IoT Asia challenges vendors to deliver impactful solutions to bridge the gap in the Internet of Things

The second annual IoT Asia event attracted 2,100 attendees, including 85 speakers from 16 countries as well as 44 sponsors and exhibitors representing 13 countries. Themed “Deriving Value from the Internet of Things”, IoT Asia 2015 was officiated by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for the Environment & Water Resources, and Minister-in-Charge of Smart Nation.

In his opening address, Dr Balakrishnan described the defining technology that influenced businesses, governments and societies in the past few decades, the current one and that to come, which he believes will be connectivity between devices, known as the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Internet of Enterprise. He went on to illustrate how affordable creating one’s own IP address and creating wireless internet these days, showing the audience how he used a simple transformer and programmable microchip to do that for less than $2 himself. He reiterated that the national objective will be to be the world’s first smart nation, the most advanced, networked society in the world, with “a sensory network island-wide”.

Dr Balakrishnan’s views were reiterated by IDC Asia Pacific’s Associate Vice President and Head of Mobiity and IoT, Charles Reed Anderson, who presented the consultancy’s findings on the state of IoT in Asia Pacific. “Far too often, solution providers push their technologies and products on their customers, but what customers actually need are solutions. For this to change and for IoT to reach its full potential, we need to see a fresh wave of collaboration between the solution providers and the various customer segments, including governments, enterprises and consumers, to enable these technologies and turn them into the IoT solutions that will change the way we live and work.”

IoT Asia 2015 comprised a conference and exhibition which were held from 8-9 April 2015 at MAX Atria @ Singapore EXPO. The conference featured four dedicated tracks including technology solutions, industrial manufacturing, consumer solutions and wearable technologies.

Oliver Tian, President of the Singapore Industrial Automation Association (SIAA) and co-organizer of IoT Asia 2015, remarked on the success of the event, “The Internet of Things is changing how we work, process and gather information to strengthen business processes and meet rising demand beyond commercial and retail applications. The success of IoT Asia lies in its ability to attract the best minds in the industry today to moot key issues and discover new ways to derive value from the Internet of Things.”

The two-day conference were highly engaging with keynotes that included Designing for Collaborative Participation & Imagination by Usman Haque, Founding Partner, Umbrellium and Thingful.net’s andBuilding the Physical Web Together by Google UX Strategy Chrome Team’s Scott Jenson as well as panels such as Lifestyle & Consumer Wearable Technologies, Design: Enhancing the Experience of a Connected World, Business: Spurring Adoption, Development & Investment in IoT and Perspectives of Adopting IoT in the Transport and Logistics Sectors.

Aloysius Arlando, Chief Executive Officer of SingEx Exhibitions concurred. “We are delighted that IoT Asia has grown in attendance from the inaugural event last year. In addition to the technology and industrial tracks this year, we launched the first edition of the Wearable Technology track which saw several highly engaging discussions on how smart textiles, wearables and devices will change the way we monitor health, what devices we can look forward to and how maintain our homes.”

IoT Asia also marked Global IoT Day on Thursday, 9 April. The day was conceived by the Internet of Things Council and the Council’s founder, Rob van Kranenburg, who was in Singapore. Now in its fifth year, the day is designed as an open invitation to discuss the Internet of Things and its implications with technology enthusiasts and advocates. Opportunities to do this were incorporated into IoT Asia.

IoT Asia is set to return in 2016 in Singapore with more in-depth insights, panels and discussions on the development of IoT in Asia and beyond. For more information, please visitwww.internetofthingsasia.com.