Mobile World Congress 2017 in Pictures

Barcelona

Welcome to beautiful Barcelona for Mobile World Congress 2017 where this year’s event was more about #IoT, VR, #5G and AR while less about #Mobile.

Fira Gran Via

Entrance to the event at the giant Fira Gran Via

SAP's Amisha Gandhi

Interview with SAP’s Amisha Gandhi discussing IoT

Lenovo Moto

Lenovo is still trying to keep Motorola relevant in the smartphone market

Sony

Sony shipped new smartphones but I’m not sure if anyone noticed

Samsung VR

Samsung is taking people for a ride with their VR technology

Qualcomm

Qualcomm is talking about 5G

Intel

Intel is also talking about 5G

Nokia

Nokia is talking about MulteFire LTE running in unlicensed spectrum

IoT Stars

Serving as a judge at IoT Stars hearing pitches from promising IoT startups

Scania

Sitting in a Scania connected truck

Harman

Harman is connecting cars and much more (even industrial IoT stuff)

Ericsson

Ericsson wants to help connect all your things globally

Gemalto

Gemalto wants to help you with security and connectivity

VMware's Mimi Spier

Interview with VMware IoT VP Mimi Spier

Nokia 3310

Nokia brings back the 3310

LoRa Alliance

The LoRa Alliance is making great headway in the narrowband IoT space

Libelium

Libelium is the “go to” company to get all your smart city sensors

Vibration Powered

A vibration-powered device with GPS, LoRa and other sensors onboard

Drones

Attack of the drones

LG G6

LG tries to get “fly” with its G6

Kevin Benedict

IoT + AI interview with Kevin Benedict from Cognizant

Sigfox

Sigfox is the LoRa pride of France and is disrupting mobile operators

Fira Montjuic

Head down the street to Fira Montjuic to see where the 4YFN action is at

4YFN

The Four Years from Now (4YFN) event is where you want to go to see what the newest startups are working on

4YFN Domes

Listen to great speakers in the 4YFN workshop domes

All in all, Mobile World Congress + 4YFN were great events this year and served as a good opportunity to connect with customers, partners and analysts while learning about new technologies.

IoT Stars @ Mobile World Congress 2017

#IoT Stars is a high-profile pitching event for Internet of Things startups during #Mobile World Congress and I had the pleasure of serving as a judge.

If you’ve ever watched “Shark Tank” on TV in the United States, then you’ll have a good idea what this event is all about. IoT Stars is put on by Marc Pous (CEO of theThings.io) and Rudy De Waele (Futurist) and hosted at the Estrella Damm brewery in Barcelona.

My fellow judges included Francesca Bria (CTO City of Barcelona), Rob Van Kranenburg (Founder of IoT Council), Rosalia Simon Navarro (IoT Smart Cities Director at Telefónica) and Anthony Charbonnier (Startups at Sigfox).

IoT Stars Judges

We listened to pitches from six IoT startups and peppered them with questions about technology, uniqueness of ideas, business models and product-market fit. The startups we heard from included:

  • CHARGIFI (Wireless Charging)
  • FLUIDRA CONNECT (Internet of Pools)
  • KOLIBREE (Smart Toothbrush)
  • SMART PLANTS (Machine Energy Savings)
  • U-SMART TOYS (Large Interactive Toys for Playgrounds)
  • MOODNODE (Smart Home)

We heard lots interesting ideas, but in the end our jury had to come together and pick one we thought had the most promise.

U-Smart Toys

In the end, we selected Barcelona-native U-Smart Toys. They have a goal to get kids to put down their game controllers and get back outside. Their touchable, connected, gamified outdoor toys look right at home in a playground and get kids moving in a manner reminiscent to the Pokemon Go phenomenon.

It was a great event with innovative new IoT startups and plenty of time to network with a packed house of executives, entrepreneurs, developers, influencers and the press.

Rob Tiffany Interviewed at Mobile World Congress

Rob Tiffany

At #Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Rob Tiffany discusses all-things Microsoft Mobility with Kevin Benedict.

Learn about the current state of Microsoft mobility offerings ranging from Windows Phone, to the Enterprise Mobility Suite, to Azure Mobile Services.

Sharing my knowledge and helping others never stops, so connect with me on my blog at https://robtiffany.com , follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RobTiffany and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/robtiffany