Internet of Things conference on Saturday June 24th

Colin Gagich (@colingagich)

Owner, NVC Software Solutions

Talk: HitchBOT, the hitchhiking robot (@HitchBOT)

Bio: Colin Gagich operates NVC Software Solutions, a software company which performs contract design and development work based in Hamilton, Ontario. Through NVC, Colin has worked with clients in the Aircraft Deicing Industry, HVAC Industry and Restaurant Point of Sales Industry. Colin specializes in embedded system design, mobile application development and web application development. Colin has been operating NVC Software Solutions since 2013.

Ian Pilon

Ambient Intelligence Specialist

Talk: Ambient Intelligence: Human-Computer Interaction Design & Smart Environments

Bio: Ian Pilon is an IoT product designer from Kitchener Waterloo Ontario. He studies the relationships between humans and computers and how to interact with physical objects that are evolving into the digital domain. Ian is the Founder and Managing Director of IoT Waterloo Region and IoT GTA, a peer to peer network group of over 2,000+ members who meet-up quarterly for professional networking and learning from industry speakers. He’s also the founder of the “Ambient Intelligence Conference” held annually in the Waterloo Region.

Nick Tomkin

Director of Orbital Studios

Lightning Talk: Creating Carina

Carina is a lightweight, portable structure that takes photos of guests at various public or private events and locations, and uploads them directly to Twitter, Facebook and/or Instagram, complete with captions, photo frames, as well as the event hashtag and branding.

Lightning talks – 10–15m each!

• Adrian Duyzer of Parallel on Taking Advantage Of The IoT Opportunity

James Arlen (@myrcurial)

Director of Risk and Advisory Services at Leviathan Security Group

Talk: Avoiding common security issues in novel IoT products

Bio: James Arlen is Leviathan’s Director of Risk and Advisory Services. Over the past twenty plus years, James has been delivering information security solutions to Fortune 500, TSE 100, and major public-sector organizations. James is involved in information security policy, process, and procedure improvements for internationally known manufacturing and financial organizations and has held key contributor roles as CISO of a publicly traded financial institution and as Information Security Coordinator at a large scale power utility.

Best described as: “Infosec geek, hacker, social activist, author, speaker, and parent”, James’ areas of interest include organizational change, social engineering, blinky lights and shiny things. James founded Hamilton’s first makerspace think|haus before the Internet had Things. He is also a contributing analyst with Securosis and has a recurring column on Liquidmatrix Security Digest. James is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and is a prolific contributor to standards bodies and media.

Sam Reid (ioTcan)

Director of Business Development for ioTcan

Talk: Launching a nationwide loRaWAN M2M (machine-to-machine) IoT network

Bio: IoTCAN is a next generation wide area network designed specifically for IoT solutions. Sam’s talk will cover ioTcan’s work to deliver a robust, carrier grade network to enable the reliable bi-directional communication of connected devices and machines. Initially launching in the GTA IoTCAN will quickly expand their network to offer service in other major cities nationally and then full nationwide coverage. This network is being built on a recognized global standard for low power wide area coverage established by the LoRa Alliance. LoRaWAN™ is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) specification intended for wireless battery operated Things. For more information on LoRa please refer to the following sites: www.lora-alliance.org and Semtech.

Meg Smith (@megthesmith)

Ladies Learning Code Hamilton Chapter Co-Lead

Talk: Opportunities and Challenges for Women in Technology

Bio: Meg Smith is a Senior Designer at Parallel, the Ladies Learning Code Hamilton Chapter Co-Lead, and loves all things DIY. Her work with LLC was featured in Hamilton Business article.

Lightning talks – 10–15m each!

• Terry George and team on their “FITWIZ” ECE capstone project (McMaster University)

John Gerryts

IT telecom analyst by day, uber blockchain hacker by night

Talk: Project Oaken – The intersection of blockchain and IoT

Bio: John Gerryts is a Technologist that has been involved in the cryptocurrency space since 2013. Beginning as an active miner, John is the organizer for the Niagara Bitcoin Meetup Group, and has led a few projects surrounding IoT + Blockchain technology (mostly related to Ethereum.org as early as PoC3). For the last 23 years, John has been involved at different levels of technology, with roles such as Network Administrator, Telecommunications Specialist, and Senior Network & Electronics Integrator. His Project Airlock placed 3rd at the “In Crypto We Trust” Hackathon which has since been mentioned in the Canadian Senate and on the Joe Rogan Experience Podcast by Andreas Antonopolous.

Q&A Panel: Succeeding as an IoT entpreneur

Ask whatever you like – this is your opportunity to learn from successful entrepreneurs and investors in person!

Panel participants:

• Blake Laufer: Invester, entrepreneur, and board member of Angel One Investor Network
• Colin Gagich: McMaster graduate, entrepreneur, hardware and software developer, and creative genius
• Alex Ross: Lawyer and partner at Gowling WLG in Hamilton specializing in intellectual propert law