Come along for the RIDE: SAE digital events provide flexible and free opportunities to stay updated on mobility innovations
Posted: December 10, 2020
“Great job yesterday [with Day One of the Innovations in Mobility Automotive Digital Summit]. It was a nice mix of content and I really enjoyed the diversity of perspectives. Honestly, it's one of the few online events that kept my attention all day.”
-Kelly Senecal, co-author of Racing Toward Zero: The Untold Story of Driving Green, on October 6, 2021
When SAE was founded in the early 1900s, its first president, Andrew Riker, and vice president, Henry Ford, had a vision to advance mobility knowledge and solutions for the benefit of humanity. Riker and Ford were forward thinking innovators and probably wouldn’t be surprised to hear that more than 100 years later, their vision lives on, as SAE serves as a leader in connecting and educating mobility professionals to constantly improve mobility technology around the world. They might, however, be amazed to learn how that’s being done—and the new branches of technology that SAE has extended to even beyond mobility.
As SAE has continued to put its mission in action, the constant innovation in automotive and aerospace mobility made the need for education and discussion around developing topics apparent, as well as a forum to explore these new ideas that was convenient and accessible for innovators and changemakers globally. Enter the Real-Time Interactive Digital Events (RIDE) series, designed to complement SAE’s robust existing calendar of in-person events. Through RIDE, mobility thought leaders are able to come together from anywhere in the world to share ideas, present research, demo new technologies and conduct business without worrying about travel, and with a price tag that can’t be beat: all events are free.
RIDE events in 2021 brought together experts from across multiple mobility industries to discuss new and developing topics and even consider how mobility engineering technology can be applied in other industries. For instance, the series’ premiere, Evolving to MedDev 2021, took the global pandemic into account to feature a one-of-a-kind education program to help automotive and aerospace leaders understand how to enter the medical devices market, solve short-term COVID-19 PPE needs and create long-term medical device opportunities. Further, additional events within traditional mobility focus areas in aerospace, ground vehicle, and urban mobility presented cutting-edge technologies and brought speakers from mobility giants like Boeing, Ford, Hyundai, NASA, Tesla, Waymo, and more to discuss new ideas and network with professionals from around the world.
Nearly 5,000 professionals (and even a few hundred pre-professionals) representing both traditional and new mobility organizations attended SAE’s live, digital events in 2021. Micro-mobility attendees? Check. Ride share professionals and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs? Check. Established automotive and aerospace manufacturers? Check. Artificial intelligence experts and software engineers? Check!
“The SAE RIDE Series enables us to quickly, conveniently, and most importantly, effectively, convene mobility professionals from around the globe to deliver them critical and cutting-edge information that will immediately help their organizations and careers. In only a few months, or in some cases a few weeks, we’ve shown that we can put together events that are immediately impactful.
“For instance, President Biden signed the new U.S. infrastructure bill on November 15, 2021 and just two weeks later our inaugural Urban Ground Mobility Digital Summit featured numerous sessions from government agencies and private businesses that discussed how that legislation will positively impact the micro-mobility and urban mobility industries. That was a perfect example of how the SAE RIDE Series allows our digital events to be as fresh and topical as needed since there’s seemingly a new industry development every day,” says Matt Wasowski, the producer of the series, proudly.
In 2022, we’re kicking it up a notch with even more great events, introducing new opportunities like our Accident Reconstruction Digital Summit to provide education for law enforcement, insurance companies, first responders, and lawyers on using crash data for reconstruction, accounting for human factors of an accident, and more. And for SAE supporters who may be members or others in our network that have only interacted with SAE in a minimal capacity, we’re showing that SAE may be more than you think with our SAE Showcase. SAE staffers are highlighting the many areas we touch and development opportunities available to you with the help of SAE members and customers with first-hand experience with those programs and products.
There’s so much to SAE, and we can’t wait to share it with you. If you think you know SAE, think again.
