Tag: IoT

  • Conference Whispers: Manifest 2025

    Conference Whispers: Manifest 2025

    Published to clients: February 19, 2025                                               ID: 2056        

    Published to readers: February 20, 2025              

    Published to Email Whispers: May 28, 2025

    Publicly Published with video edition: May 29, 2025

    Analyst: Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist: Dr. Doreen Galli

    ABSTRACT

    Manifest 2025 allowed over 6,000 attendees to see more than 1,500+ shippers +1200+ startups and investors + 300 Speakers with over 50 countries represented. Key highlights included a case study on supplier globalization, a new AI tool for supply chain communication, and comprehensive logistics solutions. A new international bridge, opening in Fall 2025, promises to streamline trade between the USA and Canada. Innovations in urban deliveries, last-mile solutions, and digital verification were also presented. Advances in data and inventory management were demonstrated, along with AI-driven solutions aimed at optimizing logistics. The event emphasized the industry’s move towards digitization and automation.

    The Conference

    • Manifest 2025 allowed over 6,000 attendees to see more than 1,500+ shippers, 1200+ startups and investors, and 300 Speakers with over 50 countries represented.

    Cautions

    If you were speaking on stage, the terms and conditions of the conference meant that no one, even members of the press, were able to capture even a minute of any session. It is hoped next year the conference will adopt more standard T&C. In the meantime, we did capture some session summaries from speakers.

    Conference Vibe

    After more than 60 videos, endless shorts forthcoming, and research for 4 different research documents including this one, our coverage of Manifest 2025 closes. Manifest 2025 allowed over 6,000 attendees to see more than 1,500+ shippers, 1200+ startups and investors, and 300 Speakers with over 50 countries represented.  The Expo Hall* was full of suppliers across the supply chain and logistics. The event featured a full breakfast as well as a Waffle Station. One could also purchase their breakfast or coffee at the Venetian Bistro. If you were still hungry, it wasn’t long before the extensive lunch was also available. Admittedly, the dedicated pasta station was also a huge hit with the attendees. However, of all the conference food available at the Venetian, it is their desserts that are always the biggest of hit – yes they taste as good as they look! If logistics and supply chain are in your interest area, enjoy and save the entire Manifest playlist so you will be notified when related shorts are posted as well. If you are not a client, it is even more critical you like your favorite videos, so we understand what technology you are most interested in seeing us capture.

    The event opened on Monday with a lot of energy and select sessions. The registration lines moved quickly. Unfortunately, we were not able to record any sessions due to the terms and conditions of the conference. Many sponsors seemed quite upset and are hoping this is fixed for future years. We were able to conduct research for three forthcoming Whisper Reports for our clients. The playlists are unlisted but available and will eventually fill in with the video version of the report so you may wish to bookmark these playlists.

    1. Whisper Report: How can we manage tariff costs in our supply chain?
    2. Whisper Report: What are the biggest challenges of using generative AI in logistics?
    3. Whisper Report: Can generative AI prevent supply chain disruptions?

    Moving Products

    One persistent truth at any conference on supply chain and logistics, there is a knowledge set shared strictly about getting things from point A to point B. While the T&C of the conference meant no one could capture the sessions, we were able to get an exclusive overview of the Super Shipper Case Study by Alibaba straight from the executive at Alibaba.com. Titled, “Shipper Case Study, Globalization of Suppliers” announced several solutions for finding sources. The selections are customizable, extensive, b2b, and are meant to enable optimized scale for even the most sophisticated, and dynamic shipping environments of 2025. A new AI support communication tool, AXCIO, was announced that enables a conversational interface for your supply chain and logistics needs. Alibaba.com marketplace has also received significant update for its fulfilment capabilities particularly for cross border fulfilment. Capabilities include direct access to the logistics marketplace with the ability to get real-time live quotes.

    With explicit and extensive hubs in Reno, Dallas, and Atlanta, ITS shared their end-to-end logistics capabilities and solutions. If you happen to be a freight carriers and your questions is how best to move freight from A to B  – Optimal Dynamics has software designed to help you answer that question if you should use your assets or those of others. Nothing saves time going from point A to point B like a direct route! The Gordie Howe International Bridge announced it is opening Fall of 225. Connecting I-75 in the USA directly to Highway 401 in Canada minus 7 traffic lights!  This new direct route will save time and money through the busiest commercial land border crossing between the USA and Canada.

    Urban deliveries can be difficult and are frequently burdened with the congestion of the population. An exciting solution by Aeroscraft was on exhibit. Aeroscraft is an EVTOL – electric, vertical take-off and landing – like INVO EVTOL we saw at CES. In contrast to INVO, the Aeroscraft is a not a flying saucer for personal transport but rather a Blimp with the smallest model capable of a 9-ton payload – yes 9 tons.

    Furthermore, it launches with a fleet of drones, their chargers, their operators, and massive payload. Once above the urban area, the drone operators get busy with line-of-sight capability delivery packages to the urban area below without adding to traffic! For additional research on drones, see Conference Whispers: Commercial UAV Expo.

    Another challenging space involves delivering small products and the last mile. Hailify is a tech company that focuses on last mile of packages smaller than 2 shoe boxes and under 20 pounds. They focused heavily on the integration for small regional delivery. Likewise, TUSK provides an integrated network of the 9 top tier carriers into a single API, unified pick-up, contracts, everything creating a simple process to leverage multiple logistic solutions. Once you accomplish that last mile, the challenge for many solutions involves the last 10 feet. In theory, the network can be fully automated but how do you get the package from the vehicle to the person expecting the delivery? River.ai demonstrated their fully autonomous solution that can climb any stairs in any weather to take a package from a truck and hand it to a human expecting the delivery or accept a package from the human. That leaves one critical step left – verifying that the recipient and the related supply chain documents are accurate. Fortunately, the expo hall featured Trustd,  a digital verification and identity platform designed for supply chain and logistics.. This solution enables not only verification of humans but document identity as well. Trustd provided an exclusive overview of their talk to TBW Advisors. In their session, “Platform Security in the age of Fraud”, Trustd explained why it is not only critical to verify the carrier, but all of the ‘paperwork’ must be authenticated. Was there supposed to be 3 crates or 6? How many crates did they pick up? Getting that information wrong can be expensive and crime rings have targeted this space. Additional research on Identity and Access Management is available in Conference Whispers: Identiverse 2024.

    Clean Data and Digitization

    During our coverage of Conference Whispers: ConExpo in 2023, we observed the fundamental advantages of construction over manufacturing for digital transformation. Thus, we were very interested to understand the progress being made in supply chain and logistics towards cleaning up the data and digitization. As a first step, one can add intelligence to your existing forklifts with Slamcore. Their solution doesn’t require new forklifts but adds a camera, related sensors, and intelligent platform to suddenly provide forklift visibility to your facility. Barcode scanning and related manual data entry is frequently another troubled data spot – unless you have the right technology. The complex array of barcode layouts can make it extremely difficult to efficiently capture the alphanumeric text. This information represents the inventory and must be digitized accurately. Cloud 9 provided TBW Advisors LLC with an exclusive demonstration how their solution can efficiently handle this complex array of barcodes in the logistics space. Data regarding the size and weight accuracy of inventory is one of the critical pieces of data required in the logistics space. Cubiscan was one of the solutions exhibited that shared their approach involving sensors, cameras, and some intelligent algorithms to provide you what you need.

    Not sure if the address is accurate and want to ensure the recipient didn’t move? Woolpert Digital Innovations is a Google location partner and can help you integrate with anything and everything Google offers in this space. Want to go more granular? Sensos shared their exciting innovations that help one track not only package’s location, but the condition of the package in transport with the convenience of a tiny label that has embedded cellular! As a former AT&T strategist, this capability used to come in something analogous to in size and agility matched only by the original brick cellular phones!

    Inventory is a critical data space in supply chain and logistics. Fortunately 2025 includes autonomous inventory solutions such as the exciting solution from Dane Technologies. Such solutions leverage cameras for each shelf and autonomous technology to navigate the warehouse. Understanding the limits and how they match to your inventory is critical to select the right solution for your warehouse. We were also able to catch the demonstration of Dexory robot in action on the exhibit floor. Of course if you do not want to do inventory but rather pick the inventory for a customer order, then Brightpick is someone to evaluate. Leveraging drones for inventory management vs a moving robot, the Swiss Tech solution by Verity is something to also consider if you are seeking to get efficient clean inventory data.

