Kia Ora Readers,
Here’s our regular update on what’s going on in IoT in New Zealand and around the world. If you have interesting news to share, please email us. Make sure you follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Your chance to get involved with the IoT Alliance
We’re pleased to announce that elections for the IoT Alliance Executive Council will be happening next month. Council members are drawn from all across New Zealand’s IoT ecosystem and govern the IoT Alliance’s workstreams and member engagement. All IoT Alliance members can stand for a seat. This is a great opportunity to be involved in shaping the future direction of Aotearoa’s IoT sector. Full details of the nominations and voting process will be sent out by email soon, with the aim of announcing the newly elected Council members by the end of June. If you’d like to find out more about what’s involved in being on the Executive Council, get in touch.
Upcoming IoT Events:
IoT Auckland Techweek Hackathon 25–26 May
John McDermott, who runs the IoT Auckland Meetup, is running a two-day IoT Hackathon (25–26 May) at the University of Auckland Newmarket Innovation Precinct. John is interested to hear from people that have technology they would like to demo during the hackathon and make available for the group to use. Sign up now to join the hackathon.
IoT Auckland Meetup 29 May
The regular IoT Auckland Meetup is on Wednesday 29 May at 6pm at the University of Auckland Newmarket. Use this link to register for a 50 percent IoT Alliance member discount.
IoT Waikato Meetup 25 June
The IoT Waikato Tech Meetup is an event for innovators, thought leaders and organisations interested in developing the Internet of Things (IoT) and digital technology in the Waikato. Speakers will include Ben Reid and Michael Stribling who are part of the IoT Alliance Establishment Council. Register here.
Techweek19
Techweek19 (20–26 May) is nearly here and there are hundreds of events happening all around the country. IoT and Smart Cities Techweek19 events include:
Converging Realities and Demo Day: A one-day mixed reality/VR/AR event which explores what leading tech innovators are doing with the future of tech (Monday 20 May, Wellington).
Standards and Emerging Technology: A panel of experts will discuss the role of standards in the digital economy, covering topics like data privacy, blockchain, AI and IoT (Monday 20 May, Wellington).
How IoT and ML are helping native birds: Learn how The Department of Conservation is using the Internet of Things and Machine Learning to help save the kākāpō and kiwi (Tuesday 21 May, Wellington).
The AI Debates: Victoria University of Wellington presents three debates about the upcoming challenges of artificial intelligence (Tuesday 21, Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 May, Wellington).
What are smart cities and how do we get there: Hear from Tim Packer, one of NZ’s leading Smart City Practitioners, about how data and new technologies can make our cities smarter, safer places for us to live, work and play (Tuesday 21 May, Christchurch).
Technology Trends Speaker Series IOT: Tech Trends is a gathering of industry experts exploring and dissecting a core set of technology trends that are billed to change the world (Wednesday 22 May, Auckland).
Smart Cities Innovation: Find out more about Smart Hamilton, what the future of smart cities could look like, and developments from Australia, NZ and the globe (Wednesday 22 May, Hamilton).
Location Intelligence 2019: Learn from industry front-runners about real-world projects where location and geospatial technology are the heroes, then learn some practical skills in a workshop (Wednesday 22 May, Christchurch).
DIGI_X: Digital Decisions: As a business-first technology conference, DIGI_X will reveal exciting use-cases of innovative tech in powering growth at scale and speed. (Thursday 23 May, Auckland).
Smart and Resilient Cities: Will explore the human behaviour and emerging technology interface; bringing together tech-industry leaders and showcasing a design-led project (Thursday 23 May, Wellington).
Te Wā Heke: Experience how technology is changing the way we live through interactive exhibits on our future city (Friday 24 and Saturday 25 May, Wellington).
IoT Impact 2019 – Sydney
Our sister organisation across the ditch, the IoT Alliance Australia is holding their annual IoT Impact Conference and Expo in Sydney on 10–11 September. This is the region’s largest IoT sector gathering. If you’d be interested in joining a NZ delegation, please contact us.
See the full list of IoT Techweek events here. If you can’t make it to any Techweek19 events, you can still be part of it by watching Techweek TV. Watch smart cities for a smart future and learn how new technologies are aiding conservation efforts in Aotearoa. All episodes will be available online after they have aired.
Congratulations
Congratulations to NZ IoT Alliance founding member Spark who recently announced the completion of the nationwide rollout of its IoT cellular (Cat-M1) network, now covering 98 percent of NZ’s population.
Check out the links below for other interesting recent IoT news.
Nga mihi nui,
The team at the NZ IoT Alliance
EVENTS AND NEWS
The UK has drafted new laws to protect consumers using IoT products, proposing a new labelling scheme to show that a product provides adequate security to protect users. This regime places a responsibility on manufacturers and sellers to look after users and their products after the point of sale.
Some of the input to this scheme originated with the IoT London Meetup and their proposal for an ‘iotmark’ certification. The USA is drafting similar legislation, so we can expect this topic to raise the bar for designers, manufacturers and retailers.
Check out these smart robotic traffic cones being developed in Australia. The remote-controlled cones would remove the need for road workers to manually place or move cones when setting up or taking down road works or emergency zones in live traffic.
Sign up to be a ShadowTech 2019mentor to help inspire the next generation of girls to consider tech careers.
Auckland will welcome Los Angeles and Guangzhou investors, business and civic leaders this month for the Tripartite 2019 event, held during Techweek19. The visit brings together leading thinkers on public innovation to discuss how technology, smart use of publicly available data and how public and private sector collaboration can improve our cities and the lives of the people who live and work in them.
A global IoT Innovation Challengefor undergraduates and graduate students enrolled at an accredited university is open for entries from New Zealand. The finalists are invited to present in New York in September. Entries close 15 May.
Sidewalk Labs is under pressure to explain its smart city dreamafter its plan for Quayside, a 12-acre site on Toronto’s industrial waterfront, is nearly a year overdue.
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