The first Wi-Fi Global Congress of 2015 is in the books, and it was undoubtedly a successful event on all fronts. When all was said and done, over 600 attendees came to London’s Tower Hotel to learn, share, and embrace all things Wi-Fi.
Day two’s program began at 9:00am sharp with WBA Co-Chair and Director of Global Services at BT, Chris Bruce, discussing the role of the WBA in regards to several initiatives, including the IoT, NGH, and interoperability. Chris also served as the moderator and MC for the rest of the morning/early afternoon sessions, which included:
- Chris Penrose of AT&T presented his company’s vision on the concept of the IoT and what we can expect in the future, including the Connected Home and Car.
- Lord Wei, of the House of Lords, discussed the social impact of the constant evolution and innovations of technology, and their implications on the workforce.
- Jim Lansford (Wi-Fi Alliance) gave a presentation on the future of the Connected Car, and the challenges that the automotive industry faces going forward
- Two panel discussions took place: the first, featuring Lord Wei, Chris Penrose, Paul Crane (BT), Mike Short (Telfonica Europe) and Kelly Davis-Felner (Wi-Fi Alliance) focused on the role of Wi-Fi in the continued evolution of IoT. The second, featuring James Monighan (British Gas), Matt Hatton (Machina Research), Gilli Coston (Wyless), Robert McNamara (SmartGrid GB) and Neil Heslop (RNIB Solutions) discussed Wi-Fi in the M2M value chain.
After lunch, the inaugural WBA Accelerator Sessions got underway. In association with UL and Angels in the City, these sessions provided opportunities for start-ups and scale-ups to give a 10-minute pitch about their companies to the audience, in the hopes of securing further funding from investors. Following the pitches, the audience was given the chance to cast their votes as to which company provided the most investable business proposition. The winner of the start-up sessions was Car Quids, and the winner of the scale-up sessions was Veniam – it must be said, though, that all presenters did an absolutely fantastic job.
Following the Accelerator Sessions, WBA CEO Shrikant Shenwai gave his closing address, and Vijay Simmeta of the City of San Jose expressed his excitement for the next Wi-Fi Global Congress, to be held in San Jose on October 12-15, 2015. The remaining attendees celebrated the successful week with a cocktail reception, hosted by Badoo.
The 2015 Wi-Fi Global Congress was an enormous success from top to bottom, and we’d like to thank everyone who attended. In the coming weeks, we’ll be posting lots of photos and video from the event, so stay tuned!