    If one prefers to just bring someone in to assist in cleaning up the data space, plenty of integrators were also on hand. WMS specializes in business process management for the supply chain space. WMS capabilities include digitizing everything to prepare and leverage the new generation of logistic intelligent solutions. 4flow is another example of someone that was available to enable digital transformation in this sector.

    AI, Robotics, and Automation

    If an organization is fortunate enough to have their end-to-end data clean enough for AI, there are solutions ready to help you become optimal! Want predictive capabilities for freight costs and visibility to your buying power? Greenscreens.ai is a truly predictive solution with an impressive accuracy rate. Vizion provides container intelligence, tracking, and monitoring through its comprehensive consolidated APIs for most freight carriers. The goals are accuracy in arrival time. For those with clean data and seeking to move all the way to agentic AI in logistics, Arnata shared their solution. If you have a factory full of robots and you simply want to know where they all are on a single pane of glass? InOrbit.ai is all about simplifying robot orchestration and giving you that exact unified view. We have exclusive interview with Dexory to understand how their inventory visibility robot works. TBW Advisors LLC was also able to capture an exclusive description regarding the capabilities of Rivr.ai that isn’t stumped by the stairs leading up to your front door! Admittedly, of all the autonomous solutions, the most jaw dropping was the loading of a semi-truck trailer in 5 minutes flat. From the financial reduction of risk to the lessoning of burden on hard-to-find workers, a case study on Slip Robotics in a distribution center would be quite an interesting read.

    Next Year’s Conference  

    The Manifest 2026 conference will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The announced dates are February 9-11, 2026.

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  • Conference Whispers: CES 2025

    Conference Whispers: CES 2025

    Published to readers: January 22, 2025                

    Published to Email Whispers: April 26, 2025

    Publicly Published with video edition: April 27, 2025Analyst: Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photojournalist: Dr. Doreen Galli

    ABSTRACT

    CES 2025 allowed over 141,000 attendees to see more than 4,500+ exhibitors including 1400 start-ups. Attendees and exhibitors agree the phrase that best described the event was “tech that is available.” While CES 2024 brought concepts, CES 2025 brought available products with realized agentic AI, mixed reality, brain computer interface – even in consumer technology, autonomous, solid state, flexible, and with alternative power means across all aspects of life, work, and play.

    The Conference

    • The first Consumer Electronic Show (CES) was held in New York City in 1967 with 17,500 attendees1. It is an industry conference focusing on all aspects of technology. 2025 is the first event where CES is not officially an acronym. The conference features new product announcements in product categories and marketplaces across consumer, enterprise, and industrial computing.
    • CES 2025 was held in Las Vegas, Nevada and had just over 141,000 registered attendees, with 4,500+ exhibiting companies.
    • If 2024 was the year of this is what we are planning, 2025 was the year of its here and available.
    • Attendees at CES 2025 hold titles such as CEO, Founder, Investor, VP, Director, Chief Marketing Officer, VP of Engineering, VP of Product Development, data scientists, lead engineer, and buyer.

    Cautions

    Just because a product has advanced AI and is designed for the home or office, doesn’t mean that your privacy was fully taken into consideration. Adopters must verify data location and policies for any new products before they are brought into the home or office.

    Conference Vibe

    After 36 hours, 76,000 steps, 20 flights of stairs, 1 Vegas loop ride, 136 videos, 140+ fact checks from around the world, our coverage of CES 2025 closes. If attendees had complaints in 2024 CES, it was that when asked, where can I buy it? They were told, “this is just a concept”. In 2025, the attendee complaint of the day was that they saw it all before. YES, as prototypes last year. Today you can buy it, and it has a consumer edition available on Amazon. Even the Flying saucer is available for pre-order with delivery in 2 years; more on that in the mobility section.

    CES 2025 had some 141,000 registered attendees and 4500+ exhibits including 1400 start-ups* that spanned multiple venues. Mandalay Bay always opens the shows with two days of Press events. Mandalay Bay was the site for Showstoppers Launch it hosted by Jethro, Unveiled which is the first preview of CES Exhibits for member of the press only, and CTA Tech Trends, a presentation of CES’s hosting organization on all the data about the sector. They even had breaking news on the estimated impact of the forthcoming tariffs, estimated to lead to $90-143 Billion dollar decline in spending. Any of the host hotels or the airport provided badge pickup capabilities, minimizing lines.  Aria hosted the Hollywood and AI content which echoed our NAB Show coverage. Over at the Las Vegas Convention Center or LVCC, South Hall is home to design predominantly downstairs while South Hall upstairs hosted the sourcing. Central Hall is home to the Big-Name Brands and CES Mainstays such as our LG Tour you’ll read about later. The North exhibit hall – not just the meeting rooms – was open post construction and showcased the exciting enterprise meets innovation exhibits. There is a walkway that connects the North Hall to the West Hall across the street. The Vegas Loop is also available to commute between the various LVCC sections. Buses are available between locations and run frequently but it is advised to stick with one location per day if you want to maximize your time at the actual event versus traveling. Speaking of getting around, the LVCC West Hall is home to mobility and autonomous solutions. CES is the largest automotive show in the world after all.

    Venetian is a huge venue for CES! As an inventor with 8 patents and 2 more pending myself, my CES tradition is to wait with all for Eureka Park to open with all the latest innovations. Eureka Park itself hosts all the country pavilions as the world shows off its latest technology. The upstairs at Venetian exhibition halls host Food Tech, Smart Home Tech, Accessories, lifestyle, and digital health. To truly understand what it is like to experience CES 2025, enjoy our entire Conference Whispers: CES 2025 Playlist on our YouTube Channel. Don’t forget to subscribe and let us know what you like while you are there.

    Most years at CES were extremely visual and easy to see the innovations. There were no robots one year– next year there are robots with very limited functionality. Many of the innovations in 2025 were most appreciated at the detailed level; thus, those that quickly walked by seeking visual stimulation likely missed a lot of what was shown. Fortunately, since media can specify their interest areas, many of the great products found TBW Advisors so to quote the theme of CES 2025, let’s dive in.

    Session Highlights

    CES is known for its amazing sessions. If you suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out), be prepared. At any given moment, at any given location, I have found there is always more than one session to select from that I believe I would genuinely enjoy. A session that at some recent point in my life, I have been in a conversation where that may have been useful to know they thought. CES 2025’s sessions made it difficult to choose location anchor days to minimize transportation time waste as well.

    Diving right in to the Creator Stage outside of LVCC Central Hall, Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am shared his exciting news and his feelings about LG’s XBoom relationship and how it came about. In addition, Will.i.am announced his FYI beyond radio project, an innovative technology space and AI environment for creators that allows you to create a channel for LG’s ecosystem also accessible on the web.

    Agentic AI was the hot topic for the session titled, The Rise of AI Agents. The year 2025 is not just about generative AI but rather a coordination of AI agents working together to solve complex problems for users and businesses – autonomously or with HITL (humanin in the loop). The panel shared that only 15-17% of projects have been successful but equally important, they provided three keys for a successful AI project. First, it should be viewed as a business project. Second, you must have the right data for the project. Finaly, they suggested starting small.

    In the maximum capacity talk on The Race for Generative AI and LLM Supremacy, the panelists discussed the competition amongst the solutions. The challenge of every LLM developer is getting good solid data. Thus, the conclusion of the panel is that the race for LLM supremacy will provide the prize to the entity that holds that best data set. That right, it’s the data set that ultimately determines who wins the race.

    Fortunately for all, there was the session on a topic so hot, we drew a crowd so large they knocked over my camera on Data Collection, Privacy, and Why you Should Care. (Bias disclosure) TBW Advisor’s own Chief of Research had the privilege of moderating and thus was on stage and could not hold the camera. Part of the cybersecurity track, this session reminded all that if you are not paying for the product, you are the product. Globally data privacy laws in practice are frequently leveraged as a tax. The need for resiliency for some nations can challenge the reality of data boundary laws. The panel touched on a very big debate: the data protective minimalists vs agency-assured data maximalists. The panelists also discussed what happens with your information once it has been compromised.

    The Cybersecurity track had a very exciting announcement. All Conference Whispers: CES printed editions over the years have carried a stark warning in the Cautions.

    “Just because a product has advanced AI and is designed for the home or office, doesn’t mean that your privacy was fully taken into consideration. Adopters must verify data location and policies for any new products before they are brought into the home or office. – Conference Whispers: CES 2020

    We cannot contain how excited we were to see the session on the announcement of the US Cyber Security Trust Mark! Coming this year, products can go through official certification. One is no longer left to wonder or forced to annoy your nearest tech relative to do an architecture review before you buy a baby monitor or a device for office use! Soon this mark will be as ubiquitous as the UL certification or EnergyStar certifications. US Cyber Security Trust Mark – get ready to look for it in 2025.

