The Thredbo 12 Conference on Competition and Ownership issues in Land Passenger Transport was co-hosted in Durban from 11 to 15 September 2011 by the University of Johannesburg’s Department of Transport and Supply Chain Management, in partnership with:
Delegates representing 26 countries participated in plenary sessions and two days of intensive workshop debates. The Major of Ethikweni, James Nxumalo, welcomed all and Deputy Minister of Transport, Jeremy Cronin, opened the conference with senior government officials attending the entire conference. What I have found remarkable about the conference was the intense, yet constructive interaction among government officials, private sector product owners and academics.
On behalf of the Faculty, our sincere appreciation for your committed effort in hosting a truly future-fit international conference.
Thredbo 12 Workshop Reports
Workshop 1: Performance measurement and compliance
Workshop 2: Bus Rapid Transit (as part of enhanced service provision)
Workshop 4: Designing contracts/concessions: What has worked and what has not and why?
Workshop 6: The Public Agenda: What is working and what is missing? (including social inclusion)
Dear Delegate,
We thank you for registering for the Thredbo 12 conference in Durban, South Africa.
In order to assist you in your arrangements to visit South Africa we would like to communicate the following information to you.
Upon arrival at Oliver Tambo Airport in Johannesburg
Upon arrival at Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg (most of you will be transferring through this airport on the way to Durban) you will need to collect your luggage after clearing Immigration. Once you have collected your luggage you have to clear Customs where after you need to transfer to Terminal B for domestic flight connections to Durban. The airport is well sign-posted and help desks are easy to find.
Upon arrival at King Shaka International Airport in Durban
Upon arrival at King Shaka International Airport in Durban you have a number of options to get to the hotel which is about 30 minutes from the airport by road. The most convenient option, apart from renting a car or taking a taxi, is to use the transfer service provided by Shaka Tours. Please contact Shaka Tours with the details of your flight and persons requiring transfer: karin@shakatours.com
The cost of the transfer is as follows:
1 Person - R375 per transfer
2-5 Persons - R175 per person per transfer
6 + Persons - R110 per person per transfer
Should you wish to rent a car and make your own way to the hotel the following information should assist you:
GPS Coordinates for the hotel: 29°50'43.58'' S | 31°2'5.96'' E
Directions to the Hotel
From the King Shaka International Airport, drive towards the Outer Ring Road towards Durban (clearly signposted). Drive through the Toll Gate (you will need South African currency at this tollgate – R 4) and join up with the N2 freeway. Follow the N2 freeway until you reach the Umhloti Link/ Jabu Ngcobo Drive turnoff. Turn left at turnoff. Drive towards the Leo Boyd Highway and turn right onto the M4 towards Durban. This will take you past the Sibaya Casino off ramp. Keep travelling past Umhlanga Rocks turn-off, past La Lucia Mall turnoff. Continue past Durban Virginia Airport the Riverside Road turnoff and the Durban Country Club. The M4 becomes the Ruth First Road. At the set of traffic lights, turn left into Sandile Thusi Road (Argyle Road). Turn right at the next set of robots/ traffic lights into Sylvester Ntuli Road (Brickhill Road). At the next set of robots/ traffic lights, turn left into Somtseu Road and continue over the next set of robots/ traffic lights and turn right into Snell Parade. Travel around the traffic circle and Southern Sun Elangeni is on the right hand side before the next traffic circle.
Conference venue
The entire conference takes place in the Elangeni Hotel, inclusive of conference organised dinners. The conference plenaries and workshops take place on the first floor of the hotel.
WiFi
The hotel has WiFi but this needs to be purchased. The hotel has a business centre that can be used for emails, printing etc.
Registering for the conference
The conference organisers have a venue on the first floor of the Elangeni Hotel. We will have three staff members permanently available for the duration of the conference to deal with enquiries, uploading of presentations, copying of late papers, uploading of workshop reports etc. Each of these people will be identifiable by the sash that they will be wearing, with T12 logos prominently displayed.
