CHENGDU, China—Michelin will stage the 12th Challenge Bibendum, the road mobility conference, in Chengdu Nov. 11-15, officials from the tire maker and Chengdu announced.
The 2014 Challenge Bibendum will operate under the banner “Innovation in Mobility at the Heart of Growth and Urban Well-Being.” Organizers hope to bring together consumers, producers and other decision makers to foster progress in sustainable mobility concepts.
“The goal of Challenge Bibendum is to develop the vision of the sustainable mobility of tomorrow,” said Patrick Oliva, senior vice president for strategic and sustainable development for Michelin and chairman of Challenge Bibendum.
“We are convinced that sustainable mobility can create not only new business models, but also that every individual as well as society as a whole can benefit,” he added.
This will be the third time Challenge Bibendum has taken place in China. Previously Shanghai hosted the event in 2004 and 2007.
Challenge Bibendum premiered in 1998 as a platform to bring together diverse actors in the transport sector—such as consumers, producers, suppliers, public and private transportation enterprises, universities and research bodies, energy concerns and political as well as non-governmental decision makers—to discuss and debate the challenges of sustainable mobility.
The five-day event will take place at Chengdu's International Intangible Culture Heritage Exposition Park, which offers more than 11 million square feet of space. Chengdu itself is home to more than 14 million inhabitants and is considered a center of trade, finance, logistics, research and development in western China, Michelin said. Chengdu also is considered the center of China's vehicle industry.
The last Challenge Bibendum was in 2011 in Berlin.