    An additional session in the cybersecurity track was that on finding cybersecurity talent. Given how many engineers have hit the market due to generative AI coding solutions, one critical point the entire panel agreed on was that the required cybersecurity skill set required is evolving, Specifically, cybersecurity now requires a more consultative approach. Perhaps due to the fact the human-in-the-loop are frequently the source of compromise.

    Robotics & Components

    While we once described the robots seen at CES being combination of “the house roaming vacuums, the technology of the smart speakers, and an iPad,” that is no longer true in 2025. We witnessed a solution ripped straight from a ConExpo coverage preview while at Unveiled. The fully autonomous HKCRC Rebar tying robot achieves 99.6% accuracy! This next robot is for you if you are not in construction but rather a service industry. Maybe hospitality or healthcare? Temi by Robocore is a general-purpose fully autonomous service robot ready to come to your service. Another fully autonomous solution from unveiled that could easily be cast in a Disney theme park is Jennie by TomBot. Jennie the robot dog is a service dog for dementia patients providing comfort without risking the safety of the animal. Jennie always drew a crowd just like a real puppy as well!

    Our first example of the powered trend arrived at Showstoppers Launch it and featured a bionic leg by Bionic M. This powered leg assists the amputee with movement though its internal power versus just existing and leaving all the work to the recipient. For some, self-powered movement is not possible. Venetian Expo Hall featured an exoskeleton for those physically unable to walk therefore enabling movement for all by Cosmo Robotics.

    Seeking to build a robot? Showstoppers Launch It featured all the details on the very popular Jizai robot developer kit. At the same event, we captured all the details on Thinker, the pre-touch sensor one can integrate into your own robot design. Need an entire humanoid hand? Mimic in the Swiss Pavilion shared their highly nimble humanoid hand that is the perfect solution to eliminate repetitive movements from actual humans! If you are focusing on vision capabilities of your robot or autonomous vehicle, then Eye2drive which enables human vision on a chip may have caught your attention in Eureka Park. If motors are involved, then rotary position sensors are a must to ensure proper functioning. Magnetic Tech shared their rotary position sensors for all to incorporate into your designs. Mobiltech sensors and digital twins also exhibited in Eureka Park. Mobiltech is a Nvidia partner for lidars and camera sensors providing precise synchronization between multimodal sensors. Interfaces are another area of innovation with Kyocera sensors creating floating displays and precision technology. TBW Advisors LLC had an exclusive Press Interview with the creator of realized Holograms at PXE Imaging discussing their technology. Holograms are now real! Who is ready to be beamed up in the new year?

    Power is a big topic of innovation at large. CES North Hall featured a very popular  flexible paper battery! Their entire booth was constructed of cardboard. InnoPhase IoT gave us an exclusive look at the Talaria 6. The Talaria 6 family of system-on-chips (SOCs) provides an ultra-lower power over Wi-fi solutions. The Taleria platform spans smart home devices such as lights, thermostats, and door locks for voice activated ecosystems such as Alexa, Siri and Google Home. Solar panels are getting a real makeover in 2025. First, they can be quite flexible and even 3d such as the flexible solar panels by Coatema. Second, the electrodes are getting an upgrade! In fact, Coatema featured one of the vendors we met in the Swiss Pavilion, GraphEnergyTech. GraphEnergyTech created new electrodes to replace traditional solar panels’ electrodes. Their solution saves 87% of the cost for solar panels while being 97% greener for the planet. How is that for an exciting technology jump?

    There is a relationship between power in electronics and cooling. CES Innovation award Winner AirJet by Frore systems brings solid state active cooling to reality. Passive cooling creates bulky devices.

    Prior solutions at active cooling meant a large noisy fan. Not anymore! Frore Systems have a variety of AirJet models available to meet your design needs. Enjoy these examples shared with TBW Advisors during our exclusive booth tour that demonstrate the impact of the AirJet. Specifically, common devices had their power measured. They then removed the existing cooling solution and replaced it with the AirJet. The power of the device was measured again and demonstrated the increased power when leveraging their AirJet. Furthermore, AirJet is not just a concept, is available in products today.

    Manufacturing and Industrial Solutions

    In the Manufacturing and Industrial/Commercial solutions space, we will once again discuss energy. This time a unique solution we found in the Swiss Pavilion by Enerdrape. For those unfamiliar, energy is the largest cost to run a data center outside of the servers. All the heat generated by the technology must be displaced for optimal performance. Enerdrape is a geothermal system that collects ground heat and requires no drilling to install. Depending on location, the Enerdrape sheets collect an average 100 to 200 W/sqm harvested continuously. This harvesting corresponds to a heating/cooling output of 350’000 Wh/sqm per year or 950 Wh/sqm per day. We will be keeping an eye on this technology going forward.

    At TBW Advisors, we love data solutions, data technology, and all things sensor data. Fortunately, Showstoppers Launch it and Unveiled had us covered. Caddi presented their manufacturing data platform at Showstoppers. Seeking digital twin as a service for your factory? Enjoy CalTa’s Showstopper presentation. Prefer to focus on process automation? CalTa’s digital twin as a service can also be leveraged for process automation as described at Unveiled.

    Real-time and continuous monitoring were terms we heard multiple times at CES2025. Fortunately, the Swiss Pavilion’s AeroSpec is able to continuously monitor air quality at the edge. This continuous monitoring of air pollution is a significant step forward over spot air quality check. Realtime, continuous, air quality is critical to keep populations aware of the true air quality conditions outdoors as well as indoors. Unfortunately, many commercial buildings (and residential) suffer from radon gas, a known human carcinogen. Continuous indoor air quality monitoring particularly for Radon is available from Radoff. Another continuous real time monitoring solution, this time to measure for target liquid monitoring was shared by AI Cubic K. CES occurred during the Cold, Flu, RSV and Norovirus outbreaks. To continuous disinfecting corporate or industrial spaces, Germpass offers a variety of solutions to automatically keep common touchpoints free from germs.

    For anyone developing in and around the factory or industrial solutions, perhaps involving Siemens equipment, the AWS/Siemens developer kit should be on your radar. We were able to catch all the details in their joint presentation in the middle of Eureka Park. Concerned about the rapid retirement of the industrial workforce and all their related tribal knowledge, Rimon just might be a solution to put on your radar.

    CES SignWe witnessed exciting innovations in safety tech for manufacturing and industrial solutions. The Swiss Pavilion’s Wearin created wearable devices specifically designed for firefighting and other dangerous industrial jobs. The devices gather information about air quality around the worker, encrypts it, and sends to their software solution. This solution leverages an open design that can accommodate different sensors and models to monitor what is critical for a given scenario.

    Safety glasses may not seem exciting if you walk by quickly. However, if one stopped for a conversation, you were in for a surprise. That’s right, mixed reality has been realized for industrial environments. Virnect shared all the details on their mixed reality safety glasses in our exclusive interview. One final safety equipment innovation we would like to share, safety ear Budz for construction. Not only providing location and information on action, Budz can also monitor the employee’s wellbeing and temperature to prevent heat exhaustion or hyperthermia on the job.

    Mobility

    In 2024, CES declared itself the largest automotive show period. CES is not just about Cars, it is about every mode of transportation as seen on Media Days. TBW Advisors was able to capture the entire briefing made by Invo. For those of you not familiar, Invo is an EVTOL or electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle. Invo is not a helicopter as it has no exposed blades. Invo is not a fixed wing drone although it is fully autonomous. Most would describe Invo as something ripped right from the Jetsons as it resembles a flying saucer! And Invo is taking reservations for delivery in 2 years for a mere $350,000.

    Another complete press announcement we were able to capture in the mobility space remarkably familiar to our clients, subscribers, and followers is John Deere. We frequently run into John Deere at ConExpo and were excited to see their update. Overall John Deere announced they are live with automation in 4 major areas: field, orchard, quarry, and grass. It is amazing to see how far they have come with their technology albeit I wondered if they fixed the issue with solar flares1. Their solutions rely in GPS and GPS can have its issues. Fortunately, at least the Orchard solution also leverages lidar technology. The question arose as it is fair to assume that in non-peaceful times, GPS may become a weapon either through spoofing experience in Ukraine or may become unavailable like with solar flares. But food isn’t optional. Of course, per our coverage of the Commercial UAV Expo, the technology exists to solve this problem. Of course, clients will recall ANELLO Photonics optical gyroscope. Anello Photonics allows one to navigate even in GPS denied or spoofed environments in air, on land, or by sea and was in the LVCC North Hall.

