Processors keep shrinking and getting smarter. What are the implications of how IoT modules are integrating sensors and processors? What is the implication of new device design? Where does the edge give applications the most benefit?

Every city, town, municipality, gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse has one ubiquitous thing in common: the lighting. More and more, cities have the opportunity to leverage those lighting stations as centers of connectivity, hubs for information and points of reference for Smart City Activations throughout the area. In this panel, we will examine how these can and do work, and what that can mean for businesses and citizens who live and work nearby.

In this session you will learn where the concept of Edge Compute originates from (spoiler alert: it’s not new) and the main motivation behind it. You will also learn about the main features of Edge Compute and how they enable Industrial IoT use-cases. Lastly you’ll get a sneak peek at what Cisco is doing to foster the adoption of Edge Compute in their Industrial IoT portfolio.

The IoT can and should play a major role in a modern Smart Community’s public safety planning, working hand-in-hand with police, fire and other emergency services to provide the best possible results for citizens’ protection. Here, panelists will discus some of the best ways to leverage smart security cameras, AI, and water, heat, noise and other sensors for the prevention and amelioration of emergency situations.

The Intelligent IoT Cloud Cloud computing enables “As a Service” solutions that has given birth to many an IoT service. As more intelligence goes the edge the need is for a better balance to interfacing with the cloud. Microservices are being designed to bridge the gap. What interfaces are needed for success? Do companies feel they have to choose between the edge and cloud?

Digital Twin technologies have been proving their usefulness and effectiveness in the IIoT for years, but in a system as complex as a Smart City or municipality, there could be so much value and function to be found in a Digital Twin strategy. This panel will explore how such a Smart City Digital Twin might function, and how it could be used to improve citizen experience, economic growth, and municipal operations.

This panel discussion will kick off our show by looking to the future. We will discuss the possibility of self-aware IoT and what Intelligence really means with respect to IoT and how it can leverage data, analytics and machine learning.

Is the innovator’s dilemma playing out in the IoT industry? We have many companies that have been in the business of IoT before IoT was called IoT. We also have new entrants that are benefitting from VC’s unicorn investments. Hear about the competitive strategies in a market that is so dynamic.

IT and OT need to find common ground as the use of analytics, digital twins, and machine learning enable process innovation. What are we learning about IoT’s role in innovation? How does the growing intelligence transform operations and implementations across the industry?

Embracing digital innovation requires a major mind shift – with a customer-centric approach at the forefront. But the reality is, in today’s fast-paced digital economy, no single company can tackle business’ most pressing challenges alone. This is why experts and innovators - from startups to enterprises to data scientists - must work together to drive fast, scalable, secure and valuable digital innovation and innovation. This session will outline Schneider Electric’s open, collaborative Exchange platform, which connects technical resources and tools, communities of experts, and a digital marketplace to create, collaborate, and scale business-relevant digital solutions, software, and services.

The world is full of sources of data and processes to monitor. Luckily, the sensor market is rich with solutions. These solutions can be difficult to parse and choose, however, and can require custom development. In this session, the panelists will look at the devices in the field and which factors are critical to consider in the selection process.

OT has two simple rules. If it’s running leave it alone, if its not, get it running. Those two rules do not sound like innovation is welcome. Yet IoT is delivering on Industrial 4.0 by increasing the data coming from sensors and enabling the SoftPLCs. How does smart manufacturing take us beyond measuring uptime and bring us to a new level of efficiency and production?

The options for IoT connectivity are so numerous and complex as to confuse anyone. It’s hard to know what is what when looking at Bluetooth, CBRS, cellular, LPWA, Sigfox, Wi-Fi, Wi-Sun, Zigbee and the rest. For the uninitiated, these can seem like equivalent alternatives. In this discussion, we will examine different methods of distribution, management and transmission.

One for the earliest and most diverse IoT markets is asset tracking. Whether you are tracking scooters or construction cranes, the principles are the same. Know where your products are and know where they are going. What are features that every Asset Tracking system needs? What is different ways location can be detected? What innovation is occurring?

Using IoT to provide transparency in the supply chain will benefit cargo owners and shippers around the world, right now. This session will answer the questions: How is the IoT technology improving the way that cargo is monitored and protected worldwide? What is the importance of having IoT capabilities to communicate from inside maritime and intermodal containers?

Most of the IoT is deployed remotely, either out in the field or in difficult to reach areas, and often have a life cycle of 5 years or more. Devices therefore often need to be activated once they are in place, and remotely maintained. In addition, these Things need to be kept up to date with security patches and software improvements. This session will be about what happens during and after initially deploying IoT.

Lots of changes are taking place in the way buildings are connected and managed. LED lighting, HVAC systems, personal emergency response systems, and surveillance systems are part of the revolution. In addition, there are changes in connectivity that should be noted. Bluetooth 5, Wi-Fi 6 and Private LTE are all bringing better security and bandwidth. Where should a Facilities Manager Start? What improves operations? Do all these opportunities have an RoI? What are the benefits to the employees?

Analysts count more than 700 platforms currently active in the IoT industry, but not all of them are equal. There are platforms for device management, analytics, applications, billing, cloud and operations. Can these platforms can be bundled, or does it make sense to leave some functions separate? In this panel, we will try to reduce the confusion and provide some IoT Platform guidance.

Many cities have been known for their industries, but their history is remembered by their football team names (e.g. Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers). Is now the time for collaboration between the cities and industry? What are the synergies? How can the cities support IIoT? What can they do specifically with infrastructure to spur development?

