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When we went to IoT World 2016

19th May 2016

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This time last week we attended the IoT World event in Santa Clara, Silicon Valley. Internet of Things World 2016 is the world’s largest and most comprehensive IoT event and although we are yet to establish a presence with our platform in America, the wealth of knowledge we can take from it is invaluable. We shared the experience with almost 16,000 Internet of Things enthusiasts as we we set up as a partner with Spirent on their exciting exhibition stand.

One of the highlights of the event for us was the “Internet of Things for Cities Hackathon”, which took place in the background of the event. 200 developers, data scientists, makers and urban expert were selected from more than 600 applicants and given the opportunity to solve the problems facing cities today and in the future, driven not only by the glory and exposure, but some excellent prizes too.

The grand prizewinners were Ciklum, based in Kiev, Ukraine. They created a solution for a defibrillator that calls 911 as soon as you use it and tracks the closest ambulance to your location, using Cisco Spark. Amazon’s Alexa voice command system talks the defibrillator’s user through the steps to save the sick person’s life and keeps them informed of the ambulance’s progress, and it uses Current by GE’s Public Safety API and Traffic Planning API to direct first responders to right location, avoiding traffic.

We tweet a lot about Smart Cities on our Twitter page. We consistently see articles regarding Smart Cities globally and pay close attention to the developments within the UK. It was exciting to see these kinds of solutions unravelled at an event that welcomes guests from around the world and shares ideas and solutions. If these are the types of solutions that are being uncovered through innovative Internet of Things technology, we can’t wait to see what the future holds.