    CES 2025 Editor’s Choice Award winning AI dashcam was found upstairs at Venetian in the Swiss Area. This AI Dash cam by Vueroid leverages low power so it can monitor things even when you are away from your car for extended periods of time. Leveraging HDR, even in the lowest light it has clear video and recording of its environment and any license plates it comes across. Visibility in the dark is a challenge for recording and safety. Unveiled brought us RheoLight Paint designed to maximize reflection ensuring visibility. Applications span Motorcycles, Helmets, Work Trucks to any mobility device you want to ensure the best chances of it being seen in the dark. Another fleet solution that leverages existing tire sensors on vehicles to provide new insights. Sensing Core turns any tire into an intelligent tire. Their solution will be unbelievably valuable for fleet owners desiring preventative maintenance.

    Bicyclists desiring extra safety, visibility, and documentation of their rides should evaluate Inen’s soluton. Prefer roller blades or make that power roller blades and your comfortable going 80 miles per hour. Enjoy the Atmos Gear overview and DEMO!

    Municipalities

    CES 2025 had exciting technology for municipalities. That’s right no one was left behind in the innovation. Continuous and real time once again describe a solution this time for water quality monitoring. Instead of spot checking, this innovative solution simply monitors the health of Mollusks in the water by MolluScan Eye. Yes – this solution leverages existing Mollusks like clams, oysters, mussels, and squids found in your fresh or sea water. Since these creators live in the water and are so sensitive to changes, by monitoring their health the water quality is continuously and real-time monitored. The Mollusks are now the canary in the mine for water quality.

    If you are a city administrator and want to make your city smart, Ask Jules can guide you through 500 smart city capabilities. For those in very hot climates like those of us in Vegas, SoCold enables cooling without power. This special coating provides passive active cooling that doesn’t consume energy. Instead, SoCold uses the sun and sky to create sub ambient temperatures below the coating. Another desert issue is the conservation of water. Leaks are a waste of water and must be found. Water leaks also cause mold and other health conditions. Netsensi developed by Mathclick enables one to detect and find interior water leaks in residential or commercial buildings.

    In the Swiss Pavilion, acknowledging bees are the critical component in the World’s food supply but are subject to mites. Smart Beehive designed by a 7th generation Beekeeper has solved that with their smart hive LifeHive. Another Swiss highlight for those desiring a classroom for their children but lack continuous internet or power. BeeKee enables a digital classroom anywhere in the world regardless of local infrastructure.

    For Work

    CES 2025 featured technology to enhance every aspect of your life. Adding sunlight to a workday for desk workers is critical is said to improve one’s health and mood. Fortunately, SunLed Life has invented a small sunlight creating device you can just flip onto the top of your laptop. For those in IT or others that leverage a keyboard all day, and prefer a split keyboard, Naya BB also provides hinges and adjustable modules for the ultimate in user experience. However, if you have a shoulder injury, you will want to evaluate Auto Keybo. AutoKeybo is specifically designed for those with shoulder injuries and removes the need to move the arm left to right to access mouse and other functionalities.

    Does your job require travel and presentations on the road? The Splay Collapsable Display is an incredibly convenient solution for travel featuring a display that collapses like an umbrella. Available today with a 25-inch screen with a battery that last 2-4 hours, the 35-inch display is coming midyear and will launch through Kickstarter. Another exciting innovation the traveling engineer can leverage is the new and first smart drive by iodyne leveraging FroreSystems AirJet. This portable secure drive provides enterprise class storage you can carry. Featuring RAID 6, AES 256 encryption, pass keys, pass key enclave, data separate, NFC chip it is the ultimate secure travel storage!

    Having a challenging time answering all the cybersecurity questions in your organization? Certy is a speciality helpdesk chatbot designed to answer cybersecurity questions. Seeking to optimize your IT processes? AWIT created an intelligent IT process automation solution designed to help you meet and exceed your KPIs. We will be on the lookout for any case studies that result from its deployment to fully appreciate its impact.

    Tasked with creating an augmented reality solution for your products but don’t have weeks?  Once again the Swiss Pavilion featured Identic enabling one to create AR identic solutions for your products in hours. Identifying and stopping deepfakes ruining your sleep? Unveiled featured Cyberette that can stop deepfakes in 2 seconds with 99.7% accuracy whether video, audio, or text. Are you trying to create a generative AI solution but lack the data? GenGen AI generates and provides training data for your AI training days. Finally, in the age of Agentic one needs a multi-agent AI coder and Koder AI is there with their solution. They are the first multi-agent solution with each agent taking on a different role just like a real software engineering team. In addition, this multi-model solution allows you to bring your own models if you choose.

    Home, Pets, Leisure, and Kids

    One press conference we expected to cover in Mobility was about the home; specifically, Toyota’s exclusive press conference and the discussion of the Woven City. If you are working on any smart home, smart city technology be sure to connect with Toyota. Another highly produced press conference was held by Samsung. The event covered their entire vision for smart homes and intelligent lives through Smart Things. As a follow-up to Conference Whispers: CES 2020, Balle will be available this year. Enjoy our private booth tour of a versatile solution meant to please any engineer that has ever used a device with a battery presented by Lithel. First the Lithel lawn mower with its interchangeable batteries was shared. Then, it was explained that that same battery can power anything. Any lawn care equipment, a portable fridge, your phone, your computer, an entire product line designed around a single universal rechargeable cell. All I kept thinking was, someone finally got it! At Unveiled, we uncovered a fully autonomous mower by Lymon. Not just any autonomous lawnmower, but the toughest lawnmower you may have seen. There are videos of it succeeding with thick country grass, over rough country acreage –having lived in rural country – my jaw dropped.

    There was a classic late night television commercial for a revolutionary device called The Clapper. This device is installed between a lamp or radio and the outlet then it became the boss of that device. If you clapped according to how it was programmed the light would turn on or off. A 2025 solution of course would not be to clap but to make that engineering reachable by an IoT solution. At Show Stoppers Launch It, Obniz shared their solution for making anything in your home connected. Another modernization solution spotted at Unveiled was Pixilwall. Pixilwall is an interchangeable solution that allows one to enjoy their photos in the physical world. Prefer the picture larger and to leverage multiple frames – they have the AI to manage it for you. If you would prefer a mirror on the wall to tell you your fitness data and the likes, Withings OMNIA Smart Mirror integrates with all Withings products and other leading health and fitness electronics. A Speediance Smart Home Gym with Digital Resistance shared details on their solution so you can look tone in any mirror.

    Moving to the Kitchen and family room, TBW Advisors was able to set up – yes – a private press tour of the LG booth. We view this technology from the perspective of the art of possible achieved. Understanding the complexities of the sensors and solutions involved in achieving what they are describing is where the work took place! Interesting to understand by adding what technology brought what features to the customer. Think about the data being collected and shared. The first appliance was the LG Signature Range Smart Microwave that does everything including air frying. It is so sophisticated the front is a video of your food cooking as it has no window. That screen is also a general-purpose entertainment screen for TV or internet programming and has generative AI built in. That video can become your next viral hit if you like as well. Or just enjoy the video on your phone so you know how the food is doing. The intelligent full double oven has AI browning technology to make sure you cook your food perfectly. LG has taken the guesswork out of cooking. LG Dual View Fridge once again has displays on the door so no need to open the fridge to see inside. As one might expect, it can suggest what you can make for dinner as well. While in CES 2024 LG told the world about its Transparent OLED, this year you can have it in your home! LG had a stunning display celebrating their Transparent OLED’s we were able to capture for you to enjoy. Turning your home into a short-term rental? Taskbeast.ai is designed to take the stress out of short-term rental management.

    Fraunhofer that specializes in audio codecs shared their exciting news regarding advances in standards. We had an exclusive briefing on the xHE ACC codec for the ultimate audio experience. We also received an in-depth briefing on the exciting MPEG-H Audio which is already live in Brazil. We were most excited to understand a viewer can turn up the volume on the dialog independently if one chooses with this new standard.

    Pets are always in for a treat at CES. We were able to capture the Pookie Intelligent Pet carriers at Unveiled. This intelligent pet carrier is full of descriptors! It heats, it ventilates, it sanitizes, it deodorizes and of course carriers your pet! It is quite sophisticated use of sensors in a coherent solution with aerodynamic engineering to bring a very sophisticated high-end product to market. To turn any pet collar into a smart pet collar that monitors location, activity, and health, Queva shared their innovation to protect your dog. Prefer Anime over a pet? Unveiled brought Anime Virtual Character Live House by Sybran. This exhibit was ALWAYS crowded. Another Unveiled exhibit was the LiberLive C1 Stringless Guitar – no Nintendo required.

