More than 600 ICT professionals and practitioners convened in Hong Kong yesterday for the 6th annual Hong Kong IoT Conference.
The conference was officiated by Innovation and Technology Bureau (ITB) secretary Nicholas Yang as the guest of honor, as well as LegCo member Charles Mok, government IO Allen Yeung, Cyberport CEO Peter Yang, Internet of Things Advisory Council president Andy Bien and GS1 Hong Kong CEO Anna Lin as officiating guests.
Speaking at the conference, Yang said the event has provided an excellent platform for experts and practitioners to share insights on the latest developments in IoT technology.
“IoT solutions will give competitive advantages to enterprises large and small. With IoT, we can also turn Hong Kong into a more liveable and smarter city,” he said.
Bien meanwhile acknowledged the vast potential applications for the IoT in business. But he also cautioned that there are significant obstacles ahead.
“Despite the hype of data collection from IoT applications, the challenge is that not much data is used or shared for reuse right now. Business needs to be ready to handle such massive amount of data, to truly realize the potential of IoT.”
Lin agreed, noting that an open, interoprable data infrastructure is needed to maximize the value of IoT data.
“A survey by IDC found that 81% of respondents in business sector considered standards for data and connectivity very important, and 63% say that they would prefer open source standards,” she said.
“It is imperative to come up with industry consensus to facilitate interoperability between different applications, as well as applications and devices, to truly unleash the real IoT business values.”
First published in Computerworld Hong Kong