Smart Home Technology Expo - 17th & 18th March 2020 NEC, Birmingham, UK

Organisation Events
1

Hi,

I’ve just been approached by the organiser of this event.

She is / they are looking for companies / organisations to exhibit or present.

Would anyone be interested in putting a presentation together about openHAB2?

I’m happy to do a “Welcome to Velbus” session to showcase the hardware, which could segway nicely into an openHAB2 UI presentation.

Along the lines of “Hardware meets Software = Happiness”

Currently, I’m not sure if they are offering stage time and looking for content, or if this is a sales pitch to get me / us / someone to Buy stage time or exhibition space.

(As it’s at the NEC, I suspect the latter)

Your thoughts and comments will guide me.

Thanks in advance,

Stuart

Update

All bets are off.

It turns out that there want £3,000 for a 30 minute presentation slot.

Or £6000 for a small exhibition stand.

So I’ll be sticking with the CIAT CPD course that I’m rolling out this year instead.

“Digital Building Control” if anyone is interested.

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2

Pinging @chris since he lives in the UK but is on a business trip right now.

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I just fast scanned through the panel of speakers and their threads… I believe for someone offering a total wired system (like Velbus or simular), its obvious in a thread of “how to start” guide, as a basic solution. The next step is the advance part, where you connect the basic installation with a “gateway” such as openhab or something simular.

My concern about expo´s like these is, that they often seem very focused on the smart home beeing something the common user can handle, which means they tend to focus on wireless stuff, (ie it is easy for a comon person to connect a wireless light bulb, showing light/colors controlled from an app on a mobilephone). But thats not what a real smarthome is all about in, my opinion. These wireless “easy solutions” often lack a powerfull logic programming.

So whats really needed is a setup to show the real power of a smart home that goes beyond the wireless solutions. Then add up the even more powerfull, when connecting to openhab as well… Which in my opinion can give you a massive powerfull monitoring of the smarthome system, an advance feature no “easy solution” can do.

What I suggest could be a stand with a Velbus setup showing the basic (but power of) a wired smarthome.
For the advance show-off option:
A openhab integration with the basic Velbus and a monitor (as big as possible, (10-24" inch, maybe touch screen), with happanel running, either standard habpanel or good looking modded design, (I personally dont like the standard openhab). Or even better, a very good looking svg of a simulated floorplan showing off the total installation.

As far as I could tell, there is no such thing on the speakers/stands yet. I could be wrong as its descriptions is mainly detailed in short highlights.

Well, maybe it´s just me beeing way beyond on things likes these, as this is my personal goal with smarthome systems. I admit, I´m a control-freak :smiley:

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Yes, I agree.

I approached a well known UK electrical wholesaler about adding Velbus to their “Smart Home” brochure.

The response I got was very disappointing.
They basically suggested that they wanted to promote “easy” stuff, rather than professional grade hardware.

My mission is to create almost exactly what you have suggested here.

Whether it be Velbus or another wired system.

The problem in the UK is that “Whoever pays the Piper, gets to choose the tune”.

So putting together a stand big enough to be seen above the “little guys” costs a small fortune.

I like the idea of running a seminar for interested parties, as it will be attended by those that have a genuine interest and focus their minds for an hour.

All I need is people with far better knowledge of openHAB2 to create and present the GUI side of things.

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It´s very sad, and exactly like I feared from reading the site…
I dont understand why so many seems to focus on these kinds of installations.

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By definition…

They want the “easy” option.

Little do they know that it’s not that easy.

Which in turn gives the really great stuff (that requires some skill and knowledge) a bad name.

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Exactly the same in Denmark, unfortunatly… People dont get it, and most believe it´s not worth the price, mostly because they havn´t seen the thrue power… They´ll rather struggle with battery devices, and poor connection, beside i highly limited logic and monitoring. If they want any of that, they add a software (openhab alike) system to their “easy” installation, and believe they get the power…