The slow decline and transformation of IoT events
We’ve spent too much time waiting for the “year of IoT.”
After years of waiting for my wishes to finally come true, I’ve given up — there will be no IoT year. Other technologies are usurping the dubious privilege of leading the technology bubble. Blockchain and artificial intelligence are now much cooler.
As has happened on many previous occasions, IoT will be replaced by other acronyms that will make you forget bad experiences and failed expectations. And with new acronyms, the illusions of those of us who continue to trust the beneficial implications that “new IoT” will bring to society will appear again.
Event organizers were the first to notice the decline of IoT
The first to realize this was the organizers of IoT events. A couple of years ago, the weight of the new tech on stage (i.e., blockchain and AI) did not detract from the main actor (IoT). Now, they are the stars and IoT is marginalized and surrounded by other technologies, badly hurt and melancholy.
Quo vadis, IoT events?
Will IoT events disappear? Sure. It doesn’t matter if is in two or three years, but IoT-only events will not make sense. In the last three months, I attended several IoT events in London, Amsterdam, Madrid and Bilbao. I am seeing a slow decline and transformation of IoT events, and most of them do not satisfy my expectations. I am tired of seeing the same case studies parroted over and over again.
Like my friend Rick Bullotta, I’d be interested to see some more innovative stories, some failure stories and lessons learned, some hard facts about how long it takes to build, what it cost to build, return on investment…
Of course, we will continue to see IoT companies, products and services at the big events like CES in Las Vegas, MWC in Barcelona, or CeBIT and Hannover Messe in Germany, or at industry-specific events or company-specific events like PTC LiveWorx or Bosch ConnectedWorld . But the same way that we do not see internet events today, we will not see internet of things events beyond 2020. It will be a good sign because the hype will have disappeared and the reality and the market will have been imposed.
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