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Passion for rail on all channels
They are international YouTubers, TikTokers, podcasters and game developers, they come from Franconia, France, Portugal, Sri Lanka and Dubai, they are united by a passion for trains and rail travel - and they were all there at the world's very first Railway Influencer Festival at InnoTrans on the last day of the trade show, 27 September 2024.
It smelled of fresh popcorn, pink candy floss and Berlin currywurst. Photo walls with InnoTrans lettering on fresh greenery and fantastic railroad tracks invited visitors to take a selfie and a DJ provided the background music - it was the ideal backdrop for the 30 influencers from all over the world who had come to Berlin to make contacts and celebrate their enthusiasm for the rail industry. And it didn't matter whether their focus of interest was technology, train routes, stations or local public transport.
InnoTrans Director Kerstin Schulz came up with the idea for the festival two years ago when she accidentally discovered an influencer on LinkedIn who she liked so much that she gave him a trade show ticket. ‘I thought to myself how great it would be to bring you all together. And because my job gives me the opportunity to make dreams come true, you're all here now,’ she said on the festival stage.
Influencers networked at the Railway Influencer Festival.
Awards for Alstom, ‘Simply Railway’ and ‘Zug2013’
The Railway Influencer Award was also presented there for the first time, in three categories. ‘Simply Railway’ by Frenchman Thibault Constant, who was unfortunately unable to attend the event, was honoured as the best mobility channel. On his YouTube channel, he has been showing his tours with railways worldwide since 2018, for example in South Korea, Istanbul and Moldova. The independent jury recognised his ‘outstanding mobility content’ and his high-quality contributions over the years. The prize for the best brand video went to Alstom. The video ‘Sustainable Mobility for everyone, everywhere’ focusses on employees in all areas of the company as well as diversity and inclusion.
The winner for the best InnoTrans video was completely surprised. Tobias Foltin from Franconia was honoured for his contribution about the top ten highlights of new trains at InnoTrans 2022. As ‘Train 2013’, the vocational school teacher posts his videos about railway topics on YouTube as a hobby. ‘It's an ideal diversion for me and a good way to switch off,’ says Foltin. He has been fascinated by trains and the variety of topics and innovations since his childhood. And he also has an objective: ‘I want to get people excited about travelling by train - as a fast, environmentally friendly means of transport that is open to everyone.’
The winners of the first Railway Influencer Festival at InnoTrans are YouTuber Tobias Foltin (left), winner in the ‘Best InnoTrans Video’ category, and Heather Lewis (right), who accepted the prize in the ‘Best Brand Video’ category on behalf of Alstom from InnoTrans Director Kerstin Schulz (centre). YouTuber Thibault Constant, winner in the ‘Best Mobility Channel’ category, was unable to attend the festival.
‘InnoTrans is my Disneyland’
Enya Aßmann also wants to counter all the nasty prejudices against the railways with a lot of humour. She talks about her journeys on TikTok in particular. ‘I don't have a driving licence and only travel by train. It's the only place where I can really unwind. And I can't confirm all the nasty things about Deutsche Bahn,’ says Aßmann. She wants to fly the flag for all the great railway employees. At InnoTrans, she was particularly impressed by Stadtler's fire-fighting and rescue train: ‘It's like science fiction.’
Poorna Serasinghe Yapa from Sri Lanka is currently studying in Klagenfurt and has set himself the goal of portraying all the railway stations in Germany and Austria on his vlog ‘Train Enthusiast’. He was quite taken with Berlin Central Station, even though he had imagined the capital's railway station to be bigger.
Poorna Serasinghe Yapa (left) chatted to influencers Milan Boucher and Tom Thornton.
The youngest at the Railway Influencer Festival was Adam El Rafey. The 14-year-old came all the way from Dubai with his mum Soha El Halfawi. He has been studying computer science at university there for three years alongside high school. ‘But my real passion is trains,’ says Adam El Rafey. To get other teenagers interested in public transport, he has developed a digital game based on Dubai's public transport network. For the trade show in Berlin, he skipped school and university for a few days and got to talk to many exhibitors in depth. A great experience, says the teenager: ‘InnoTrans is my Disneyland.’
The next generation was also represented: Adam El Rafey (14 years old) travelled from Dubai with his mother.
Making contacts and asking specialist questions
The festival not only provided plenty of opportunities to share experiences and ideas, but also to meet influencers and selected InnoTrans exhibitors who were looking to make contacts with social media railway influencers in order to strengthen their presence on social channels and reach a global audience.
Monika Schäffner, Digital Team Leader at Harting, has already had very good experiences working with a YouTuber who posted very knowledgeable, very specialised videos on railway technology and had a very high reach. ‘We worked with him and it went very well,’ she says. The festival now offers her an opportunity to establish similar contacts.
After networking, they went on a tour of the track area, where railway fans were able to learn about new train technologies and ask technical questions.