Devin DE VRIES

Biographical note
Devin de Vries is an entrepreneur dedicated to fostering technological innovation to solve social problems in the developing world. For the last eight years he has lead a growing team inspired by a shared vision to bring technological solutions to the problem of public transport in the emerging world. WhereIsMyTransport, is a leading public transport platform and has been recognized by the Financial Times/IFC, the WWF, and Start-Up Tel Aviv. He oversees the development and execution of all strategies at the company, as well as business development, high-value partner management, global expansion, and overall product vision and strategy. With internationally awarded technical and business development skills, Devin develops and directs the vision and strategy of WhereIsMyTransport in the challenging B2G environment and has successfully grown the company from 2 team members to 42.

Presentation: Enabling mobility solutions in emerging cities through an integrated approach
Informally run transport is increasingly recognized as an enabler of sustainable urban mobility. This talk will focus on how to capture the potential of the South African minibus taxi and create a data lifecycle to ensure that this information creates additional value for cities. Drawing from our own recent successful collection projects in major South African cities, we will share insights on how to effectively capture these systems. To generate benefits for cities, we will discuss the philosophy of a platform-based solution for integrating both formal and informal transport and the technological features of such a solution. These lessons from South Africa will provide decision makers and implementers with the necessary knowledge to optimise informally run transport within their own cities to foster mobility ecosystems.