Ignoring the view: drafting the programme for the 2026 European Transport Conference

While being distracted by the views from the 43rd floor in London City, the chairs of the European Transport Conference programme committees (or their representatives) have managed to design a wonderful programme for the 2026 conference. Having over 500 abstracts to choose from, we compiled a schedule that takes full advantage of all three conference days.

The annual 'Post-it' meeting is a crucial step in putting the conference programme together, following separate meetings of all of our twelve programme committees. In these meetings, the committee members discuss their evaluation of the abstracts. This year they assessed a record number of submissions. Drafting a programme would be impossible without those efforts of a lot of our volunteers.

The 2026 Post-it meeting was kindly hosted by Bentley Systems in London on Friday 17 April. Its nickname is derived from the crucial role Post-it(R) notes play in the creative process that goes into building the conference programme. The meeting is very much hands-on and old school, involving paper, scissors, staples and tape, and a lot of negotiations between different programme committees. In a mere six hours, we succeeded in filling three days of parallel sessions to the brim.

At the ETC in Porto this September, delegates will be spoiled for choice with over 125 sessions to choose from, including some workshops, special sessions and technical visits. The programme will stretch from Wednesday morning until Friday afternoon and will offer plenty of options throughout.

So join us in Porto! Early booking is now open.