Chicago, IoT World Forum 2014, October 14, 2014 – Today at the Internet of Things World Forum in Chicago, industry leaders announced a series of key initiatives to advance the technology, industry ecosystem, talent and education required to move the industry to wide-scale deployment. The IoTWF event this week will place particular emphasis on showcasing the real-life deployment scenarios that are already delivering value within public and private sectors. The benefits of IoT solutions in terms of creating new business models, driving efficiencies, and enabling better quality of life are increasingly being recognized by forward-looking organizations with more than 250 real-life deployments being showcased at the event.

IoTWF, hosted by Cisco, is an exclusive annual event that brings together the best and brightest thinkers, practitioners, and innovators from business, government, and academia to accelerate the market adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT). Executives from industry leaders such as Intel, Rockwell Automation and Schneider-Electric will address the conference, together with customer viewpoints from major enterprises such as Shell and Rio Tinto. This year's IoTWF builds on the success of the inaugural event in Barcelona and has attracted close to triple the number of customers, and triple the number of sponsors participating.

In order to accelerate the value of these industry deployment examples, the Internet of Things World Forum Steering Committee today introduced a new IoT Reference Model that will serve as a common framework to help the industry accelerate IoT deployments. The IoT Reference Model will drive business value by accelerating replicable deployment models and fostering industry innovation and collaboration by creating an open and common taxonomy.

Additionally, as part of the IoTWF's continuing focus on providing the skills and training necessary to develop and sustain engineers, the IoTWF unveiled an industry first IoT Talent Consortium that will both shape the next generation of IoT leaders and also provide continuing education for today's workforce on the needs of a new IoT-enabled industry.  

Technology and Ecosystem News:

IoTWF announces new seven-level IoT Reference Model as an industry framework

• Developed by the IoTWF Steering Committee as an industry framework that will help explain IoT and provide a common language for efficient collaboration. This seven-level framework aims to help educate CIOs, IT departments, and developers on deployment of IoT projects, and accelerate the adoption of IoT.
• The reference model provides a common terminology, brings clarity to how information flows and is processed, and progresses towards a unified IoT industry.
• It provides practical suggestions for how to address the challenges of scalability, interoperability, agility and legacy compatibility faced by many organizations seeking to deploy IoT systems today.
• A goal of the initiative is to define an "Open System" for IoT where multiple companies can contribute different parts and provide a first step toward IoT product interoperability across vendors.
• Over the last year, the 28 members of the IoTWF's Architecture, Management and Analytics Working Group have collaborated on the model. Participating working group members include key industry organizations such as Intel, GE, Itron, SAP, and Oracle, among others.

Education and Talent                                                        

IoTWF Industry Talent Consortium:

• There is a projected skills gap of 2 million trained engineers that will need specialized training over the coming decade to help realize the value of IoT. 
• Today the IoTWF Steering Committee is introducing an Industry Talent Consortium to address this major skills gap and an IoT reference model to help developers and the community with a standardized roadmap for onboarding new technologies.
• The Consortium addresses one of the key challenges: that recent college and university graduates lack the skills to fill new jobs due to curriculum gaps in new areas like analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) and cyber crime.
• Cisco and other key players are creating an Industry Talent Consortium to address this major skills gap, with the objective of having all of the key players work together to identify skill gaps, find talent with the right background to up-skill or re-skill, create and implement the necessary training and certification programs, and hire that talent for the jobs that will power the Internet of Everything.

            Key founding partners supporting the program include: 

◦       Academia: The New York Academy of Sciences, MIT, Stanford

◦       Human Capital Solution Providers: Careerbuilder

◦       Employers: Rockwell Automation, Davra Networks, GE, Cisco

◦       Change Agents: Cisco, Xerox, Rockwell Automation, Udacity, Pearson, Knod

The Internet of Things is happening here and now.

During the event, Cisco and the IoTWF Steering Committee highlighted in excess of 250 real-life IoT deployments around the world that can serve as models for vertical industries.

• The IoTWF Steering Committee comprises technologists and executives who are committed to accelerating the awareness and adoption of IoT technologies Over the past year, the number of companies shaping the direction of the forum in the IoTWF Steering Committee itself has grown to 104 (up from 64 last year).. 
• At the IoTWF in Chicago the number of industry sponsors has tripled (from 16 in Barcelona to 49 sponsors this year), the number of customers has close to tripled from 400 to over 1,100 this year, and the overall number of industry partners actively participating in the forum is in excess of 80. The overall number of attendees grew from 800 to in excess of 1,500, all of which points to the IoTWF's role as an industry catalyst.

Supporting quotes:

Wim Elfrink, EVP, Industry Solutions and chief globalisation officer, Cisco:

• "The Internet of Everything is a global industry phenomenon, where the intelligent networked connections between people, process, data, and things make networked connections more relevant and valuable than ever before. The IoTWF is an essential forum for visionaries and leaders to discuss current and future opportunities, and ultimately set an agenda and blueprint for the future."

Inbar Lasser-Raab, VP, Enterprise Networking and IoT Marketing, Cisco:

• "The IoTWF's introduction today of the IoT Reference Model is a great step for the industry and shows that the IoT ecosystem is coming together and moving forward. We will continue to work with IoTWF Steering Committee members as well as other forums like IIC and OIC to carry the model forward as a useful tool for the industry."

Brenna Berman, CIO, City of Chicago:

• "There is no doubt that Chicago is distinguishing itself as a leader in "Smart Cities," which is one of the important reasons the city was chosen as the host location of this year's Internet of Things World Forum. The Forum will be held October 14-16 and will allow the private sector and public sector to learn from each other. Looking ahead, the vision is to leverage the learnings from these initial projects from other "smart" cities around the world to help us all implement larger scale initiatives."

About the Internet of Things World Forum

The Internet of Things is an exclusive event created to unite global leaders for a collaborative industry discussion that will accelerate the impact of the Internet of Things on the global economy, society and the environment. In 2014, this exclusive, invitation-only event will once again bring together business and global thought leaders from across industries, technologies, and geographies that are passionate about igniting innovation and accelerating the advancement of the Internet of Things for their organizations and society as a whole. 

Diamond and Platinum sponsors supporting the forum in Chicago this year include: Intel, Rockwell Automation, Schneider-Electric, AGT International, airwatch by VMware, Freescale Semiconductor, IBM and Zebra Technologies. For more information on all participating sponsors, please visit: https://www.iotwf.com/sponsors.

The inaugural Internet of Things World Forum that took place October 29-31, 2013, in Barcelona, brought together the best and brightest thinkers, doers, and innovators from business, government, and academia. At this year's 2014 IoTWF in Chicago, the number of sponsors has tripled to 49, and the number of end-user customers is close to triple that of the inaugural event (1,100 in 2014).  Overall 1,500 attendees are expected to join the forum, making it the largest Internet of Things conference in the industry.

Supporting Resources

• More information on the Internet of Things World Forum: www.iotwf.com, LinkedIn, #IoTWF
• Press Release: Cisco Doubles Down to Accelerate IoT with New Application Deployment Options at th Edge and Expanded Fog Computing Platform 
• Blog: Hari Harikrishnan explains how Analytics Enable a Connected World
• Blog: Kip Compton outlines the role of fog computing and Cisco IOx for new IoT business models.
• Blog: Inbar Lasser-Raab’s overview of IoTWF this week
• Blog: Jeanne Beliveau-Dunne explains the ethos of the new IoTWF Talent Consortium.
• Cisco’s view of the Internet of Everything, Internet of Things

Tags/keywords: Internet of Things, IoT, IoE, Internet of Everything, Chicago, Internet of Things World Forum

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