THE 1ST GLOBAL CONVENING ON INFORMAL & SHARED MOBILITY
Shared Knowledge.
Shared Movement.
Shared Transformation.
BANGKOK, THAILAND
OCTOBER 26-28, 2026
☀︎ A Global Vision for Informal and Shared Mobility
The 1st Global Convening on Informal and Shared Mobility (GloCon) will explore new ways to recognize, support, and improve informal and shared mobility (ISM) systems; to build a future where cities, towns and rural areas invest in and integrate ISM; where ISM expands access to jobs, economic opportunities, and social services; where municipal, national, and regional governments recognize ISM operators and workers as partners; where philanthropic and public sector initiatives leverage ISM’s innovative, grassroots can-do culture as catalyst for sustainable development, decarbonization, and social justice.
❖ The Services Cities Can't Do Without
Known in their home countries as angkots, jeepneys, matatus, okadas, boda bodas, tuktuks, autorickshaws, etc., the motorized and non-motorized two- and three-wheelers, sedans, minivans and buses that provide ISM services are the main mode of travel for hundreds of millions of people across the Global South. These services are fundamental to the functioning of neighborhoods, communities, and regions and are critical to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 8.3, 11.2 and 13) and decarbonizing transportation.
❊ Centering the People Who Keep Cities Moving
The First Global Convening will center these systems and the people who move them in discussions about mobility, employment, affordability, better access, lower emissions, public health, and fairness in the places where these services really matter. We want to create space for the people who run and depend on these services to be active partners in their future.
Bangkok. Built to Move.
Located steps from Bangkok's beating commercial and cultural heart Siam Square, the Faculty of Education at Chulalongkorn University is more than a campus building. It sits within Thailand's oldest and most prestigious university, founded in 1917 on land granted by royal decree, and today surrounded by the MBK Center, the National Stadium, and some of the city's densest transit corridors. The Phoonsab Noppawong Na Ayutthaya Meeting Room, on the third floor of the Faculty of Education, sits on the southern edge of a campus that straddles Phaya Thai Road in the Pathum Wan district — a 10-minute walk from three BTS Skytrain stations and a stone's throw from where Bangkok's students, commuters, street vendors, motorcycle taxis, and songthaews negotiate the same streets every day.
That daily negotiation is exactly what GloCon is about. There is no better city in the world to host the first global conversation on informal and shared mobility. Bangkok's streets are a living laboratory: a place where formal transit infrastructure and informal movement systems have coexisted, competed, and evolved together for decades.
