We were thrilled to host our first Alliot LIVE! Partner Day just a couple of weeks ago. Now that the dust has settled, we’ve had a chance to reflect on the day - what we heard, what surprised us, what our partners and customers told us, and, perhaps most importantly, what we’ve learned about where the IoT market is heading.

So, what did we discover? Read on to find out.

Bringing the IoT Community Together

Alliot LIVE! marked the first event we’ve hosted ourselves, so naturally, there were a few nerves in the build-up.

Will people turn up? Will the content resonate? Will we be able to deliver the experience our sponsors and partners deserve?

And when you have a dozen partners travelling to join you for the day, there’s a definite sense of responsibility to make sure it’s worthwhile for everyone.

Thankfully, we had nothing to worry about.

The response from both attendees and sponsors was fantastic, and the feedback we received throughout the day and since has reinforced that there is a real appetite for this type of event.

Our sponsors included Adeunis, Daizy, Fludia, LORIOT, Kerlink, MClimate, Milesight, Netmore, Nexelec, Wattsense, WATTECO and Synetica, who all brought their expertise, products and insight to the day.

Rather than simply showcasing products, the event was about creating opportunities for conversations. Our sponsors could demonstrate what their products can do, while attendees could ask questions. Our Gold Sponsor partners hosted their own workshops to offer a flexible agenda for the day; enabling attendees to make the day their own, explore use cases and, importantly, talk openly about the challenges they are facing in their own businesses.

And that’s where things became particularly interesting.

What Did We Hear?

One of the biggest benefits of hosting an event like this is being able to step away from our desks and actually listen to the people working with IoT every day.

We had conversations around everything from smart buildings and energy efficiency to compliance, environmental monitoring and the practicalities of integrating IoT into existing systems.

There were plenty of individual discussions, but several themes came through particularly strongly.

Smart Buildings are Moving Beyond the 'Nice to Have'

The smart building sector continues to gather momentum, with a growing focus on how IoT can work alongside existing Building Management Systems (BMS) to provide greater visibility, control and efficiency. For system integrators and facilities teams, the opportunity isn't necessarily about replacing existing infrastructure. Instead, it’s about using IoT to fill the gaps - adding data and insight where traditional systems may not reach. That creates a particularly interesting opportunity for our partners as more organisations look for practical ways to improve the performance of their buildings without undertaking huge infrastructure projects. Retrofit is most definitely still a keyword!

There's an Opportunity Beyond the BMS

While larger commercial buildings are an obvious market for smart building technology, our conversations also highlighted the significant opportunity in smaller premises that don't have a BMS at all.

Offices, smaller commercial properties and other buildings can still benefit from monitoring environmental conditions, energy consumption, occupancy and other key metrics - but

the proposition needs to be simple, accessible and, importantly, deliver a clear return on investment.

There is also more work to do around rented and leased premises, where the person paying for the technology may not own the building or have control over its infrastructure.

For us, that presents an interesting challenge: how do we make the benefits of IoT clear to businesses that may not have traditionally considered themselves a natural fit for smart building technology?

That's something we'll be exploring further.

Education is a Sector to Watch

Another area that generated a lot of conversation was education. Multi-academy trusts and education providers are increasingly looking at how technology can help them create safer, healthier and more efficient environments for students and staff. That could mean monitoring environmental conditions such as temperature, CO2 and air quality, supporting wellbeing, identifying issues within buildings or finding new opportunities to reduce energy consumption. With energy efficiency continuing to be a major consideration for organisations across the UK, there is a compelling opportunity to use IoT to provide the data needed to make better decisions. It was clear from our conversations that education is a sector with significant potential - and one we'll be keeping a close eye on.

What Our Sponsors Brought to the Table

Of course, Alliot LIVE! wouldn't have been possible without our sponsors.

One of the things we wanted to achieve with the event was to give our partners the opportunity to do more than simply put their logo on a stand. We wanted them to get involved, share their expertise and have meaningful conversations with the people who could ultimately take their solutions to market.

From network infrastructure and sensors to energy monitoring, building management, compliance and software platforms, the range of solutions on show demonstrated just how broad the LoRaWAN ecosystem has become.

It also highlighted something that we see every day at Alliot: IoT isn't one technology or one use case.

It's an ecosystem of technologies, platforms, connectivity and expertise that can be brought together to solve very different problems.

That's exactly why events like Alliot LIVE! matter.

And What Did Our Customers Tell Us?

Perhaps the most valuable feedback we received was that people want to see IoT in action. They want to understand how the technology works, but more importantly, they want to understand why they should care.

• What problem does it solve?
• How much could it save?
• How difficult is it to deploy?
• How does it integrate with what they already have?

And, perhaps most importantly, how can they turn IoT into a commercially viable service for their own customers?

Those conversations will directly influence the content, support and solutions we develop going forward.

For us, that is the real value of bringing the channel together in person. We can listen, learn and then use those insights to help our partners take IoT from an interesting technology to something they can confidently sell, deploy and support.

So, What Have We Learned?

If we had to sum up the day, it would be this: the appetite for IoT is there.

But the market doesn't necessarily need more technology. It needs more understanding.

Businesses need help identifying the right use cases. They need simple ways to demonstrate ROI. They need technology that works with what they already have. And our channel partners need the tools, support and expertise to turn all of that into something they can offer their customers.

That is exactly where we believe Alliot has a role to play.

Our ambition has always been to make IoT accessible to all. Events like Alliot LIVE! give us the opportunity to understand what that really means in practice and to make sure we're building our proposition around what the market actually needs.

The conversations we had on the day have already influenced some of our plans, and we'll be taking these insights forward as we continue to develop our partner offering.

Will we do it again?

Most definitely.

We're already working on ideas for next year - including how we can make the event even more accessible to our partners, create more opportunities for hands-on learning and deliver even greater value to the sponsors who put so much time and effort into making the day a success.

This is just the beginning.

Watch this space. More details will follow....