The SIGEX 2023 conference and exhibition, organised by the Railway Industry Association (RIA) and held in Leicester on Tuesday 21 November, has been welcomed by the railway’s signal engineering specialists.
SIGEX is the natural successor to SIG-X, a similar event organised by Network Rail’s Signalling Innovation Group (SIG) and last held in Bristol in February 2020. SIG has since been disbanded, but RIA, working with former SIG head David Shipman, adapted the successful formula to develop the new event.
Designed to appeal to signal engineers and engineering managers, SIGEX combined keynote speeches and presentations from Network Rail, RSSB, Thales, AtkinsRéalis, the Global Centre of Rail Excellence and the Department for Transport with plenty of time for delegates to visit the numerous exhibitors in the other hall.
Sponsored by Kilborn Consulting, SIGEX 2023 proved popular with the 250 registered delegates. “Really good event – great networking opportunities and interesting and informative presentations and exhibitors,” commented David Walters of Vossloh afterwards.
David Taylor, account director for mainline rail at Thales Ground Transportation Systems called it an “excellent event (with) some really insightful presentations” while Steve Welch, commercial manager at TVS Rail Spares, said he had enjoyed the “really good event”.
RIA technical director David Clarke was pleased with the event and its reception by the industry: “We had a great exhibition area populated with key players in the CCS market, and heard from some great speakers during the conference, including Martin Jones, chief engineer at Network Rail, Luisa Moisio, director of research and development at RSSB and Andy Doherty, chief technology officer at the Global Centre of Rail Excellence.
“We also heard from several ‘spotlight’ exhibitors, where organisations in the exhibition space got the opportunity to showcase their products and services to an audience.”
James Brewer, head of rail supply chains at the Department for Business and Trade, was one of the delegates at the event. “My DBT colleague Alex Luck gave a fascinating presentation on the National Digital Twin Programme, including on how it’s engaging with stakeholders such as GCRE, the Department for Transport (DfT) and Network Rail,” he commented afterwards.
Event partner David Shipman of RailETC was pleased with the organisation of SIGEX2023 and its reception by the industry. “When we ran these from within the SIG group in Network Rail, they were a well-received addition to the industry events calendar and this relaunch with RIA is destined to continue that tradition,” he said. “There’s been some excellent feedback on today’s event and, while I know there are things we can do even better, it’s fantastic for RIA to have declared support for this for another year too!”
Planning has obviously already commenced for SIGEX2024.
