• Can you give an overview of your conference topic/session? Why is this an important topic to discuss?

You can’t just connect your plant to the internet and gain the benefits of IIoT. You need a strategy to position your business to reduce risk, reuse what you learn from different projects and turn data into value.

• What can attendees expect to learn and discover from your session?

Based on the Industrial Internet Consortium’s Business Strategy and Innovation Framework and Industrial Internet Security Framework, you will learn what needs to be done to manage risk, why you must establish a centre of excellence to spread what you learn and why you need to experiment to find out what works.

• What do you think is the biggest issue being faced / discussed in your industry at the moment?

Security.

• What is the biggest lesson you learned in 2016?

That IIoT covers more sectors than you think! And that the most value will come from cross-sector linkages.

• What do you think the biggest challenge for the industry will be in 2017?

Overcoming the hype curve. We need to demonstrate value.

• What innovative measures should the industry adopt in the next few years to ensure market sustainability and growth?

Change your password from ‘admin’. Believe me, that’s an innovation.

More seriously, we need to avoid a security disaster and ensure we deliver value to our businesses.

• Why do you think events like Industry 4.0 Summit are important for the industry?

To help educate people.