It’s also professionals from lower down the technology food chain, like traffic management engineers, said Zach Butler, portfolio manager for IoT World Series, and a lead organizer for the sixth annual IoT World gathering in Silicon Valley.
“You’re seeing now traffic management… And even more specific in network engineering for like traffic lights and that sort of thing,” said Butler, in an interview with Government Technology on Wednesday.
“We’re actually starting to see different types of people coming from cities,” he added.
More than 1,500 conference attendees came from the public sector, say conference officials. Part of the strong attraction is the conference’s focus on smart city technologies.
“I would go so far as saying, the ‘smart cities vertical’ is the vertical that’s growing the most this year, which is real exciting for us,” said Butler.
Attendees come from different parts of the world – representing regions big and small.
“I see a big difference in different parts of nations and different regions with their intentions of technology,” Butler explained. “So on one side technology is there to drive citizen well-being, or citizen engagement. And technology is being procured on behalf of improving the lives and services.
“And then the other areas technology is being procured because it’s available, and for nations or cities to be seen as the smartest is a great showcase,” he added. “And I think the ones that are having the most success are probably somewhere in the middle.”
Where the IoT ecosystem has grown in the last six years of IoT World is in the “eagerness” to collaborate, said Butler.
“What I’ve been really happy to see so far, the last couple of days, is actually that eagerness from the enterprise, and the government and public sector, to be part of that conversation,” he said. “Having the closer and better conversations between public and private sectors is enabling the delivery of more targeted and thoughtful solutions.”
