Greetings from IoT Solutions World Congress & Cyber Security Congress in Barcelona! Our Dissemination, Standardization and Exploitation leader Tuuli Lindroos (F-Secure) visited Barcelona and here comes her thought directly after she landed back home in Helsinki.
What kind of events are the IoT Solutions World Congress & Cybersecurity Congress?
The IoT Solutions World Congress and Cybersecurity Congress are one of the leading congresses within the field of IoT and cybersecurity globally and organized annually. This time they were held jointly in sunny Barcelona in Gran Via Venue hall, with more than 10 000 visitors and exhibitors. Both events included key note speeches and panel discussions about the current trends in IoT and cybersecurity by the experts from industry and academia. In parallel, the congress showcased an extensive variety of exhibitors and businesses at the exhibition area, presenting top research and technological solutions within the field. Further details about the events can be found via their website: https://www.iotsworldcongress.com/ and https://www.barcelonacybersecuritycongress.com/.
In what form did SIFIS-Home project participate in Barcelona?
SIFIS-Home project was presenting the research results and demonstrations at the exhibition area, together with 6 other projects funded under the same Horizon 2020 call, namely ASSURED, BIECO, CYRENE, FISHY, IoTAC, and SANCUS. The projects demonstrated state-of-the-art research results in various technical fields of cybersecurity, more specifically IoT security, and how they contribute to the protection of supply chains and operations of diverse industrial and consumer domains. The focus of our project was specifically on the IoT security of the future smart home.
What kind of visibility SIFIS-Home project received?
SIFIS-Home project attracted a variety of different stakeholders from academia to industry to visit our stand and hear the latest developments withing the project and see the demonstrations live. The project also presented the project presentation twice a day during the three-day event to provide further information on the project progress and research insights. We also provided an interview for the congress media personnel, describing the main activities, which will be published later.
Did you get new contacts and friends in personally?
The events provided an excellent networking opportunity for our project but also personally. It was an unique opportunity to meet the leading experts within the field of IoT and cybersecurity, in a joint congress with various different stakeholders.
What was the best part of the conference?
After two years since the global pandemic, this face-to-face event confirmed the value of physical connections and meetups in research and development. The combination of expanding my knowledge in the current trends within the field with insightful discussions in our stand with interested parties from both research and business formed the best part of the conference. I’m also a big fan of the beautiful city of Barcelona, so the site with full week of sun provided a nice finishing touch for the successful dissemination and exploitation event.
What would you do in other way? What kind of challenges did you face?
Despite the fact that we managed to attract different stakeholders and interested parties to our exhibition booth, we realized that at such a big conference with number of competing presentations and other exhibitors poses a challenge as the advertisement and attraction of people to visit our booth was slightly more challenging than we expected. In the future meetings more planning for different strategies of gaining attention could be planned.
What kind of greetings you would like to send to the event organizers and to the other Horizon2020-projects joining the conference?
First of all, I want to thank our sister projects for a smooth and successful collaboration in terms of the coordination and preparations for the joint exhibition at the events. I’m confident that our joined efforts raised the activities to a next level in terms of publicity and overall interest towards our projects and gave a throughout and holistic outlook to the ongoing H2020 research activities within the research cluster. The dissemination and exploitation were a success and big part of the thanks goes to the joint efforts as we all share the same goals within these activities. Secondly, I want to thank the event organizers for a successful joint events as all the practicalities and logistics were well organized and communicated since the beginning. Hopefully we will join similar events also in the near future!
Tuuli Lindroos, WP7 Dissemination, Standardization and Exploitation leader of SIFIS-Home project
F-Secure Corporation
