Internet of Things (IoT) week took place in Euskalduna conference centre (Bilbao, Spain) on June 4-7, 2018. The conference gathered over 900 experts, innovators, industry leaders and stakeholders in the field of IoT and allowed them to discover the latest innovations from the world of digital economy.
The event was an occasion for U4IoT, Create-IoT, SynchroniCity, MONICA, AUTOPILOT, ACTIVAGE and IoF2020 to join forces under the banner of the IoT Large-Scale Pilots Programme and form an IoT village composed of exhibition booths. In addition to the latest developments and the concrete results from their respective fields, the seven projects highlighted the coherence between IoT research sectors and ensured a wider visibility of the programme. Here is just a small part of the myriads of activities that were made available to visitors.
The booths equipped with communication brochures, roll-ups, market papers, info cards, use-case posters, TV-screens and, of course, IoT devices attracted more than 600 people ranging from Start-ups and SMEs to researchers and European and national policy-makers. Experts and IoT enthusiasts were in constant flow willing to learn more about the achievements of the projects, their goals and how to join the different consortiums.
The IoT Week was also an exclusive moment for three of the projects that took the opportunity to announce the launching of their Open Calls. As Martin Brynskov, Coordinator of the SynchroniCity acknowledged: “The IoT Week 2018 was a great venue to promote the open calls to a savvy audience. We are already looking forward to presenting the results at IoT Week 2019 in Aarhus, Denmark”. IoF2020, SynchroniCity and ACTIVAGE 10m€ Open Calls were announced during individual workshops as well as during joined sessions. The calls of the first two projects were launched ahead of and during the IoT Week. The official launch of ACTIVAGE Open Call, on the other hand, will be on July 31, 2018. The calls are underpinned by the ambition to attract stakeholders willing to further contribute to the creation of a common market for IoT solutions. In parallel, the three projects helped with the organization and participated in sessions dedicated to Smart Farming, Smart cities, Smart Living Environments and Active & Healthy Aging IoT.
MONICA exhibition stand raised considerable interest with a demonstration on enhanced staff tracking and communication. IoT tech specialists, cultural and city representatives had the chance to get a hands-on experience of some of the smart wearables used for security and safety purposes at events.
At its stand, AUTOPILOT presented its activities paving the way towards fully automated vehicles. It demonstrated to participants the developments of its applications and the progress made towards the set-up of its pilot sites.
The two Coordination and Support Action (CSA) projects U4IoT and Create-IoT supported the Programme communication, promoted the results achieved by the LSPs and held various sessions and workshops. Amongst others, U4IoT organised a workshop dedicated to methods that would equip the participants with a toolbox to effectively engage with end-users.
As for Create-IoT, besides workshops sessions tackling themes such as IoT Security & Privacy, IoT Architectural Approaches and Standardization, it supported the Programme with the organisation of video interviews. The 22 interviews with relevant stakeholders will promote key projects’ messages and increase their outreach to the external audience.
At the IoT Week, working hand in hand the seven projects lived up to their goal: foster the take up of IoT in industrial sectors in Europe and beyond.
