Awards 2020
Host surprised by lifetime achievement award at ITS (UK) Awards
The President of the UK’s Intelligent Transport Society, ITS (UK), had a surprise during the 2020 awards ceremony, when he was named winner of the organisation’s highest accolade, the Rees Hills Award for outstanding personal contribution by a UK ITS professional.
Steve Norris was hosting the online event sponsored by Cubic, SRL, Jenoptik and Videalert, and expecting it to be coming to a close when former Chair Eric Sampson announced he had been given the accolade this year. Sampson, himself a former Rees Hills winner, explained how the former Transport Minister had pushed for greater use of technology when he was in government in the 1990s and how he is an active advocate for urban mobility, MaaS and Next City technology solutions.
“This is truly very, very unexpected,” said Norris. “I’m very touched. ITS goes on being as important now as it ever, ever was. I am very grateful indeed for the award. Normally you get this award when someone says “you can retire now” – my predecessor as President died in office and I have every intention of doing the same!”