It’s amazing how our language evolves over time. Around 100 years ago, ‘cut to the chase’ was a reference to silent movies and editing film to get to an exciting chase scene. Today, we know it to mean let’s get to the point.
Just a few weeks ago, the Connectivity Standards Alliance hosted its latest Hive leadership event aimed at addressing some of the biggest challenge and opportunities in the consumer and commercial building IoT industry. Hive events borrow from Chatham House rules, enabling leaders to have a frank and direct conversation – a great and valuable way to ‘cut to the chase’ where individuals and companies aren’t at the forefront but the great minds and great ideas that can change the IoT are.
This year’s Hive, held in Carmel, California, brought together 45 senior executives and thought leaders from 32 organizations looking at three areas of the IoT: 1) what’s next for consumers in the IoT, 2) how to accelerate growth in the smart Multi-Dwelling Unit space, and 3) Building trust in security and privacy.
Hive’s intent is to identify actionable solution paths in each area – uncovering if, where, and how the industry can collaborate to improve outcomes, drive growth, increase value to the market and consumers. All of this is bound by an action-oriented, 12-24 month window, challenging ourselves to identify what can be done in a realistic time band.
Does this process work? Our own experience shows us it does. In the fall of this year, the Alliance will formally release Matter, a common language and IP-based protocol for IoT making interoperability of disparate devices simpler, more reliable, and raising the bar on security. We can directly attribute actions from both our 2017 and 2018 Hive events as precursors to what has become Matter. And our attendees this year feel the same way, agreeing that the group is doing something valuable for the industry.
So, did we identify the next protocol or technology that will transform the IoT space? It’s hard to say at this point but we have begun the process of taking the best ideas that were unearthed, identifying actions, and working together to take ownership and next steps with the attendees and their companies.
I would be remiss if I didn’t thank the business and technology leaders who attended Hive 2022 and the companies who supported them. Their input was invaluable, their passion palpable, and their enthusiasm contagious.
You have to wonder how many of the world’s problems could be solved if we simply gathered the principal players in a room and checked all our agendas at the door to reach a larger, more altruistic goal. It sure would make it easier to ‘cut to the chase.’
What Thought Leaders Are Saying about Hive…
“I really appreciated the open conversation among different companies that ‘compete’ in public; but see great value in working together for a common, bigger goal of pushing the industry forward and up.”
“I loved the experience of collaborating with some of the smartest people in the industry to tackle some very interesting and impactful challenges.”
“The overall spirit [was] very energizing. It’s great to collaboratively drive true change.”
by Tobin Richardson, Connectivity Standards Alliance, President and CEO