Cloud Expo Europe and Data Centre World 2016, hosted at ExCel London 12-13 April, were back in full force yesterday to open Day One with over 15,000 visitors and huge support from a world-class speaker line-up and exhibitor community.
Joining the co-located events for 2016, Cloud Security Expo and Smart IoT London both proved their place alongside the industry heavyweights, with bustling aisles, impressive conference streams and a cutting-edge showcase of products and services from across the burgeoning markets.
Day One highlights included an opening keynote address from UK Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy, Ed Vaizey, who argued the need to push for a ‘Gigabit Britain,’ inspiring businesses to embrace technological innovation and encouraging investment into research and development projects nationwide.
The Navisite Cloud Keynote Theatre was also host to the first edition of organiser CloserStill’s Women in Technology Initiative, which saw a lively and inspiring panel of female leaders discuss their personal successes and the challenges faced during their illustrious careers. Panelist Alejandra Leon Moreno, IT architect and digital business at Inter IKEA Systems, shared her own experience of climbing from a 3D startup prize winner to an internationally renowned expert on digital transformation and enterprise architecture.
The Oracle IoT Futures Forum theatre also featured a dynamic presentation delivered by R ‘Ray’ Wang, principal analyst and founder of Silicon Valley-based Constellation Research, which opened the debate around IoT as a business model shift – “Businesses must move from gut to data driven decisions,” he said. Wang argued for a future built on insight, where businesses no longer compete against each other but battle for user experience and outcomes.
Speaking at the end of Day One, CloserStill managing director of technology, Thomas Standley, commented: “Yet another roaring start to Cloud Expo Europe and Data Centre World, and what a welcome for Cloud Security Expo and Smart IoT London! The events have seen enormous growth over the years and yet again we’re hearing hugely positive feedback from our exhibitors across all industry vectors.”
Even after the first day, Standley was overwhelmed by the visitor numbers and vendor enthusiasm for 2017: “We’re significantly up on delegates this year, and exhibitors are very happy. Our stand sales are already ahead of this point last year. We’ve sold over half of the floorplan for 2017 after the first day alone, with many more expected to book tomorrow.”
Particularly happy with the first day of business, Colin Bridges, senior director, North Europe at Cloud Innovator Sponsor, Mellanox Technologies said: “We’ve been really busy. We’ve been coming here for two years, and it’s a good opportunity to bring our products to a new client base. It’s a good show for raising awareness and getting our brand out there. Three quarters of the people we’ve seen are end users so it’s been a really good first day for us.”
Soojin Choi, marketing director at Penta Security and silver sponsors of Cloud Security Expo added: “We’re here from South Korea and this is our first UK event. It’s been the perfect opportunity to expose our brand. We’ve had lots of people visit the stand who want to learn about us – it’s been very successful.”
Data Centre World visitor Hiren Joshi, director at Alternatum IT, added: “I would definitely recommend this event to all my team and clients too. I will be bringing them all along next year! I have attended in previous years, and have been very impressed with this year’s show. Data Centre World is really on their game this year!”
Delegate Samuel Sigbehm, director at CompTTEC, said: “This is my third year of attending. It’s a really excellent event. I attend many talks and seminars, but this is the best. The speakers are very knowledgeable and interesting. I’ll definitely be coming back in 2017.”
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