You need to register to receive your detailed conference programme, lanyards and workshop books. Registration times for the conference are as follows:
Saturday 10 September
16:00 to 18:00
Sunday 11 September
14:00 to 18:00
Monday 12 September
07:00 to 08:30
(Late registrations)
Workshop allocations
The Local Organising Committee will do its best to place you in your first choice workshop. Due to the fact that delegates are still registering we will only be able to finalise this during the last week of registration and you will be notified of your workshop allocation upon registration.
Workshop attendance
It is a conference rule that you stay within the workshop allocated to you. You are not allowed to move between different workshops, unless you are presenting a paper in another workshop. Should this be the case, you will have to return to your original workshop after your presentation and the question and answer session. The idea is that you need to contribute in one workshop and develop the theme of the specific workshop (details on the conference website).
Workshops are planned to have no more than about 30 people – firstly to facilitate discussion, and secondly, because the respective venues are not that large and too many people will result in over-crowding.
It is also important that you attend the entire workshop session – over all three days. By moving in and out of workshops, or attending only one or two days, you will be missing out on detailed discussions and conclusions that may be reached in the workshop.
Paper presentations
Delegates that are presenting papers are required to submit their PowerPoint presentations on a memory stick (flash disk) to the respective workshop chairs, prior to their presentations. In the case of plenary papers and workshop reports, the presenters should arrange uploading with the Conference Organisers (Odette Le Roux) that will be there for the duration of the conference.
Conference Events
On Sunday evening we begin the conference with a cocktail at 18:00 at the Pool Deck of the Hotel. We would like to encourage you to attend this function as it’s always nice to meet old (and new) friends in a social environment. Accompanying persons are welcome to attend. Details about the rest of the conference proceedings can be found in the conference booklet that you will receive upon registration, or by visiting this website for the latest updates.
Free evenings
Tuesday 13 September and Wednesday 14 September are free evenings; there are no formal conference functions on these evenings. We are providing buses to take you to Ushaka Marine World as well as the Gateway Shopping Centre, should you not want to patronise one of the hotel’s restaurants. Both these facilities have a range of restaurants that you can choose from. Detailed information will be made available in the conference booklet that you will receive upon registration.
Free afternoon (Wednesday 14 September)
No formal conference activities are scheduled for Wednesday afternoon 14 September; delegates are free for the afternoon. In addition to the normal tours and scheduled buses to the Gateway Shopping Centre, delegates can also book one of two afternoon tours at the Ushaka Tours desk in the hotel. More information will be made available in the conference booklet that you will receive upon registration.
Dress code
The dress code for the conference is smart casual, no jackets or ties are required.
Weather conditions during September in Durban
The weather during September can be quite variable (hot and humid to rainy and windy) as the season changes from winter to spring. We can expect wind and rain during the week but it should not be very cold as Durban’s temperature is sub-tropic. It is however advisable to bring along a pull-over or something similar for the evenings. An umbrella will also come in handy.
Shopping
A shuttle bus service will be running over the four days of the conference to the Gateway Shopping Centre should you like to do some shopping. This centre is one of the largest shopping centres in South Africa with a wide variety of shops.
General security in the Durban area
The City of Durban goes to extreme lengths to ensure the safety of its citizens and visitors, especially at the tourist attractions and along the beaches. Visible policing is a feature and crime is discouraged in this way.
Delegates are however advised to take normal security precautions when walking outside the hotel or along the beach front. It is not advisable to walk in these areas after sunset. Where possible, walk in groups and do not display expensive jewellery. When bathing in the sea, do not leave valuables on the beach as this may attract unwanted attention. We would also not advise you to visit the downtown area of Durban (unless as part of the organised city tour). For this purpose we have arranged shuttle buses throughout the day and evenings to the Gateway Shopping Centre where you can shop in some of the best shops SA has to offer.
Malaria Information
We have had a number of enquiries about the potential presence of malaria in Durban. Durban is not located in a malaria area and anti-malaria precautions need not be taken. The game reserve chosen for the one day and post conference safari is also not in a high risk malaria area but delegates that intend to visit the game reserve should take basic precautions by covering arms, legs and ankles by the earl evenings and by using a suitable anti-mosquito spray/lotion to limit mosquito bites.
