Last night at Cross Campus in Santa Monica, CA the Internet of Things Learning Lounge program played to a sold out venue. The presentations and panel discussion were a hit with the more than 150 marketing professionals, data scientists, executives and students alike. Not only was this great event educational, but with the Cuban themed decor, Cuban food and Mojitos it was a really good time!
Master of ceremonies, and Strategic Relationship Manager for eSage Group, Rob Lawrence, kicked the night off by introducing the three organizing partners who worked so hard to make this event such a success: eSage Group, USC Institute for Communication Technology Management and American Marketing Association Los Angeles. Next it was our three sponsor speakers which included Kim Schlimme from Datameer who presented a short video which showed the value of Datameer and eSage Group working together to make Home Security and Home Automation company Vivint so successful with their volumes of customer data. Next it was Rob Ryan, Account Executive at Cloudera on stage describing the opportunity represented by the Internet of Things and the benefits of the Cloudera tools that help companies manage the volumes of data being generated by IoT. To set the evening’s stage, Doug Webster, VP of Service Provider Marketing at Cisco presented his take on the Internet of Everything. Doug provided a vast overview of the possibility and promise represented by a world of connected devices. He talked about turning information into actions that create new capabilities, richer experiences, and unprecedented economic opportunity for businesses, individuals, and countries.
Next it was onto the panel discussion moderated by our own eSage Group President, Duane Bedard. The panelists included Nate Williams, CMO and EVP Business Development at Greenwave and an Adviser at The Internet of Things Consortium, Ohad Zeira, Director of Product Management and Growth Platforms for WeMo at Belkin, Richard Vander Meer, VP of Program Management for frog, and Doug Webster VP of Service Provider Marketing at Cisco. The conversation was exceptional. The panel discussed what IoT means for marketers; the opportunity, the challenges and the promise of true one-to-one marketing. They also talked about the concerns with privacy, the concerns around having so much data to deal with, and how to potentially extract insights from so many varied data sets. The discussion was inspiring, educational and thought provoking and so relevant to the marketing space, this was not to be missed.