    Some robots were meant for home. Meet the simplest and quite popular, turn your phone into robot Looia. As with anything connecting or downloading to your phone, I once again draw your attention to our cautions in the published form of this document. Loona AI is a pet robot that acts like a pet but requires no food or bio breaks. The Robot named Unit can teach a kid how to code but strategy can be found with Sense Robot. Sense Robot can play a physical game of chess with another player. It can set up the board, move its own pieces just like a human opponent completely autonomous with various levels of difficulty. This intelligent robot leverages cameras and sensors to ‘understand’ what pieces the human has moved as well.

    The ultimate ecosystem for a child’s myFirst Fone S4 – kids smartwatch, GPS fitness & habit trainer was in the middle of Venetian. This extensive and mature product set provides just enough access to provide safety but nothing more. As would be expected, it integrates with any adult phone via an app. The kid’s smartwatch even has a camera to take pictures! We look forward to hoping it is quick to achieve its US Cyber Trust Mark in 2025.

    Health

    BCI or Brain Computer Interface was hot at CES 2025. Enjoy the standing room only session we were able to capture. A simple attachment to the skull is making big headlines against depression. But if you thought BCI was only for medical doctors to get involved with, meet the consumer product by Cortex Machina that you can purchase today at your favorite ecommerce site! The importance of sleep for the functioning of one’s brain and body as a whole was emphasized in the Press Conference by the National Sleep Foundation captured in its entirety. Capturing your brainwaves while in a deep sleep and playing them back to you, we once again ran into MyWaves at Unveiled where they shared their new evening device. Want to improve your memory? Meet the generative AI interactive game to improve your memory by Monoxer. Undergoing evaluation for acceptable medical treatment certifications across the globe, keep your eyes on NeuDive. Neudive is a 6-week program that trains autistic patients, particular children, on social interactions. Of course if someone in your life suffers from the issue of dementia, Jennie the fully autonomous Dog for those Dementia is a worthy consideration to evaluate. Moving from the brain to the Vagus Nerve stimulation, Zenowell’s solution is meant to bring Zen into your life.

    Non-invasive was also the healthcare word of CES. Unveiled brought us both needle free injections from Flowbeams to non-invasive glucose monitoring by Apollon. Global, universal, and rural healthcare requires innovation. Unveiled brought us cervical cancer screening with the convenience of a cell phone greatly increasing accessibility due to its leveraging of AI. Even blood pressure monitor cuffs got an upgrade from Withings. The variable cuffs and built in intelligence for Withings BPM Vision may not catch your eye during a quick walk by the exhibit, but to the user the of the device, it will make all the difference. Withings also offers an at in app service that compliments their devices called Cardio Checkup. The Cardio Check Up app includes 3 meetings with a cardiologist every year. Can’t get to the eye doctor? Showstoppers Launch it brought you Elcyo universal eyeglasses. We also witness the unveiling of the smart thermometer and camera enabling remote diagnostics by Otiton. The ultimate telemedicine solution enabling rural healthcare was revealed at a detailed press conference by OnMed. Admittedly these innovations bring me back to the days I founded Patient Forward, unfortunately 10 years too early.

    Two final health care innovations to share. First the automated pharmaceutical tech by Camelotech which can also be leveraged for supplements. Last and very exciting is MEDIAPLUS, Inc. who brought AI to tackle the bottlenecks in the clinical trail process. In this case, AI was leveraged to modernize how trails are set up and the data is managed. In fact, MEDIAPLUS, Inc. has the World’s largest clinical trial information set – even larger than the NIH!

    Real Estate & Retail

    Confused where you should open a store? The wrong corner of the right intersection can make all the difference. To solve this problem, Showstoppers Launch It brought you unerry. Using a data centric solution, unerry takes the guess work out of finding that perfect location for retail. At that same event, the question for those who must find out the owner of off the market property was answered. Where has all the data you need to track that hard-to-find contact to keep your project moving forward. The next Showstopper is something fast food lovers are hoping is coming to a location near them. VOX AI spoke to us about their AI drive through technology that understands the customers in 90 languages and automatically orders the correct food.  

    Next Year’s Conference  

    The CES 2026 conference will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The announced dates are January 7-10, 2026.

    ©2019-2025 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Technical Business Whispers, Fact-based research and Advisory, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Email Whispers, The Answer is always in the Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking , The Answer is always in the Whispers, and One Change a Month, are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Conference Whispers: InfoTechLive 2024

    Conference Whispers: InfoTechLive 2024

    Photojournalist: Dr. Doreen Galli

    There is no written analysis for this event. Clients should book an inquiry for a discussion on the event.

  • Conference Whispers: Commercial UAV Expo 2024

    Conference Whispers: Commercial UAV Expo 2024

    Analyst: Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photographer: Dr. Doreen Galli

    ABSTRACT

    After 12 hours of standing and over 200 minutes of taping, 40 videos and a few hundred shorts forthcoming, our coverage of the Commercial UAV Expo closes. The Commercial UAV Expo 2024 had over 3,000 attendees, Y exhibits and Z keynotes. The attendees travelled from over ZZ countries. The Expo had exhibits and keynotes on how to become a drone pilot to the drones themselves. There were countless examples of the latest technology in all types of UAVs and UASs, including the sensors and equipment they carry. The expo also showcased solutions for remotely operating and managing drone fleets, as well as advanced methods for analyzing geospatial data.

    Highlights

    • Information was provided across the vertical and horizontal spectrum for UAVs, UAS. Note: few were fully autonomous and would be referred to more accurately as remote-controlled helicopters, drones, and marine vehicles.

    Cautions

    • One must understand the use case to select the correct drone or solution route if one doesn’t want to take on the training burden internally.

    Conference Vibe

    After 12 hours of standing and over 200 minutes of taping, 40 videos and a few hundred shorts forthcoming, our coverage of the Commercial UAV Expo closes. The Commercial UAV Expo 2024 had over 3,000 attendees and was one of two conferences held at Caesars Forum not to be confused with Caesars Palace a stroll away. Everything seemed very organized with no significant registration lines on Wednesday morning. Attendees arrived from across the global and each was invited to put a pin on the map to represent where they traveled to attend. For those that had a full event pass, boxed lunches were available; we were able to catch videos of the boxed lunches Wednesday as well as Thursday. The exhibition hall* was open on Tuesday for cocktails, as well as Wednesday and Thursday. Overall, the expo had exhibits and talks on how to become a drone pilot to the drones themselves. There were endless examples of the latest technology in every type of UAV or UAS, to the sensors or equipment they may carry, to solutions to remotely operate and manage fleets of drones to advance solutions for analyzing geospatial data.

    Becoming a Drone Pilot

    One hot topic at the Commercial UAV Expo is getting enough pilots for the industry as most technology today is remote controlled versus truly autonomous. An entire aisle in the exhibit hall was dedicated towards pilot schools including the Pilot Institute. The Pilot Institute even has a free class for those just getting started with a hobby license. Dan Tartaglia from Droneability shared his lessons learned from his journey as a recreational drone pilot to a commercial pilot with his own company. Paul Rossi shared detailed information on his methodology for a pathway to professional drone pilot. Meanwhile, another session by FlyGuys highlighted that if you have a license and equipment, they will hold our hands and give you the settings if needed to help drone pilots to get experience on a 1099 basis.

    Drones

    As one might expect, commercial drones were absolutely the highlight of Commercial UAV Expo. Many drones, like those of Swiss Air are remote-control helicopters. SwissDrones had their remote-controlled helicopter on exhibit along with Phoenix Air Group who manages a fleet of pilots across the US flying Swiss Air Drones. If you might have to travel somewhere before you fly your commercial drone, A2Z drones shared their 4 models during the Press Briefing. A2Z drones also had an extensive display sharing these collapsable charging docks as well as their release hook for packages. Attis Aviation introduced the new ROC VTOL UAV drone with extensive sensors leveraged for firefighting during the Press Competition. During the same event, Drones Amplified demonstrated how their drones are leveraged to create prescribed fires and backburns.

    For the healthcare industry, DrUber shared their solution during the press competition. Dr Uber can be leveraged for cross town emergencies be it organs or blood supplies. If weather interferes with your commercial operations, SwellPro, the pioneer of waterproof drones, was happy to share their solution with you. Of course, if one desired a fully automated drone, one of the more famous consumer manufacturers, DJI shared their Matrice 3d Fully autonomous drone. For the entertainment industry, we found the exciting drone shows. Not just any show but the drones that enable pyrotechnics plus drone lights by Pablo Air.

