The Annual POLIS Conference takes place on 2–3 December 2026 in Brussels. It is the yearly meeting of POLIS, the network through which European cities and regions work together on transport, and it is one of the few large mobility events where most of the people on stage run transport for a local authority rather than sell something to one.

Registration closes on 15 November 2026. If you work in a city transport department and are weighing whether to go, this is what the organisers have published so far.

What POLIS is

POLIS describes itself as a network of cities and regions working together on sustainable mobility and innovation. Local and regional authorities have been cooperating inside it since 1989. Its stated aims are knowledge exchange between authorities, easier access to European research and innovation funding for cities and regions, and a stronger voice for local government in national and international mobility policy. Political representatives of member authorities meet in a POLIS Political Group. The current president is the City of Ljubljana, represented by Deputy Mayor Dejan Crnek.

Venue, dates and format

The conference will be held at THE EGG, Rue Bara 175, 1000 Brussels, a former warehouse now used as a conference centre. According to POLIS’s practical information sheet, it is about a ten-minute walk from Brussels-Midi (Brussel-Zuid), the station served by Eurostar, ICE and regional trains, and about 25 minutes by train from Brussels Airport. The conference dinner on the evening of 2 December is at Le Plaza, Boulevard Adolphe Max, reachable by metro line 6 from Midi.

POLIS says the 2026 programme has 40 parallel sessions and two plenaries. The opening plenary, on 2 December, is titled “Human or Not? Governing AI and Automation for Better Mobility”. POLIS has announced a keynote from Margriet van Schijndel-de Nooij of Eindhoven University of Technology and a panel that includes Will Norman of the Greater London Authority, Anke Koller of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Kristin Hull of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, and speakers from Google and ERTICO. The plenary closes with a look back at the debate on automation held at the 2016 conference in Rotterdam.

The closing plenary on 3 December, “Home Is Where the Car Is? Connecting Housing and Sustainable Mobility”, has a keynote from Rawad Choubassi of Systematica. Its panel includes Elise Moeskops, Amsterdam’s deputy mayor for mobility and public space, Adam Bodor of BKK Budapest and Sorcha Edwards of Housing Europe.

New this year are eight hosted sessions run by organisations and EU-funded projects on the afternoon of 3 December (14:15–16:15). Topics in the draft programme include zero-emission funding, ultrafine particles, updated guidance on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs), child-friendly streets and bus services. Members-only side events sit around the main programme: working group meetings and the POLIS General Assembly on 1 December, and Political Group meetings on 3 and 4 December.

Who presents, and what a transport department gets from it

The draft programme reads largely as a list of city and regional officials reporting on their own projects. A few examples from the first session block alone: BKK Budapest on its walking strategy, Lille Metropole on event signage for short walks, Madrid City Council on parking and mobility hubs, the City of Munich on residential parking rules, the City of Stockholm on using municipal electric cars as energy storage, the City of Stuttgart on vehicle data for road safety, and Helsinki Region Transport on resident engagement in mobility planning. Transport for London moderates the road-safety session.

The host city’s own agencies are on the programme too. Brussels Environment presents a session on running a low-emission zone in difficult political conditions, and Brussels Mobility appears in sessions on urban freight and on how the region built its data-based governance of shared mobility. For readers interested in the place itself, our profile of the City of Brussels gives the wider context.

For a city transport department, the practical value is comparison. A session on parking puts Madrid, Ghent and Munich in one room for ninety minutes; a session on SUMPs puts Helsinki’s regional authority next to a funding specialist. That is a faster way to test a local plan against peers than reading each city’s reports separately. POLIS also says the event brings together more than 1,000 transport professionals from cities, regions, industry and research.

Fees and how to register

Registration is through the form on the POLIS Members’ Area, linked from the official conference page. The 2026 fees, as POLIS lists them (excluding VAT):

  • Early-bird rate: EUR 395, for the first 100 tickets only. POLIS does not say on the page whether those have gone.
  • Standard rate: EUR 495.
  • POLIS members: free for up to three representatives per full member and up to two per associated member.
  • Undergraduate students: EUR 95, with proof of student status.
  • Media: free, with a press card or proof of profession.
  • Chairs and moderators: free.
  • Non-member speakers: EUR 100 per presentation (one speaker); the call for speakers closed on 24 April 2026.

The walking dinner and after-party on 2 December need a separate ticket at EUR 100, free for members within the same quota. After registering you receive an automatic acknowledgement; POLIS then reviews the request and either confirms free attendance or sends an invoice, payable online or by bank transfer. Registrations cancelled after 2 November 2026 are not refunded.

Last year in Utrecht

The 2025 conference took place on 26–27 November in Utrecht, hosted by the City of Utrecht, a former POLIS president, at the Beatrix Building of the Royal Jaarbeurs next to Utrecht Central Station. POLIS lists more than 30 breakout sessions, plenaries on health and on transport poverty, and five site visits on 27 November, including a bike tour of the former motorway turned back into a canal and a walking tour on inner-city freight. POLIS calls it a record edition, with more than 1,000 participants.

Utrecht stays on the bill in Brussels: the City of Utrecht presents with the Utrecht City Region on housing and cycling, and separately on standardising urban freight data.

The full conference calendar is on our events page, and other transport meetings are grouped under mobility.