Nowhere does IoT have more applications and stricter requirements that in the auto industry. With mapping technology enablement being integrated into GPS, driver assistance, entertainment and diagnostics, we have more sensors and computing being packed into a single space. With all the complexity, the industry sees their implementation as a competitive advantage. This panel looks for the best practices that the industry can agree upon to implement, and the innovation that keeps them apart.

All mobile phone users in China must now submit to facial recognition scans. Gartner predicts that 30% of the world population will be under perpetual video monitoring by 2025. Enabling the smart city experience will be technologies like quantum computing, edge computing, IoT, AI, and machine vision. But the currency of the smart city will be trust. Joseph Bradley shares the newest market and technology dynamics for smart cities and describes the experience from the perspective of the citizen. Smart cities will need to balance the democratization of data with the need for diversity and inclusion. Bradley introduces “digital humanism” as a way for cities to balance the value of technology and the ethical dilemmas it can introduce. How do we manage Inclusion, responsibility, diversity and accountability with chatbots, machines, robots and AI? Technology should augment the human spirit by connecting people in more relevant, valuable ways. As a leader of emerging technologies, Bradley has a well-informed perspective on how technology is shaping the future, but his view as an applied futurist informs what important steps we can take today to prepare for it.

I tried to build a 'magic' IoT experience and discovered some very hard technical realities. This talk is a reflection on that experience. While we are building interesting IoT products today, they are unfortunately fragile, tedious, and user hostile. We don't stop often enough to reflect on our tools. What are we missing? What do we need? We're so focused on short term product cycles that we don't stop and realize it's harder than it should be. This talk will reflect on my "failed" project and what we as an industry could be focusing on instead.

All these sensors being added to the information is making a big data lake. For a human, is this lake navigable? Can ML turn big data into useful data? How will machine learning give enterprises better insight? How does ML influence edge intelligence in industrial systems?

IoT and edge intelligence are offering deeper insights into system processes. This deep intelligence gathering can offer tremendous customer value, but also can increase system vulnerabilities. These known vulnerabilities have led to a series of laws, mandates, standards and customer demands, all requiring security in IoT devices. This session will discuss some of the most advanced cyber defense technologies that are already in use in IoT systems, including True Random Entropy, Micro-segmentation, AI and Visualization. Larry Karisny, Director of ProjectSafety.org, will show how these advanced technologies can be used.

When the concept of Smart Cities first took off some government funding became available for investing in solutions, that made the City the boss. Then various utilities started enabling solutions and the companies were driving decisions. How can smart cities be a win / win for enterprise and government? What are realistic goals to be made between the partners? Do smart cities have to have visible results for the politicians to have public support?

As 5G continues to grow as a powerful enabler of technologies, the number of vertical-market use cases continues to increase and produce more practical applications, including robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data that will contribute to analytics. These IoT applications will all need different requirements in terms of data capacity, speed, latency, reliability, coverage, location accuracy, and, most importantly, security. In this session, we will address these challenges by examining the network benefits of 5G for the IoT, including deployment considerations, building management issues, and security. Specifically, we will focus on how 5G will change how we think about connectivity for facilities, enterprise, and industrial applications.

A politician is used to seeing poll numbers, but smart city solutions are not always visible to the public. The implementations of Smart Cities show a wide range of opportunity. How can analytics be used in a smart city? Do analytics make for better decisions? What are the metrics a Smart City should be judged by?

In this session, Christian Schulze of Advantech’s IIoT Group will sharing the company’s unique recipes for Brownfield IIoT and address several key challenges in the Brownfield IIoT space. At the same time, he will give attendees a taste of actual business value of the space while looking at Edge Computing Platforms For Industrial IoT and talking about the state of manufacturing.

This spotlight session will explore the unique concerns in securing a Hyper-connected Smart City.

For many companies industrial espionage is a real concern, for others the employees may bring in a virus accidentally. Regardless of the root cause, industrial manufacturers need to be prepared. While traditional networks were considered closed systems, today’s connected industrial capabilities must contend with brute force attacks. Hackers can use ML to support their attacks, so it’s clear that companies need to fight fire with fire. What security best practices will take us getting beyond identity and auditing?

Most cities have centralized systems; the board of Ed, the Municipal services, the mayor’s office. The edge, on the other hand, is where the smart cities “things” are being deployed; street lighting, parking systems, schools. What are the implications for city IT departments to support edge solutions? Find out how the can the edge be integrated into existing systems and what new services are enabled by deploying at the edge.

As a human being connected to Internet through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and phone applications, an understanding of my lifestyle can be seen. Likewise, a digital twin can follow the physical reality of assets and products to produce an image of IoT systems. What are the use cases for digital twins? Are there concerns about how digital twins can be used?

A city is a font of useful and actionable data. To be a Smart City, municipalities must learn to capture and capitalize on that data. In this session, our panel will discuss the power and uses of Data and Analytics to make cities smarter.

As the edge becomes more intelligent, the communication strategy becomes one of enabling peers to share and react intelligently. These networks require additional design for security and analytics. What are the security risks? What are the advantages of near real-time collective analytics?

Security is the topic that everyone complains about, but no one listens to the solutions. This session is looking to change that by looking at the requirements. How can advances in machine learning change the capabilities of detection, command and control.

Being Smart is about more than access to and collection of Data. To truly reach Smart City status, municipalities must leverage analytics to make its volumes of data actionable and lead to improved operations and a happier, more invested citizenry.