The Z-Wave Alliance, a global membership organization dedicated to advancing the popular Z-Wave wireless smart home protocol, will host their Spring Summit on May 9-10, 2019 in Amsterdam and convene members and partners for a series of discussions, panels and workshops on IoT and smart home.

The two-day event, held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Amsterdam, will open on May 9 with a welcome from executive director, Mitchell Klein followed by an engaging keynote from BBC Click tech journalist Kate Russell. Russell will look back at a decade of innovation and how it has led to the rise of the modern smart home. Drawing on two decades of experience covering the latest tech trends, she will lend insight into what lies ahead for home automation and changing consumer attitudes towards embracing smart technology into their lives.

Other Summit features include a Q+A fireside chat with Matt Johnson, SVP and GM of IoT, Silicon Labs, who will offer insight into the Z-Wave roadmap and answer member questions.

The Z-Wave Summit is broken into two tracks, a business, sales & marketing side along with the technical Developer’s Forum track to offer attendees from CEOs and VPs to CTOs and engineers thoughtful content and engaging programming.

The Business & Marketing will also feature several panels and sessions, including a look at the growing trend of biophilia and its impact on wellness and IoT technology led by CE Pro editor and long-time industry veteran, Julie Jacobson. Highlights also include a look into retail trends and considerations for smart home brands, a conversation led by GfK analyst Markus Kirk, a conversation around residential security in Europe led by long-time industry analyst Erik Overbeeke, a session from Dr. Ljuba Kerschhofer-Wallner, Risk Advisory for Deloitte GmbH on privacy compliance, as well as the role of the cloud in the smart home and a look at social media algorithms in 2019.

The Developer’s Forum Technical track will feature technical experts from Silicon Labs and member companies and will focus heavily on the new Z-Wave 700 platform – from design best-practices to reference designs – and what developers need to know to get the most out of the newest Z-Wave chipset.

“Z-Wave continues to be one of the dominant technologies in the smart home and has started to see growth in peripheral markets including hospitality, insurance and energy,” said Mitchell Klein, executive director, Z-Wave Alliance. “We’re proud to now boast over 100 million deployed Z-Wave smart home devices and with over 700 members globally, we’re driving forward true innovation in the smart home market and beyond. The Z-Wave Summit is both a celebration of that growth and a means to support our members in learning about, supporting and spreading the benefits of Z-Wave across their respective industry verticals and market positions.”

The Z-Wave Summit is held twice a year – in Spring in Europe and in the Fall in the United States – to bring the global ecosystem together to discuss the future of Z-Wave and the industries that matter to members.

SOURCE Z-Wave Alliance