    The military use case is of course on top of everyone’s mind at the Commercial UAV show. If you were seeking paper or cardboard drones, you were in luck! Often referred to as blue drones, US military drones are not allowed to have components from outside of NATO countries. Harris Aerial shared their NDAA certified drones in the exhibit hall. The press competition shared impressive drone tech from Ukraine. Likewise, the exclusive provider of drones to Israel until 2027, Rhino Drones was also in the competition.  

    Finally, if you want a one stop shop and expect to need a variety of drones or perhaps prefer to lease them, then Exhibitors such as Blue Skies Drones, that manufactures and sells others’ drones was on hand. Frontier Drones provided an extensive tour of their exhibit. As an organization, they represent over 30 different manufacturers.

    Drone Components and attachments

    The key to the success of the industry is working together. Successful integration and successful collaboration dictate agreement on how things work or standards. The drone pilot hub featured a talk on establishing standards to ensure quality. One safety measure that was popular was drone parachutes which are required to enable flight over people in the USA. One vendor, VSS was involved in the press competition. Parazero Drone recover system was on exhibit and demonstrated how the parachute is as easy as buckling a seat belt to attach.

    Drones requiring satellite communication could leverage Gotonomi who presented in the Press competition. Ultrafast optical tracking technology was shared by SixdofSpace. Their optical tracking technology can be leveraged for landing UAVs or UASs. LiDar systems are popular cargo on UAVs but there are so many variations it can make you head spin. One attempt which looks promising is by Balko Tech who shared their Connectiv Modular LiDar solution. Many distributors were validating this solution internally – it will be exciting to see how it plays out!

    A new occurrence due to drones use in warzones is the requirement to operate even if GPS is jammed or spoofed. Annello Photonics shared their Silicon Photonics Optical Gyroscope (SiPhOGTM). It is the world’s smallest gyroscope on a chip which enables robust navigation that is reliable even in such hostile GPS contested environments. Another challenge of commercial real-world solutions like War is range. Range anxiety is as real for drones as it is for electric car owners. Gas solutions are as loud as a flying lawn mower. How do you triple the range of a UAV? The exciting news is that the UAV industry has a solution in hydrogen engines. Intelligent Energy provided TBW Advisors LLC with a detailed walk around of their hydrogen energy cells. Not only is the range better but hydrogen cells and hydrogen weigh must less over other energy solutions leaving more space for cargo and sensors.

    Fleets

    At the enterprise or sovereign level, there is an additional level of management required. SparrowHawk can identify UAVs in your airspace – friendly or hostile! flytebase provides an enterprise done autonomy software and platform for advanced field placement. Together it enables complete remote management of one’s fleet of drones. If you are seeking to manage the drones, missions and airspace with one piece of software, Anra Technologies shared their effortless solution. For enterprises just looking to get started and have no idea what drone is appropriate let alone how to build the entire solution to get the mission accomplished, Attis Aviation was in the exhibit hall to share their story of helping customers realize their UAV solutions.

    Geospatial Data

    Geospatial data is an exciting area within data that is critical for UAVs. Geospatial data has to do with the real world and is three-dimensional information about a space. Geospatial data is considered time-based data related to that exact location on earth. GeoCue shared their out of the box LP360 solution for evaluating LiDar information. This enables organizations to take the information from the LiDar and processes providing information that humans recognize and can leverage. Sense Aeronautics took great pride in their drone video analytics solution and its ability to recognize humans or cars coming into the monitored scene. Assetta has a specialty solution to detect red tide when spotted by drones. Dat/em also specialized in drone’s famous stereo image and makes it useful for customers, providing a coherent image as expected by clients. Finally, those that just want the data and don’t want to mess around with drones or getting the data useful, FlyGuys is a (DSP) data service provider that provides that exact service!

    Next Year’s Conference

    Next year’s Commercial UAV Expo will be once again held at Caesars Forum on September 2-4, 2025.

    *When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.

    ©2019-20204 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Conference Whispers, Industry Whispers, Vendor Whispers, Technical Business Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Rankings and Fact-based Research and Advisory are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Conference Whispers: Internet 2.0 Conference 2024

    Conference Whispers: Internet 2.0 Conference 2024

    Published: April 3, 2024                   ID: 2040

    Analyst(s): Doreen Galli, PhD MBA

    ABSTRACT

    Internet 2.0 Conference is one of five conferences that makes up 2.0 Conferences. In total the conferences had seven hundred attendees over 3 days packed with solid keynotes. Attendees seemed to agree that small but mighty was a good description of the event. Common themes including where is society going with technology as well as how these changes will impact society.

    Highlights

    • Five conferences all in one meant this tiny conference packed a powerful punch.
    • This event was all keynotes with speakers rotating between the 5 shows.

    Cautions

    •  This conference packs the sessions back-to-back. One must plan on your own for bio and physical movement breaks to avoid excessive sedentary day.

    Conference Vibe

    As a member of the collection of strategy conferences that create 2.0 Conferences, Internet 2.0 and all the conferences could best be described as small but impactful.  The event took place at Caesars in Las Vegas in their Augusta rooms. All the attendees bragged about the amazing food both for breakfast and lunch. Readers may experience the entire Conference Whispers Internet 2.0 Conference playlist.

    Where are we going?

    The biggest theme at the conference focused on where innovation in technology is going to take us. One keynote on the evolution of intelligence had a panel discuss the paradigms that go beyond AI and ML This session also included an interested example of how Yazzmoney was leveraging blockchain. Specifically, they are helping Zambia government to tokenize cattle, minerals, wildlife and renewable energy. This enables the cattle ranchers, for example to access the value of the cattle. Another keynote with an all-male panel discussed how AR, VR and MR can revolutionize customer experience.  Michael Koch keynote was a great discussion on the evolution of work, life, and play. Michael Koch discussed how technology has changed and is going to continue to change even faster with wireless power closer on the horizon than we imagine. Parts of this keynote reminded us of the 100 years of innovation exhibit at CES. One of the fascination aspects of Michael Koch’s keynote was the discussion around moving from creative and getting the ideas to adoption and conversion. There was to be another keynote on AI that looked like great potential at the start. Unfortunately the speakers time was cut in half and the deck didn’t work, thus Gary Y. Wu went Beyond AI in his talk. Futurist writer Jeffrey James Seyferth shared his vision of tech nirvana with attendees.

    One thing all agreed on is there will be an adaptation that must occur. Cyber burnout was a real concern in the keynote on wearables, robot and IoT. That session hilariously drew the parallel of the conference attendees not having breaks in between all the sessions to describe how cyber burnout occurs. With all this change, technologist need to be great communicators. To that end, Archer Now CEO, Trung Q. Pham brought his keynote, “The art of Communication Jiujitsu” to meet the demand. Trung emphasized that we retain 90% of what we teach.

    Social, Cultural and Environmental Impact

    On the keynote titled, “Leveraging tech for environmental and social Impact” the panel emphasized doing the right thing should be rewarded. Vincent Allen from VA-AV industries discussed how new and smart spaces can increase diversity and equity in the global economy. Admittedly, due to the speakers background and slant, we were having flashbacks from our coverage of last year’s NABShow. An inspirational keynote that featured Dee Jones from L3C Esports organization was hosted by gameplay. It was fascinating to learn how they are using esports and gaming to change the lives of inner-city kids in Michigan.

    Several panellists mentioned the concern of impact around generative AI hallucinations. To that end, one panellist shared that hallucinations are to be expected as the technology is in its toddler phase of reasoning. An interesting second concern on generative AI was raised concerning the massive computational requirements for a simple answer is surely not good for the planet.

    Security

    We were able to catch one interesting keynote on security. David Ronn from Zecurity shared their on-premises and edge solution to ending ransomware that blocks and examines all commands outside of a simple read command.

    Next Year’s Conference

    2.0 Conferences 2025 conference will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada at Caesars in April of 2025.

    *When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.

    ©2019-20204 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Conference Whispers, Technical Business Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Rankings and Fact-based Research and Advisory are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Conference Whispers: CES 2024

    Conference Whispers: CES 2024

    Conference Whispers: CES 2024 Playlist

    Analyst: Dr. Doreen Galli

    Photographer: Dr. Doreen Galli

    Published: January 17, 2024

    ABSTRACT

    CES 2024 allowed over 135,000 attendees to see more than 4,400 exhibitors. Attendees and exhibitors agree the word that best described the event was “engaging.” There were advances and capability announcements across all product categories and marketplaces. Anything you need to build your own products to those that can build them for you to products about to hit the market could be found. CES 2024 brought current technology advances of artificial intelligence, and virtual reality across the automotive sector, mobility, health, and manufacturing.

