On November 27th and 28th, the FIWARE Community came together in the beautiful city of Málaga, Spain to “build a smart future with data’ during our 5th FIWARE Summit. The event welcomed 473 attendees to the Palacio de Ferias y Congresos de Málaga during two action-packed days of presentations, panels, and workshops. 97 speakers, both from within, as well as outside of the Community, took the stage to present their findings, experiences, and views within the domains of ‘Smart Cities‘, ‘Smart Energy’, ‘Smart Industry‘, and ‘Smart Agrifood‘.

The two-day ‘Developers Track’ consisted of how-to’s and tech pills that served as a great starting point for developers who are new to FIWARE. In addition, more in-depth sessions were available for the FIWARE experts.

New Tracks and Sessions

This Global Summit introduced three news tracks: a ‘Smart Energy Track’, a ‘Technical Track on Smart Cities’, as well as ‘Cross-Domain Technical Sessions’. The latter focused on trending topics in tech, such as Blockchain, AI, Edge Computing and IoT. It allowed attendees to discover how these topics are currently integrated into the FIWARE Roadmap.

During the first ever ‘Smart Energy Track’, speakers addressed both the challenges and the evolution of Smart Energy. Topics such as the demand for a reference architecture, data sovereignty, and the role of open source technology provided great points for discussion. Both for the panelists, as well as the audience.

Networking and Business Opportunities

As with previous Summits, the event offered an Exhibition Area, this time with 15 different exhibitors. From FIWARE iHubs, accelerators and incubators with interesting open calls to share to a wide array of different Powered-by-FIWARE solutions, including ones from FIWARE Foundation Platinum Members Atos, Engineering and NEC. The area provided a great overview of the opportunities within the FIWARE Community, as well as their latest (technological) achievements.

The Investor Forum, a joint effort by (in alphabetical order) European Data Incubator, the FIWARE Foundation, FIWARE Zone, frontiercities2, IMPACT Connected Car, and IMPACT Growth, gave startups the opportunity to pitch their solutions to investors. The side event welcomed 12 investors who were eager to get to know the 21 participating startups. In total 15 startups, including eight IMPACT Connected Car startups, took the stage to present their smart solutions.

Membership Milestones

During the Plenary, FIWARE Foundation CEO Ulrich Ahle named Mr. Kazuhito Suda the first ever FIWARE Distinguished Member. Mr. Suda was awarded for his engagement as a FIWARE Evangelist. With this award, the Foundation would like to recognize members of the FIWARE Community who has gone above and beyond to further develop the ecosystem and spread the word.

During his closing remarks, Mr. Ahle awarded the Intendencia de Montevideo with the title of the 200th FIWARE Foundation member. The award signifies an important milestone for the Foundation, as well as its growing Community. In addition, the Summit welcomed two new members to the FIWARE Foundation: Diputación de Badajoz (Gold Strategic End User) and Eridanis (Gold Member).

Relive the Best Moments

They say “a picture is worth a thousand words”, and that is why we made sure lots of photographs were taken during the event. Looking for a visual reminder to take you back to the Summit? Then be sure to check out the Global Summit Photo Gallery.

Interested in revisiting some of the fantastic content that was presented during the event? Keep an eye on the FIWARE Slideshare account, where we will be uploading as many of the presentations as possible.

Join us in Genoa

The FIWARE Global Summit might’ve just ended, but that doesn’t stop us from thinking about our next event. The next FIWARE Global Summit is set to take place in the city of Genoa, Italy, on May 21st and 22nd, 2019. Have you got an interesting idea, workshop, talk or session you would like to pitch? We invite the FIWARE Community to actively take part in designing the next Summit. Apply for our Call for Contributions and submit your proposal by January 25th, 2019.