The Specialty Vehicles and Transportation Equipment Manufacturers’ Association (AMETVS) and the Interregional ACCORD Center of Excellence on Transport hosted the Transport Rendezvous (TRV): two days dedicated to networking with the ground transportation equipment industry companies. The event held on May 11th and 12th in Boucherville, attracted over 550 people and generated close to 500 business meetings.
The TRV has mainly focussed on two unifying themes: electric vehicles and rail, said the General Manager of the AMETVS, Denis Robillard.
“Due to the Charest government action plan, there’s a lot going on in the industry such as the development of the electric bus and the Montréal metro contract expected to soon be concluded, among other things. That’s why the industrials were awaiting such an important event as the TRV.”
Participants were able to attend high level talks and lectures on these topics thanks to:
- Michel Labrecque, Chair of the Board of the STM, talked about how the STM is going for green and the role of public transport on the economic prosperity of Québec ;
- Dominique Malenfant, Vice President, Center of Expertise - Engineering, Supply Management and Product Management at Bombardier Transport, talked about the importance of long-term relationships between suppliers and OEMs and the impact of Bombardier in Québec ;
- Gaétan Bourgeois, of Doppelmayr CTEC, presented alternative approaches to urban mobility;
- Richard Parenteau ,Vice President Fabrication at TM4, gave an overview of the industrialisation of TM4 electric powertrains;
- Xavier Fonteneau, Director of the ACCORD Project, presented an overview of Québec ground transportation industry, the role of ACCORD Centers of Excellence, and the MDEIE’s willingness to respond to stakeholders needs to create Centers of Excellence through gathering all players in the industry;
- René Vézina, Economic Journalist, Les Affaires newspaper, explained how to take advantage of the dollar parity and shared his views on Québec’s economic outlook in global markets;
- everal lecturers from the ACCORD Centers of Excellence on Transport presented their groundbreaking projects available to Québec manufacturers;
- and more.
Encourage technology transfer and create business partnerships
Twenty four Canadian OEMs and three French companies (N’ERGY to identify local partners in the sector of electric transport, rail and automotive; M A Industrie, to find an industrial equipment integrator; and Soudelec to implement in Québec a medium frequency welding process) participated in the TRV to either discover or rediscover the expertise of Québec companies and encourage technology transfer between both countries. The 500 business meetings that took place during two days have undoubtedly attained those goals and will have major economic windfall in Québec.
The 24h of innovation generated great inventive projects
In collaboration with the École de technologie supérieure de Montréal (ÉTS), the École Supérieure des Technologies Industrielles Avancées (ESTIA, France), the Université de Technologies Compiègne (UTC, France), the Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard (UTBM, France) and the Université Ziguinchor (Sénégal), the TRV have hosted the 24h of innovation, a contest which brought together 11 university teams from different disciplines and from various Québec, France and Senegal universities.
Four prizes were awarded to the most outstanding projects based on originality, the innovative approach and the quality of the presentation. Prizes were presented by Mr. Xavier Fonteneau, Director of the ACCORD Project, and Mr. Martin Dufour, President of the jury and President of Merkur.
- Nicolas Blanchet, Marc-Olivier Girard, Pierre-Olivier Nadeau and Jean-Bernard Ratté (intelligent and adaptive sail-cloth, 3rd place)
- Christophe Petit, Mohamed Outellou and Luc Trudeau (intelligent and active safety headrest, 2nd place)
- Anne Laliberté, Samuel Bernier, Frédéric-Bastien Forrest and Gabriel Beaulieu (seat belt with flare, 1st place)
have received awards for this contest. Also, UTBM was awarded the international bursary for its innovative bicycle lock, and the show-stopper prize was awarded to the Senegalese University for its leveraging project to help put a motorcycle into a truck box.
