The Heliot Europe technology group opened its branch Heliot Slovenia in December 2020 and chose Podim DX 2021 as the first regional event they’d participate in and support as one of the Podim partners.
The Heliot Group is the exclusive Internet of Things (IoT) operator of the Sigfox 0G network in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria and Slovenia. The network is ideal for wider use of IoT applications, as this low-frequency radio technology saves energy, is cost-effective, requires virtually no maintenance, is secure and more suitable for the vast majority of IoT applications than 5G technology.
In addition to supporting the development of Industry 4.0 and the digitalisation of service industries, the Heliot Europe 0G network also supports the implementation of solutions for smart cities. That’s the topic they focused on at Podim.
Tomáš Pavliček, Executive Director of Operations at Heliot Europe, addressed Podim attendees and emphasized the company’s desire to collaborate: “In the Heliot Europe Group, we help companies and cities to obtain the data they need for better management through our network and sensors. This is a great opportunity for startups to develop and grow their solutions for IoT systems and gain new business opportunities.”
Challenges and benefits of smart cities
At Podim, the Heliot Group supported the Smart cities programme block.
The highlight of the programme block was the panel discussion “How to Tackle Complex City Challenges; Business Models and Technology”, which was moderated by Nino Novinec, Sales Director at Heliot Slovenia.
Participating in the discussion were some of the top experts in the field of smart city development:
- Lorenzo Madrid, the author of the book Smart City 1.0 to 4.0, talked about the trends of transformation of urban centres into smart cities, successful smart city cases, and key success factors in the transformation.
- Amrit Dhir from the American company Sidewalk Labs spoke about the hot topic of ownership and storage of collected IoT data, which must be available to cities free of charge.
- Helmut Wöllik from 5G Playground Carinthia talked about two different technologies, IoT and artificial intelligence, their coexistence and access of start-up companies to 5G Playground’s project and data.
- Africa Arevalo Gomez, Director of International Business and Relations at the Spanish technology company Wellness TechGroup, spoke about her experience with increasing the efficiency of urban management, data collection and integration in smart cities, the platform she used, and her experience with the Sigfox protocol.
Nino Novinec said the following about the panel discussion: “We want the startups to think about the possibilities and opportunities that IoT technology provides for better city management. We want to show city managers and residents how they can use IoT to reduce the operating costs of urban services and increase profits.”
We would like to thank the Heliot Group for supporting Podim and sponsoring an extremely interesting programme block that took us into the near future of urban development.
If your startup solution is related to IoT or smart cities, they are definitely the right address for collaboration and support!
