There are many IoT events, perhaps too many. Internet of Things events will evolve, for sure and only a few will survive in a coming years. I am confident that the IoT World Congress will be one of them (just remember what has become from the Mobile World Congress when it started in the French Riviera), especially if the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) continues to hold a quarterly or annual meeting in Barcelona. As Lynne Canavan in his post Putting IoT to work said, the excitement and energy was palatable from the 4,000 attendees at this event.
With IoT events you can expect a lot of networking between peers of the industry. Visitors and exhibitors increase their collection of business cards. Partners finally meet face to face and sales teams run around trying to catch the customers. To be honest, few customers nowadays.
When I was on my way back to Madrid, sitting in the plane before we took off, I watched the person in the next seat (a seller of gift items for tourists) and a group of ladies who were to begin a vacation trip. All of them (none was digital native) were non-stop using their smartphones until we heared the notice to switch our phones to fly mode. I asked them if they knew about the Internet of Things (IoT)?. Obviously the answer was, What?
Do you really believe that users care about protocols, standards, platforms, clouds or analytics?. They just want a product or a service that makes their life easier, safer or more enjoyable. That is what they should get from the Internet of Things.
So it would be good that both the members of IIC and other organizations and alliances, as all ourselves are evangelizing and working to build the IoT. We should understand that we are a minority in a world of 7 billion people. Instead of just talking about the differences between IoT, and Industry 4.0 or the Industrial Internet, we must work for the billions of machines which will be connected to the Internet to solve current and future problems of our society.
Transforming Industries, Transforming Societies
There are many articles describing how the Internet of things can transform key industries. For instance in healthcare the IoT is improving patient care and at the same time, digitizing and streamlining the sharing of health data. This has the potential for dramatic gains in efficiency as well as significant cost savings. Goldman Sachs recently estimated that Internet of Things (IoT) technology could save billions of dollars for asthma care alone.
During Internet of Things World Congress, the visitors who attended the conferences and keynote speeches had an excellent opportunty to discover real examples about what will be the future of transportation, manufacturing, logistics, healthcare and energy.
Here some videos to increase your appetite for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT):
- GE The Industrial Internet in the Real World
- Intel Transform Manufacturing with the Internet of Things
- Microsoft Internet of things. Productivity future Vision
- Deloitte The Industrial Internet of Things
- Accenture Outcome-Based Business Models in the Internet of Things (IoT)
- IBM Navigating engineering complexities with the Industrial Internet of Things
- Vodafone and Bosch A strong team in the Internet of Things
- Vodafone Remote Monitoring & Control Service from Vodafone M2M
In the ‘Internet at the centre of everything‘ article by Sandeep Chennakeshu (president, BlackBerry Technology Solutions), the author explains how over the next decade, IoT will become mainstream. It will lead to the emergence of new business models and innovations that fundamentally change the global economy and the quality of our lives.
Key Takeaway
I want to thank Fira Barcelona for allowing me to collaborate in the Internet of Things WOrld Congress. I want to thank Richard Soley and Jeff Fedders for their interviews. I want to thank all companies and IoT friends that collaborated with their post to make this first edition, the start of a very successful IOTSWC.
For me, it was a unique opportunity to talk and be inspired by some of the best IoT keynote speakers. The the words of Jonathan Ballon (Intel) promising that in the future we can detect cancer in 1 day thanks to IoT are still in my mind. There were great discussions during the three days with expert IoT panelists about challenges and opportunities, business models, platforms, social changes, and many other topics of this exciting market. And it was great to find so many visitors stopping me in the hallways and telling me they are inspired by my posts. A Big thanks to all of you for following me and for your Likes, Shares and Comments.
If you are an IoT optimist watch the below video about How the Internet of Things Will Change the World.
The IoT story is not a history of toys. It is the story of the transformation of mankind. As Buzz Lightyear we can say With IoT, To infinity and beyond
Thanks in advance for your Likes and Shares.
