Cologne, May 2011 - What are the chal­lenges presented by the mobility of the future? What do the corre­sponding reac­tions, solu­tions and programmes look like? How can these measures be imple­mented glob­ally and perma­nently? These and other impor­tant ques­tions were on the agenda of the renowned Leaders Forum in Berlin, at which some 40 high-ranking repre­sen­ta­tives from poli­tics, the economy and the sciences presented and discussed their visions of tomorrow’s mobility.

This inter­na­tional experts’ meeting on 20th May is consid­ered to be one of the high­lights of this year’s Michelin Chal­lenge Bibendum, which took place from 18th to 22nd May on the site of Berlin’s former central airport. Pat Cox, former pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Parlia­ment, was the compère at this half-day programme. Over 550 invited guests from all over the world, including jour­nal­ists and partic­i­pants in the umbrella event, directly influ­enced the discus­sions by means of a voting system. The discus­sions were simul­ta­ne­ously trans­lated into seven languages.

One central theme of the Leaders Forum was road safety, which will be at the centre of a world­wide United Nations campaign over the coming ten years. This “Decade of Action” was given promi­nent support in Berlin: UN General Secre­tary Ban Ki-Moon actively promoted the project via video link. Holly­wood actress Michelle Yeoh, inter­na­tional ambas­sadress for the “Make Roads Safe” programme, also used the Leaders Forum to voice her call for fewer road-acci­dent victims. Other items on the programme were talks and discus­sions on the subjects of “Chal­lenges”, “Existing solu­tions”, “Energy”, “Modern urban mobility” as well as a “Call for collab­o­ra­tion”.

As leading agency for Michelin, Oliver Schrott Kommu­nika­tion was respon­sible not only for the entire PR and press work at the Chal­lenge Bibendum 2011 but also for the Leaders Forum. The agency devel­oped, planned and real­ized the entire event. In addi­tion to the concep­tion and imple­men­ta­tion of the Leaders Forum, the agency’s tasks included the programme sequencing, direc­tion and tech­nical super­vi­sion in addi­tion to the produc­tion of films, inser­tions and rear-screen projec­tions in advance of the event.