Last week PTRC welcomed 200 delegates to the 14th Annual Transport Practitioners' Meeting (TPM). The conference was held for the first time in Nottingham, and benefited from the engagement of Nottingham City Council transport team members, who presented several papers and workshops on the city's recent transport initiatives. Over 85 papers were presented and 9 workshops delivered over the course of the two-day conference. Both days of the conference opened with a plenary session on the theme of Transporting the Future, where plenary panellists were asked to present their views on the future of transport and field questions from the audience. The first day's plenary featured Amy Harhoff, Head of Policy and Strategy of Transport for the North, Steve Gooding, Director of the RAC Foundation and Maria Machancoses, Programme Director for Midlands Connect. The following day, panellists included Professor Sarah Sharples,  Professor of Human Factors in the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Nottingham, James Gleave, Foresight Analyst at Transport Systems Catapult, TPS's own Director of Skills, Keith Buchan, and Hannah Clark of Devon County Council, who was awarded the TPS prize for Best Paper by a Young Practitioner.

The conference additionally featured the TPS-sponsored drinks reception and the annual awards ceremony and dinner, held on  the evening of Wednesday, 29 June. Over 100 people attended the awards ceremony and dinner, at which TPS presented its two awards. TPS-Board Member Joanna Ward awarded Hannah Clark with the Best Paper by a Young Practitioner for her paper An Investigation into TEMPro Growth Factors whilst TPS treasurer Dominic McGrath presented Stephen Wood of the Department for Infrastructure - Northern Ireland the Transport Planner of the Year Award.