My Experience Attending the Connectech Asia Summit 2018, Singapore.

ConnecTechAsia Summit is where technology, ideas, and business converge. It combines three of Asia’s biggest business platforms — CommunicAsia, BroadcastAsia, and the inaugural NXTAsia. It was my first experience to attend such a huge international summit. The summit was held at Marina Bay Sands and Suntec, Singapore during June 26 to 28, 2018.

Being a valued member of IOT council, I was offered complimentary pass for attending ConnecTechAsia summit. After receiving the registration confirmation & completing my visa processes, I headed over to this great new adventure.

This three days summit was great opportunity for me, to network with more than 60 countries’ people & tech giants working in same field. Exploring lots of new technological advancements & having a chance to talk with developer experts from companies like Alibaba, Intel, Qualcomm, Huawei & many more.

After completing the registration process & receiving event badge, we attended opening ceremony of summit which was address by S. Iswaran, Minister for Communications and Information, Government of Singapore.

There were four different session tracks:

• Emerging Track
• Networkcomms Track
• Satcomm Track
• Broadcastmedia Track

Emerging Track had sessions on different emerging technologies like IOT, artificial intelligence, blockchain & more. Networkcomms track had session on future communication technologies like 5G, LTE & advanced network systems. Satcomm track had sessions on satellite communication technology & live demos. Broadcastmedia had sessions on IP Broadcasting, 4K/ UHD Technology and BigData & analytics.

All sessions were conducted in parallel, I could not attend all tracks but I attended sessions as per my technological interest. I attended sessions on 5G technology, blockchain, AI and Augmented Reality. 5G technology session taken by Mikio Iwamura, Executive Research Engineer, Senior Manager of 5G Laboratory and RAN Development, NTT Docomo & Konesh Kochhal, Director,Industry Ecosystem Engagements, Huawei South Pacific. Both speakers explained how 5G will accelerate IoT and connected smart cities in the future and what NTT Docomo and Huawei plan to launch 5G in next three years up to 2020. I attended NB-IOT based Case Studies in Smart Parking, Logistics, and Precision Agriculture session this session taken by Johnson Chang, Executive Vice President, Nietzsche Enterprise. I learned a lot from the sessions I could attend, gathered much information to stumble upon & explore on my own.

On day 2, welcome address by Andy Haire, Founder and Chairman, AJH Communications was delivered. After this, I attended panel discussion session on 10 Key Challenges to Blockchain Adoption topic panel moderated by Malikkhan Kotadia, CEO, Finnovation Labs. Five panelist took part in this panel discussion Alex Medana, Co-founder & CEO, FinFabrik, Dr Tan Jit Seng, Chief Medical Officer, Wellderly Pte Ltd, Frankie Tam, International Tech Lawyer, Osborne Clarke / VP of HK Internet Finance Association Nicole Nguyen, Head of APAC, Infinity Blockchain Ventures Ton Chirathivat, Head of Customer Strategy, Central Group.

Then I attended Making Cents Out Of Bytes session taken by Samira Emmerson, Director of Data Science and Analytics, The Center of Applied Data Science (CADS). After this I attended Paving the Way for Smart Cities: The Smart Sensor Platform Network session taken by Yao Shih Jih, EVP & General Manager, ST Electronics.

During lunch time, we had great opportunity to network with other delegates and I discussed with Singapore, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia & Denmark country delegates.

On day 3 I attended panel discussion: Man vs Machine — Who is the Biased One? panel moderated by CK Vishwakarma, Founder & CEO, All Things Connected five panelist took part in this panel discussion Cat Williams-Treloar, CEO, Humanisation, Indranil Sen, General Manager — Sales & Operational Planning, APRIL Group, Pawan Gandhi, Founder & CEO, KaHa, Prof Howard Michel, CTO, UBTech, Sharala Axryd, CEO, ASEAN Data Analytics Exchange (ADAX), Tiang Lim Foo, Partner, SeedPlus. Also attended Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence at Marketing at Uber session taken by Mario A. Vinasco, Manager, Data Science & Marketing Analytics, Uber Technologies, in which Mario explained how Uber is using machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve customer experience.

A big exhibition organized by all three of the co-organizers. Exhibition had companies from more than 120 countries, all companies showcasing their product and services to event delegates.

Alibaba’s new “Robot Barista” was big attraction for all summit delegates. This robot barista can make 120 cups of coffee in one hour.

BroadcastAsia Exhibition organized at Suntech, Singapore a little far from Marina Bay Sands, summit arrangements included free shuttle bus service for delegates every 10 minutes for the same.

Below is VR based racing car game. I played this game and felt real experience of VR with awesome thrill. It was amazing!

I viewed exhibition and some interesting tech products. I visited Huawei, ST engineering and Singtel exhibition booths and see their interesting tech products. Interesting fact is that, there was an aerospace company Arianespace, the world’s leading satellite launch company exhibition booth, I visited to know about their satellite launch vehicle Ariean5, Soyuz, Vega and get information about their future satellite launch. Their was also Chinese aerospace company ChinaSatCom exhibition booth. Lots of the other showcases & booths of which, one was Chinese tech giant Huawei exhibition stall. They had showcased their new upcoming data center, AI Server & robot that can change data center SSD by itself as needed. Here’s the video link for the same

Summit was very well organized and very successful in terms of global advancements, reach out & exposure to the industry and also knowledge sharing. Volunteers were very helpful & kind to share information about summit. Not only connecting with the tech experts but also the core organizing team was an experience to have!

I am very thankful to The IOT Council for giving me this opportunity to attend Connectech Asia 2018 summit. Also thankful & happy to Simform Solutions for allowing me to represent as one of the delegates from my country, India. It was overall a great experience for me to attend & learn a lot from ConnecTechAsia 2018 summit.