Advanced IoT technologies at Vodafone Innovation Day ’17

Vodafone has discussed innovation with more than 150 representatives from various industries as part of its commitment to be a key player in driving innovation in Qatar, the company announced in a statement.Vodafone demonstrated how it is continually looking for ways to bring its global expertise and the power of its international network to Qatar, helping a range of organisations in the country to take advantage of the Internet of Things (IoT) opportunity and in turn help realise Qatar National Vision 2030.Dignitaries and executives took part in the Vodafone Innovation Day ’17, which highlighted major opportunities for their business, including leading developments in the areas of smart transportation, smart security, smart business, and smart sports with solutions such as connected cars, smart bus, smart shelter, fleet management, mobile asset tracking, connected cabinets, smart street lighting, public safety, and smart stadium.Vodafone Qatar CEO Ian Gray said: “Vodafone is continuously striving to combine the latest technology with its global expertise to create innovative and accessible solutions to meet the requirements of our ever-advancing world.”He added: “Vodafone is one of the world’s leaders in IoT service delivery. We’ve been working in this market for over 20 years and today, we are helping organisations of all sizes optimise, automate, and innovate using IoT technologies having recently reached 50mn IoT connections worldwide. This is a technological revolution we are excited to bring to Qatar, working with our customers to develop solutions relevant to their needs.”Guest speaker Daniel Burrus, who is considered one of the world’s leading futurists on global trends and innovation, said: “Advanced mobility will transform every business process in the next five years. This new level of mobile applications, combined with networked sensors, IoT communications, and embedded intelligence, will enable a new global wave of accelerated innovation that will shape the future for decades to come.”Gray was also joined by a lineup of expert leaders from the banking, education, and ICT sectors in a panel discussion titled ‘Innovation on the road to 2030’. Qatar Development Bank CEO Abdulaziz bin Nasser al-Khalifa, Hamad Bin Khalifa University president Dr Ahmad Hasnah, and Burrus all shared the role of innovation in their respective companies and their approach to innovation.In 2016, Vodafone laid the foundations for its IoT offering by bringing the company’s global machine-to-machine platform to Qatar. This provides a huge range of capabilities, which include an interactive portal for end users, access to global SIM cards powered by the world’s largest network, highly-secure solutions, more than 1,300 dedicated IoT experts worldwide, a broad portfolio of IoT terminals, and application and service enablement.