the fundamentals of intelligent transport systems. Throughout 2021 more than 5,000 people have either attended an ITS Australia webinar or watched one on demand. All of them are available to watch now on the ITS Australia website.
For the past few years, ITS Australia has monitored and reported on the gender diversity of our association. Throughout 2021 we continue to see the increased representation of women amongst our members, event attendees, and committees. This year, we would like to report on the makeup of our Board of Directors to demonstrate some of the different types of diversity that help us serve the ITS industry and the community more broadly.
Notably, ITS Australia's Board of Directors—when compared with ASX 300 companies included in the 2021 Board Diversity Index—features a substantially higher than average proportion of directors with non-Anglo-Celtic backgrounds ( 44% vs 10%). Our Board also includes significantly higher than representation by younger directors, with 38% under 50 compared with the average of 5%.
Notably, more than half of our directors have served in their roles for less than three years, demonstrating that ITS Australia's Board of Directors is a dynamic and evolving incubator for talent in our industry. Finally, each of the different types of member that ITS Australia has—except our Start-Up members—is represented on the Board, showing that member organisations can achieve representation on the Board irrespective of their size.
ITS Australia's project and policy work has continued unabated in 2021. We are currently undertaking a new project, Innovative Local Transport: Community Transport of the Future. This project investigates the systemic issues, opportunities and barriers for overcoming transport disadvantage and the opportunity for technology to enhance community transport in Australia.
This project is being completed with project participants, the Western Australian Department of Transport, Transport for NSW, the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, the Victorian Department of Transport, the University of Technology Sydney and iMOVE Australia.
2021 saw the establishment of the ITS Australia NextGens, a group dedicated to young and early-career transport professionals. The ITS Australia NextGens provide young professionals with a platform to ask questions, get advice, create opportunities, and network with like-minded individuals to excel in their careers.
The NextGens organise events and initiatives for the benefit of young professionals working in transport technology across Australia. Throughout the lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne this year, the NextGens have held regular meetings and 'Breakfast Club' catchups to keep engaged. In 2022, we look forward to seeing much more from the NextGens.
After the challenging climate of the past few years, I am pleased to report that the organisation has maintained a strong balance sheet that will enable us to support ongoing activities to support the industry into the future.
On behalf of the Board, I extend our thanks to the ITS Australia team for working with incredible stamina and enthusiasm throughout the past two years. Most importantly, we thank Susan Harris, our Chief Executive Officer, for her tireless commitment to ITS Australia, its members, and our industry. Finally, I am grateful to my colleagues on the Board for their tremendous contributions to the leadership and governance of the association.
As always, I conclude by thanking all of ITS Australia's members. Our association is nothing without you. The final piece of good news that I'd like to share is that, quite unexpectedly, the past two years have seen incredible growth in ITS Australia's membership. We now have more than 140 members, and we are larger now than we have ever been. To the entire ITS industry, I say thank you for the confidence that you've shown in us. We look forward to an incredible year ahead.
Membership of ITS Australia offers a range of benefits
