The IoT Infrastructure Pavilion at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, organised by the IoT M2M Council (IMC) trade group, will increase by well over 65% for the 2021 event.
 
The IMC pavilion will also move into the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center to accommodate the pavilion’s growth – averaging close to 50% for the last three years – and demand for larger stands. CES draws tens of thousands of OEMs and product design professionals from sectors such as automotive, smart home and wearables, and almost half of the pavilion’s available exhibition space for the 2021 event has already been sold.
 
“Our deepening relationship with the Consumer Technology Association has led us to develop a full set of IoT programming for CES,” said newly elected IMC chairman Sara Brown, who is also VP of marketing for IoT hardware provider MultiTech, a company that also exhibits at the show. “This year, we organised press and networking events, in addition to our full conference agenda and, of course, the pavilion. Our plan is to make CES one of the most important IoT events in the world and we can say with confidence that we are well on our way.”
 
The IMC will also organise a similar pavilion and conference programme for Hannover Messe, the world’s largest manufacturing event.
 
“We’ve been woven into the fabric of CES, and we hope to do the same in Hannover,” said Brown. “IoT solutions providers used to walk these shows and schedule meetings off-site. That’s no longer good enough. We’re not just meeting other vendors at CES, we’ve met potential customers that we did not know and that did not know us.”
 
The IMC’s IoT Infrastructure Pavilion will share LVCC North with CES’s demonstration areas for Smart Cities, Enterprise, and Health & Wellness, and the move places it directly adjacent to areas for AI and Robotics in LVCC South and automotive technology in the to-be-completed LVCC West. The pavilion will also offer frontage on two main aisles and traffic from a new registration area at LVCC North.
 
Brown became IMC chairman at the trade body’s AGM during last month’s CES. The meeting also elected Kim Byberg of Tata Communications as vice chairman.
 
“The IMC is the largest trade group serving the IoT sector, and we aim to increase adoption of IoT technology by bringing buyers and sellers together,” said Brown. “In addition to our growing trade-show relationships with CES and Hannover Messe, we’ve developed template RFPs and guidelines for IoT technology sourcing, software tools that help buyers identify their needs, a library of over 200 IoT use-cases, and eight vertical-market push-content channels.”
 
Both Brown and Bybjerg bring decades of experience to their roles. Brown has served in senior marketing positions at IoT hardware makers including Wavecom, Sierra Wireless and Telit in the USA. Bybjerg, who is global sales director for IoT at the Tata business unit from its base in London, has held senior IoT sales positions at KPN, Vodafone and more. Brown replaces Volkhard Bregulla, VP global sales manufacturing, automotive and IoT services at HPE, as chairman, who steps down after his one-year term.
 
“Significant expansions for our trade-show activities at CES and Hannover Messe, as well as increase in the scope and format of our RFP guidelines are just some of the projects Kim and I intend to get rolling this year,” said Brown. “We intend to take the IMC to the next level in terms of providing thought leadership, lead generation, promotions and research to accelerate our industry.”
 
The IMC is the largest trade group dedicated to the global IoT and M2M sector, with more than 25,000 IoT OEMs, enterprise users and apps developers that buy IoT products and services as members. Board sustainer-companies include 1nce, Aeris, Amazon Web Services, BICS, Digi, HPE, iBasis, Kore, Losant, Micro-Ant, MultiTech, NimbeLink, Pod Systems, Semtech, Sigfox, Taoglas, Tata Communications, Telit, U-Blox and Vodafone.