Wireless Sensing Solutions '05 Summary
The Wireless Sensing Solutions Conference 2005 wrapped up yesterday in Chicago. All in all, I think it was a pretty good show. There were roughly 350 attendees, about 17 exhibitors, and 80 or so presenters. From what I heard, the turnout was slightly better in 2004, but there was a lot to see and learn this week none the less.
The presentations were pretty good for the most part. They were originally supposed to consist of simultaneous discussions in one of three separate tracks - Technology Solutions, Systems Integration, and Case Studies. A last minute addition was a Venture Capital track that catered to the non-technical folk at the show. There was a lot to learn in all the tracks, and the only way to get the most of the show was to go with 3 or 4 people and share the knowledge from each track. In my opinion, the tracks weren't really that focused on their original topics and it was the luck of the draw as to which track was the most informative. General consensus was the VC Forum was pretty much a waste of time because they hardly discussed Wireless Sensors at all.
The exhibitors were mostly your well known hardware companies trying to push their products (without having an actual solution). There were one or two companies that actually had solutions to real-world problems. My hope is that next year we will see many more end-user products and solutions that utilize wireless senor technology.
The show concluded with a rather sparse turnout to a Panel Discussion on the future of wireless sensor networks. Although the attendance was light, the discussion was a good one. It was a mix of business and technology experts, with the former arguing that enough innovation has occurred and its time to start finding the business model. The technologists argued that there is still a good deal of innovation that needs to occur before the technology is adopted by industry. Personally, I think they are both right. This technology will continue to evolve, but solutions to real world problems can be developed now using this technology. It will be interesting to see how things have changed by the time next year's Wireless Sensing Solution rolls around.
- Jeff
The presentations were pretty good for the most part. They were originally supposed to consist of simultaneous discussions in one of three separate tracks - Technology Solutions, Systems Integration, and Case Studies. A last minute addition was a Venture Capital track that catered to the non-technical folk at the show. There was a lot to learn in all the tracks, and the only way to get the most of the show was to go with 3 or 4 people and share the knowledge from each track. In my opinion, the tracks weren't really that focused on their original topics and it was the luck of the draw as to which track was the most informative. General consensus was the VC Forum was pretty much a waste of time because they hardly discussed Wireless Sensors at all.
The exhibitors were mostly your well known hardware companies trying to push their products (without having an actual solution). There were one or two companies that actually had solutions to real-world problems. My hope is that next year we will see many more end-user products and solutions that utilize wireless senor technology.
The show concluded with a rather sparse turnout to a Panel Discussion on the future of wireless sensor networks. Although the attendance was light, the discussion was a good one. It was a mix of business and technology experts, with the former arguing that enough innovation has occurred and its time to start finding the business model. The technologists argued that there is still a good deal of innovation that needs to occur before the technology is adopted by industry. Personally, I think they are both right. This technology will continue to evolve, but solutions to real world problems can be developed now using this technology. It will be interesting to see how things have changed by the time next year's Wireless Sensing Solution rolls around.
- Jeff
