Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona

In 2023, the eco Association was once again part of the NRW joint stand at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. In the year under review, the eco IoT Competence Group, led by Dr. Bettina Horster, also held the position of state representative for the first time, thereby representing North Rhine-Westphalia as a business location in cooperation with the eco Association. In recent years, the MWC has evolved into the leading trade fair on the Internet of Things (IoT) sector and covers topics such as Industry 4.0, mobility, cybersecurity, AI, healthcare, smart cities and energy.

In addition to the trade fair’s conference programme, the various country stands also provided exciting presentations. Within this framework, eco provided an overview of the results of the eco IT Security Survey 2023. Dr. Bettina Horster, Leader of the eco IoT Competence Group, presented IoT solutions from the Elderly Care sector in her lecture “The Senior Home Can Wait”. In cooperation with member company Huawei, eco organised a guided tour at the Huawei stand, followed by a networking lunch for members, partners and IoT advocates. In the spirit of the Internet of Things, participants on the stand tour were able to see a number of solutions relating to connectivity, networking and energy efficiency.

Workshop: AI – for Smart Cities

The practical workshop “AI – for Smart Cities”, organised by the ASTRID Innovation Hub in cooperation with WOBCOM GmbH, NVIDIA and eco – Association of the Internet Industry in Wolfsburg, demonstrated how important the topic of artificial intelligence is for cities and municipalities, particularly in the smart city context.

The workshop aimed to raise awareness about AI, discuss application-oriented digital applications enriched with artificial intelligence, identify specific applications, and assess their implementation and feasibility. The focus was clearly on applications in the urban environment and potential future smart city services.

Industrial IoT in practice: Essential building blocks of Industry 4.0

Approximately 20 eco member companies accepted the invitation of the eco Association and eco member Rittal to a meeting of the eco IoT Competence Group in Haigar, Hesse, to experience Industry 4.0 first-hand in theory and practice. The participants discussed how industrial value chains can be digitalised and optimised.

“We are digitalising the entire process at the customer’s premises to reduce errors in the planning and construction of control cabinets, thereby ensuring the competitiveness of our customers”, stated Annika Lauber from Rittal at the company’s Innovation Centre.

The participants were able to see this firsthand during a tour of the Rittal plant in Haigar. The production processes are fully automated and digitalised, from the delivery of raw materials to the finished control cabinets.

Digital infrastructure as the basis for smart home applications

At the cross-competence group event “IoT CG/Networks CG: Digital Infrastructure as the Basis of Smart Home Applications”, jointly implemented with Huawei Germany, eco engaged in a discussion with various experts from the IoT and networks sectors on the topic of digital infrastructure and its necessity for the smart home. It became clear that it is essential to expand the network infrastructure further in order to implement smart applications and ensure smooth functionality.

Additionally, there was a discussion on whether more standardisation is needed, particularly in the area of connectivity, in order to be able to use smart home solutions across manufacturers. MATTER has already achieved an important milestone in this regard. Manufacturers are calling for simplification and therefore uncomplicated and standardised connectivity options; a uniform standard, such as MATTER, makes perfect sense, especially given the varying requirements across different sectors.