Josh NICKLIN

Biographical note

Josh Nicklin, Masabi’s Head of Business Development for EMEA has led some of the foremost mobile ticketing deployments worldwide, including one of the first city-wide multi-modal deployments in Athens. His background is in mobile, working in the industry for more than a decade with Trinity Mirror PLC, AKQA and Netplay TV PLC.

Prior to Masabi, Josh founded Touch Mobile as part of a management buyout of a gaming service from within Netplay TV, subsequently successfully selling this company and then went on to form another organisation within the mobile marketing space. In his previous role as Head of Marketing at Masabi he managed the customer collaboration around promotional activity that lead the successful first deployment of mobile ticketing in the US, bringing JustRide to Boston’s Commuter Rail network.

Presentation: How the smartphone is solving the “First Mile/Last Mile” problem

The Smartphone is changing the face of city transport, revolutionising door-to-door journeys for passengers. Traditionally public transport has held the edge over the car in terms of cost, but lost out on convenience. This is changing. Mobile Ticketing is just one of the apps and services helping people move around cities. Apps for ride hailing and bicycle schemes are helping solve the “First Mile/Last Mile” problem and route planning software makes using transport more convenient. The next step is to create ecosystems of best-of-breed apps for frictionless, door-to-door journeys built around the needs of passengers and authorities. 

Utilising common, open APIs and SDKs, it is possible for related apps to interact, allowing users to surf between services. This removes barriers between different city services, modes of transport and operators, helping deliver convenient, hassle free, end-to-end journeys. Nick will examine the urban app ecosystem and talk about how this can become a reality.