Should you however want to take malaria precautions, advice can be obtained from any chemist or medical doctor in Durban or from your local travel clinic/doctor before you depart for South Africa.
We wish you a safe trip to South Africa and look forward in seeing you in Durban shortly.
Kind Regards
Jackie Walters
Director: Thredbo 12 Local Organising Committee
Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS (Africa))
University of Johannesburg
16 March 2011
Planning for the 12th conference in the Thredbo series of conferences has advanced well. Over the last two months or so we have received 128 abstracts from 26 countries, an all-time record for the series. We would like to thank the authors for this wonderful response and interest in the conference. The figure below depicts the number of abstracts received by country.
By now all authors have been notified of the acceptance of their abstracts. If you have not had any correspondence in this regard please email info@thredbo-conference-series.org. We are also communicating with the workshop chairs and rapporteurs, who will play a key role in making T12 a success.
Registrations for the conference are now open and booking forms for accommodation and tours / excursions are also now available. With a specialist conference of this nature we can only accept a limited number of enrolments as too many delegates would defeat the objective of conducting meaningful workshops. Based on the number of abstracts, we are planning 7 concurrent workshops, one for each of the conference themes. One of the themes “Governance, contracting, ownership and competition issues in public transport: Lessons that can be learnt from developed and developing economies” will be split into two workshops to accommodate the number of abstracts that we have received. Based on an maximum number of 30 delegates per workshop we will in all likelihood limit the overall enrolment for the conference to about 210 delegates.
In addition to the conference proceedings, we have planned welcome cocktails on the pool deck of the Elangeni Hotel for the evening of the 11th of September and two conference dinners, both of which will take place at the Elangeni. We have also arranged a number of optional day trips for partners, please see the registration page for details.
Details of the conference program will be updated to this website as they are confirmed.
Please visit the conference website for regular updates.
Kind Regards,
Jackie Walters
Director: Thredbo 12 Local Organising Committee
Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS (Africa))
University of Johannesburg
10 September 2010
Dear Delegate,
On behalf of the South African Local Organising Committee of the Thredbo 12 Conference it gives me great pleasure to invite you to participate in this conference, to be held from the 11th to the 15th of September 2011 in Durban.
This is the second time that this prestigious conference will be held in South Africa; previously it was held in Cape Town in 1999. This time we have selected Durban as the host city for the conference. This city has excellent road and air links between Johannesburg, as the main international air transport hub in the country, and the brand new King Shaka Airport to the north of Durban, with the flight between the two lasting only 50 minutes.
Being on the east coast of the country, on the Indian Ocean, the weather in Durban is sub-tropical and very comfortable in September. The city and the Province of KwaZulu Natal have a number of good golf courses, many famous game parks, the majestic Drakensberg mountain range and much more. The temperature of the sea is about 21 Celcius - fantastic to cool off after a long day!
The request for abstracts has already been distributed and is due by the end of December 2010; these will be screened in January 2011 and shortly thereafter we will notify you of the outcome of this process. The themes for the workshops were decided upon, firstly, to support the overall theme of the conference series (competition and ownership issues in land passenger transport) and secondly, based on feedback received from the Thredbo 11 conference which was held in Delft in The Netherlands in 2009. We have also expanded the range of topics under each workshop theme to provide a broad base from which you can identify potential topics and papers for the conference.
We are planning a fantastic conference with many excursions for partners and a number of evening functions to complement the conference proceedings. We look forward in seeing you in Durban in 2011 and to your participation in our plenary sessions and workshops - a unique feature of this conference series.
Please visit the conference website for updates as we progress with organising the conference.
Kind Regards,
Jackie Walters
Director: Thredbo 12 Local Organising Committee
Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS (Africa))
University of Johannesburg
September 2013
St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Conference Director: Professor John Preston
To join the Thredbo Series mailing list, email us at: info@thredbo-conference-series.org