What it is
The Annual POLIS Conference is the yearly meeting of POLIS, the network of European cities and regions working on transport. Local and regional authorities have worked together inside POLIS since 1989. The conference is held at the end of each year, in a member city or in Brussels. It has grown steadily. The organiser’s list of past editions records 280 participants in Madrid in 2014 and more than 600 in Brussels in 2019. Karlsruhe in 2024 passed 1,000, and so did Utrecht in 2025.
How the programme works
The 2026 edition is on 2 and 3 December at THE EGG, a former warehouse turned conference centre near Brussels-South station. The draft programme has 40 parallel sessions and two high-level plenaries, one on housing and one on what AI means for transport. New this year are eight hosted sessions, run by organisations and EU-funded projects on the afternoon of 3 December.
The opening plenary deals with the risks and governance of AI in transport. Its panel brings together London’s walking and cycling commissioner, Hamburg’s head of transport development, Google and the industry body ERTICO. It ends with a fireside chat that revisits the Rotterdam plenary on automated vehicles held ten years earlier.
Who goes and how to take part
POLIS says the programme brings together policy-makers, industry leaders, city and regional representatives, researchers and mobility experts. The calls for speakers and sessions have closed. The way to take part now is to register, which is open to anyone. The conference page gives a standard fee of EUR 495 excluding VAT; the early-bird rate is no longer listed. Members, media and undergraduate students have their own rates. Session moderators attend free. The walking dinner and after-party on 2 December need a separate ticket.
Why it matters for cities
This is where transport departments report to each other on what they have actually built. That makes it a useful check on the mobility claims in a city’s own plans, and a direct way to meet the officials behind a scheme before copying it.
Going, or following from home
Register by 15 November 2026. Cancellations after 2 November are not refunded. Payment is by invoice, online or by bank transfer, and your place is confirmed once POLIS receives it. POLIS publishes news on the conference page ahead of the event and has posted video highlights from 2025.