IoT Tech Expo Europe took place at RAI Amsterdam over a two-day period, from 1-2 October, and served as the meeting point for IoT professionals to come together to discuss technologies, challenges and the state of the IoT industry, more generally. The overall feeling of the event was optimism, excitement and a combined passion in what IoT can achieve.
The talks and panels hosted at the event were a reflection of the topics concerning the industry, including connectivity, as it remains all important; upcoming standards like the SGP.32 being regarded with interest; democratising IoT through low-code platforms to enable people with non-technical backgrounds to code, and more. In an example of how IoT is being applied to different sectors and the impact of this, industry experts discussed the application of IoT to telecommunications, with the conclusion being that it presents an opportunity to capitalise on.
Looking further afield to space, Chris Newlands, CEO of Spaceaye presented a talk on connectivity in space, more specifically how combining IoT connectivity and satellites can create real-time imagery and data analytics. “When I started this journey in 2017, there were 620 Earth Observation satellites … we’re now looking at 1600 commercial satellites and within 16 months, that will be 12,000 … we’ve captured lightning in a jar,” he explained.
“Why does real-time satellite imagery matter?” he posed. “It allows better, more informed decisions to be made, saving time, money, lives and possibly even our planet. Maps are often supported by historic satellite imagery, which can be years old. A real-time image changes reactions [to events] significantly.”
Alan Murphy, Regional Manager at Smart Dublin presented several use cases in his talk about smart, sustainable cities. These use cases included using IoT solutions to tackle ring buoy theft; identifying the availability of accessible parking bays; incentivising people to take public transport; flood defences; and measuring water quality. The variety of use cases demonstrated the potential of using IoT solutions in a city to make it “smart”.
“We’re talking to other cities like Amsterdam, Barcelona, New York, you name it … I think the beauty of the smart city space [is] if you come up with a solution that works in Dublin, chances are the challenges are the same around the world [and can be scaled],” said Murphy.
IoT Insider, who were exhibiting at Stand 16, had the pleasure of meeting some of these professionals and having insightful discussions. We appreciate everyone who came by. The magazine distributed at the show can now be viewed on the website as a digital issue here.
IoT Tech Expo Europe will be returning next year to London, Olympia, from 5-6 February 2025.
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