    The Conference

    • The first Consumer Electronic Show (CES) was held in New York City in 1967 with 17,500 attendees1. It is an industry conference focusing on all aspects of consumer technology. The conference features new product announcements in x product categories and y marketplaces.
    • CES 2024 was held in Las Vegas, Nevada and had just over 135,000 registered attendees, with 4,400 exhibiting companies.
    • Attendees at CES 2024 hold titles such as CEO, Founder, Investor, VP, Director, Chief Marketing Officer, VP of Engineering, VP of Product Development, data scientists, lead engineer, and buyer. CES attendees came from over B countries.

    Cautions

    • Care must be taken when creating a CES schedule. CES 2024 spanned multiple venues; buses and the Vegas Loop were provided with convenient routes between all venues. To this end, one’s schedule must allow for the transport or walk time between events. TBW Advisors’ analyst found that 30 minutes was sufficient between LVCC and Sands Convention Space; attendees should plan to allow one hour for transfer between other venues.
    • Just because a product has advanced AI and is designed for the home doesn’t mean that your privacy was fully taken into consideration. Adopters must verify data location and policies for any new products before they are brought into the home or office.

    Conference Vibe

    As an industry conference focused on everything related to consumer technology, CES is best described as a massive conference with highly engaged attendees. CES 20204 celebrates 100 years of innovation. The conference had some 135,000 registered attendees spanned venues, from Mandalay Bay, and Aria, on the Southside of the Strip to the Las Vegas Convention Center Halls West through North and Central. Buses ran frequently to transfer attendees between locations along with the Vegas Loop. One interesting aspect of CES is the juxtaposition of fun exhibits with deep talk tracks that feature impressive speakers discussing considerations taken while creating the various products being exhibited. Viewing TBW Advisors’ Conference Whispers: CES 2024 playlist in order may provide some context for the first-hand experience of attending CES. Alternatively, enjoy our CES Walkabouts Playlist.

    What product would you like to build?

    CES is a place for builders to go and find the components to build products themselves or find organizations to build them for them. CES 2024 was no different. One might start with MicroEJ* a favorite from 2020 CES (1), an containerized IoT device for software defined everything that is upwardly compatible with Android (2). Need sensors to support a function? Hamamatsu Photonics optical sensors were on display (3).  Want your product to be free of requiring a battery? Perovisky shared their indoor solar glass solution (4). Want to make sure you store the energy from the indoor solar glass? Nichicon was present with the LTO IoT battery (5). Perhaps you don’t want just any sensor in your solution but demand a smart sensor with AI models deployed on the edge with the sensor? To that end solutions presented include AI Zip smart sensors that can identify irregular behavior (6). Require data sets to train models in your space? Speeda Edge was onsite to get you quickly moving forward in your data space (7). Perhaps you require a human machine interface (HMI)? If the interaction is from facial movements, Naqi Logix had their Naqi enabled Neural Earbud on hand to control all digital devices and more important, their technology can be licensed to any earbud manufacturer(8). Meanwhile, PalmPlug was present for hand-based HMI interactions (9). Perhaps your IoT product requires a cellular connection. 1nce was one of the companies on hand available to provide a global cost-effective solution (10). Assembling the components but need it waterproof? 3m has any taping solution you might need to make your product come to life (11). If you require a Cloud vendor agnostic platform to manage Linux based secure online development, Strong Network was onsite to share their solution (12). Perhaps the entire process of finding and assembling all the components is just too much for you? Companies were on hand to help you put it all together from Telit Cinterion (13) to Siemens (14). Perhaps you are not even sure where to start or what product you would like to create that would have customer demand? To that end multiple industry analyst presentations were available from CTA itself (15) to the detailed presentation by Circana (16) that let you know exactly where consumers are spending today.

    Modern Green Smart Building

    CES is known as a conference for consumers but at the end of the day – it is just an amazing technology conference where you can find things you might not expect. For example, you were building new facilities. To that end you would like to understand modern technology you could include to make the building smart or green. CES has answers for you! At the entrance, you can keep outside dirt outside with Tectonic’s clean matt (17). No need to waste the beautiful energy from the sunlight on the windows with SQPV Glass by INQS that produces energy(18).  Perhaps the building is a data center without many external windows then the indoor solar solution could be incorporated from Perivskia (19). If you require weather information for your facilities, MyRadar will provide data rain or shine (20). Camera solutions for security or for indoor autonomous solutions could be found by E-Con Systems (21). Building in an area suffering from water shortages? Genesis Systems allows you to capture water from air (22) while HelioWater provide potable water from any type of water be it river water or salt water (23). Green smart exterior and parking lot lights leveraging solar energy are available from Green Tech (24). Have an emergency presentation and need a huge TV suddenly in a room without cabling? Wireless TVs from Display can be put up anywhere with a wall. It contains a battery that will stream for 6 hours straight or 30 day standby (25). Clean air for workers inside can be made available with a bioengineered indoor plant from Neoplant (26). If you have multiple smart buildings, Technis has a smart fleet building solution for you (27). Finally, if you are trying to grow, retrain, empower, or engage your employees, FLOWIT is a smart adaptive people development tool for your employees leveraging generative AI. It can even recommend training based on results of employee engagement surveys (28).

    *When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.

    Mobility and Accessibility

    CES 2024 had a plethora of mobility and accessibility solutions on hand. As discussed in the session on building a sustainable secure superior future, technology and artificial intelligence advances have been monumental in mobility (29). This point was further emphasized in the discussion on AI powered strategies to transform the mobility experience (30) as well as in the talk, “Technology as a Force for Good” (31). Products on hand included the Mirairi speaker for the hard of hearing has a curved surface to push the voices towards the listener (32). Ives Chatbot for the deaf can understand and produce sign language for customer service solutions (33). For people with vision difficulties, OOrion intelligent locator assistant enables your phone to find anything in your environment or guide you to predetermined locations (34). Lighthouse Tech glasses enable one to identify when obstacles are present above waist height and is targeted at people with low or no vision (35).

    Healthcare

    Healthcare is always a large topic at CES every year and 2024 was no different. An overview presentation on the area, “Forces Reshaping Healthcare” was presented by Deloitte (36). Whether for home healthcare or telemedicine, The NuralogixTM Anura MagicMirrorTM scans your face and in 30 seconds calculates over 100 common metrics (37). Withings BeamO Home Checkup allows a remote practitioner to virtually listen to one’s heartbeat and lungs as well as follow vitals such as temperature, heart rate, ECG, and SpO2 (38). A twenty-minute scan leveraging a virtual reality headset and a program form Machine MD can inform your medical practitioners about any brain disorders (39). An actual virtual twin of the patient for cardiovascular purposes was shown by Dassault  Systemes (40). Smart devices of all types were also on display including smart ring by RingConn (41).

    Smart insoles for diabetes that are self-powered called SoleCooler were shared (42). If you deal with snoring, the smart pillow by 10Minds will sense the snoring and inflate an airbag to turn ones head on the pillow, causing the snoring to stop (43). Need better quality of sleep? MyWaves for better sleep will playback your best deep sleep brainwaves to help one fall asleep and increase quality by 25% (44). If you just want to see effortlessly, ViXion adjustable eyewear may be the exhibit that called out to you. To use, one simply adjusts so it is aligned with your eyes. Once adjusted, you can go from instantly reading 12-point font a quarter mile away on a wall across the convention center to a business card in front of your face. Yes instantly. While I never noticed eye strain, the lack of eye stress using the glasses was truly notable (45). Speaking of relieving stress, Sana Health VR solution can put your mind into a flow state (46).

    Finally, hospitals are a common vulnerability point. For doctors wanting to enable secure transcription at the edge, csky.ai does not allow the data to leave your desktop (47). If your hospital is the Target of ransomware attacks. Galeon EHR takes advantage of the immutable logs of blockchain for storing EHR records. This solution has enabled multiple hospitals to recover and continuously operate despite a ransomware attack (48).

    Smart Vehicles

    In 2024, CES is now the largest automotive show in the world. “Cracking the Smart Car – what truly defines them” discussed the need for cooperation for functionality and security (49). Today building a smart car can get an advanced start with available middleware such as that provided by Apex.ai (50). For OEMs wanting to set themselves apart, the ever-impressive smart mirrors from Gentex combining mirror and camera views were on display (51). To secure your smart car, Autocrypt provides the ability to secure the embedded systems (52). If you are looking to recreate, Pebble all electric trailer may be in your future (53) or perhaps you want to pack up your all electric dirt bike by GoWow to hit the trails in the BLM Parks (54). Today’s cars at CES are not confined to only driving on roads. The day we have been waiting for since we first watch the Jetsons futuristic cartoon has arrived as Xpeng Aeroht presented their flying car at CES (55). Finally, engineers for next generation cars were able to participate in the Indy Challenge. This challenge is a competitions between colleges to build a fully autonomous Indy Car (56).

    Consumer Tech

    Walmart was a significant keynote at CES (57) and even brought Microsoft’s Satya onstage (58). Shopping will never be the same. If Walmart has its way, shopping will it be easier, more convenient, automatics and quicker than ever before leveraging drone delivery (59). CES 2024 also brought you the magic of automated cooking from Tech Magic (60). While currently used in industrial kitchens, anyone involved in adulting can hope one is coming to a kitchen near them soon! One no longer has to drive to a brewery to get freshly brewed beer. CES featured the all-in-one Exobrew enabling all to brew at home (61). Likewise, one no longer must fuss with the step in between the washer and dryer or even adding detergent every load. GE Profile highlighted their all-in-one washer dryer that can hold an entire bottle of detergent (62).  Scrubbing the floors is easier with The Narwal Freo X Series robotic vacuum mops, the uniquely designed new models displayed include the Narwal Freo X Ultra and Narwal Freo X Plus models (63). Even mosquitoes don’t stand a chance in 2024 with the Reptilian smart mosquito repellent design in Africa (64). If one would like to interact with your grandchildren, Zoog has a solution for you (65).  Finally, discussions were held on the reality of the post hype metaverse (66).

    High School and College Participation

    CES 2024 featured the Indy autonomous challenge,a college competition to create the fastest autonomous Indy car. The cars raced at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. TBW Advisors was able to hear from the former Waterloo team captain (67).

    Charity

    This conference did not feature a specific charity event. CTA, the organizer of CES, has a related Foundation for its charitable contributions and actions – the CTA Foundation3.

    Next Year’s Conference

    CES 2025 conference will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The announced dates are January 7-10, 2025.

    Citations

    1. https://cdn.ces.tech/ces/media/pdfs/2020/ces2020_factsheet_9-23.pdf
    2. https://www.ces.tech/About-CES.aspx
    3. https://www.cta.tech/Who-We-Are/CTA-Foundation

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    ©2019-20204 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Conference Whispers, Technical Business Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Rankings and Fact-based Research and Advisory are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Conference Whispers: Channel Partners Conference & MSP Summit 2023

    Conference Whispers: Channel Partners Conference & MSP Summit 2023

    Analyst: Dr. Doreen Galli

    Published May 8, 2023

    ABSTRACT

    The Channel Partners Conference and Expo and MSP Summit, held in Las Vegas from May 1-4, 2023, brought together industry professionals seeking insights and strategies to advance their businesses. The event brought together industry professionals seeking insights on the workforce and business landscape amidst current times. With over 120 sessions, the conference addressed the pandemic’s impact on leadership styles, customer expectations, and growth opportunities. Attendees were advised to adapt to the evolving economy and invest in talent retention. The event also focused on current technologies like cloud, security, AI, and IoT, covering topics such as private cloud capabilities and defending against unknown threats.

    Conference Vibe

    The Channel Partners Conference and Expo and MSP Summit (Managed Service Providers) was held at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas on May 1-4, 2023. It features over 120 sessions across the 4 days. Attendees were excited to garner insights on current times and current technologies to move their business to the next level.

    Current Times

    Understanding the impact of current times on business was top of mind at the Channel Partners Conference and MSP Summit. During the panel session for ‘Rethinking the Workforce of Tomorrow,’ it was pointed out that there are 5 generations in the current workforce (1). The ‘Ultimate Vendor Power Panel’ featured discussions among industry leaders regarding how the pandemic changed leadership styles, customer expectations, employee expectations, and growth opportunities (2). The consensus was that current times are very different from pre-pandemic.

    Attendees were also reminded that the current economy is always good for some business segment (3). The message was to always evaluate and adjust to who is winning today. For those concerned with scaling and finding the right people, C3 Technology Advisors emphasized the need to invest upfront to attract and retain people (4). Magnitech poignantly reminded everyone that it takes happy employees to make happy customers (5). Likewise, we were reminded that technological tools will continue to evolve. Furthermore, resisting or failing to adopt the advancements will be a barrier to growth and market competitiveness (6).

    Current Technologies

    The Channel Partners Conference and MSP Summit did have some coverage of technology topics. Cloud, security, AI (Artificial Intelligence), and IoT (Internet of Things) were all showcased at the event. US Signal demonstrated their Private Cloud capabilities (7). The Field  

    Guide to Cloud Native Maturity was showcased on stage so attendees could properly advise their clients (8). IBM not only shared their cloud capabilities but shared how using their products on

    AWS can help meet your AWS commitments (9). Verizon highlighted the current trend of customers to focus on optimizing their cloud spend (10).

    In TBW Advisors Conference Whispers highlights, it was noted that the NABShow showcased their mature enterprise generative AI solutions used in production for some time. Furthermore, our highlights of the Call & Contact Center showcased their newly developed solutions already in production. Together, these examples demonstrated the progress of enterprise generative AI. Nonetheless, during the AI Panel at Channel Partners Conference, it was suggested that Large Language Models (LLMs), the underlying technology of generative AI, were not yet in enterprise production (11). However, there was an active conversation building on the insightful history of AI that kicked it all off by Talus (12).

    The Internet of Things (IoT) was another important topic of conversation during the event. BH IoT Group shared insights on how to make money on IoT and even offered their services to assist attendees in getting started with their ventures (13).

    Various security providers and products were also present to share their capabilities. Xcitium emphasized the importance of defending against unknown threats (14). Securing endpoints be it remote workers or IoT solutions are of particular importance. Fortunately, ThreatLocker delivered a highly engaging keynote to meet the needs of attendees and provide a roadmap to related solutions in this space (15).

    Next Year’s Conference

    The next Channel Partners Conference and Expo will be held June 13-14, 2023 in London UK.

    Citations

    1. https://youtu.be/D_AHmQAIlx4   
    2. https://youtu.be/8u9ltTFisBs
    3. https://youtu.be/82lOqCAmUmk  
    4. https://youtu.be/R0wdGy0b2VM 
    5. https://youtu.be/cy-2FtEvLaA
    6. https://youtu.be/GE35cTMUA90
    7. https://youtu.be/aAVMa2stz_4
    8. https://youtu.be/4nBJzUn1vcM
    9. https://youtu.be/FI3fhQqFv84
    10. https://youtu.be/dYrRkpU9oBQ
    11. https://youtu.be/BAvPdkFX03A  
    12. https://youtu.be/i64fM0em54c  
    13. https://youtu.be/AdRo4U98hQY  
    14. https://youtu.be/SgzzXLjEFpI
    15. https://youtu.be/PvV3HKkrVVI

    *When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.

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    ©2019-2023 TBW Advisors LLC. All rights reserved. TBW, Conference Whispers, Technical Business Whispers, Whisper Reports, Whisper Studies, Whisper Ranking and Fact-based Research and Advisory are trademarks or registered trademarks of TBW Advisors LLC. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without TBW’s prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of TBW’s research organization which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, TBW disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of such information. TBW does not provide legal, or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by the TBW Usage Policy. TBW research is produced independently by its research organization without influence or input from a third party. For further information, see Fact-based research publications on our website for more details.

  • Conference Whispers: CES 2020

    -Playlist for Conference Whispers: CES 2020

    ABSTRACT

    CES 2020 allowed over 175,000 attendees from 160 countries to see more than 4,400 exhibitors and 250 conference sessions, with 11 official venues totaling over 2.9 million net square feet of exhibits. Attendees described the event as “huge,” although many first-timers used the word “overwhelming.” There were advances and capability announcements across the 36 product categories and 22 marketplaces, including Internet of Things, now more appropriately called Intelligence of Things. CES 2020 brought current technology advances in 5G, quantum computing, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality together to welcome the new decade of technology and the 4th industrial revolution.

  • Conference Whispers: Predictive Analytics World 2019

    ABSTRACT

    Mega-PAW 2019 clearly demonstrated that predictive analytics is ready for primetime and can lead to fantastic results, but success is far from guaranteed. The 720 attendees had seven tracks across five co-located conferences to choose from. With so much desired content, many found themselves missing a presentation if they hadn’t brought colleagues to cover concurrent sessions—a positive sign of a good conference. While there were some food misses, attendees found the conference interesting and had a takeaway from each speaker.