Meet and Network with members of The Things Network Community and the Local Authorities, Housing Associations, Public Sector Organisations, Research & Higher Education Institutes and Businesses leveraging this emerging technology.
Explore the applications of LoRa enabled devices
Learn about different market ready options
Discover what is coming out of the R&D community before anyone else
Get hands on with workshops exploring ethical data collection, ultra low power and Node RED
Explore LoRaWAN by making your own LoRa device
Learn how to make reliable, secure and scalable LoRaWAN applications
Are you eligible for discounted tickets? |
Keynote Speakers

Keynote: 10 lessons in 4 years - what I wish I knew years ago
Wienke will talk about building an open source business, lessons from working with corporates, and some war stories.
About Wienke
Wienke Giezeman
The Things Network

Keynote: Delivering a smart city cluster in the Thames Valley
Details TBA
About Rob & Simon
Rob McDonald & Simon Beasley
Reading UK
Featured Speakers

Talk: IoT in Smart Places – From Pilot to Business as Usual
There is huge excitement about the potential of IoT for business and the public sector, but are we really ready for large scale deployment?
Using real-life examples in the UK, this talk looks at the opportunity, why it’s worth it, and what it actually takes to get from pilot to full roll-out.
About Helena
Helena Zaum
Microsoft

Talk: Adding intelligence to your LoRaWAN devices
Many LoRaWAN devices are very simple: just a radio sending raw sensor values to the cloud. But this limits the usefulness of a deployment.
A sensor can send that it saw movement in front of it, but not what it saw. Or a sensor might notice that it’s being moved around, but not whether it’s attached to a vehicle or is just being carried around. The reason is simple: for knowing what happens in the real world you’ll need lots of data, and sending all that data over LoRaWAN quickly diminishes your downlink budget and battery.
How can we do better?
In this talk we’ll look at ways to draw conclusions from raw sensor data right on the device. From signal processing to running neural networks on the edge. It’s time to add some brains to your LoRaWAN deployment.
About Jan
Jan Jongboom
EdgeImpulse

Talk: LoRaWAN in Wales
The development of LoRaWAN and IoT in Wales.
About Peter
Peter Gwyn Williams
Welsh Government

Talk: How to build a secure provision workflow and strengthen authentication to TTI’s join server
Manipulating application and network server keys is not only a daunting process but also opens backdoors in LoRaWAN connected products.
Microchip’s secure element, bundled with TTI’s join server service, helps simplify the provisioning process and secures the keys, not only in the deployed system but also throughout the entire supply chain.
About Nicolas
Nicolas Demoulin
Microchip
Speakers

Talk: THE FINAL FRONTIER: LoRa® CONNECTIVITY EVERYWHERE
The coverage of The Things Network continues to grow impressively. But there likely will always be gaps in coverage between the cities and in remote places on the Earth. Lacuna Space is flying gateways on satellites to fill in the voids, enabling monitoring in remote locations or tracking of mobile ‘things’, no matter where they are.
We will describe the recent advances in satellite technology that have made this economically feasible, and also describe the technical challenges to be overcome, for example: establishing links over hundreds of kilometres and Doppler effects.
We will describe the results from experiments with our first satellite and also the trials that we will be performing later this year once the next three satellites are in-orbit.
About Rob
Rob Spurrett
Lacuna Space

Talk: Propagation of LoRa signals
Andreas will talk on the factors influencing the reach and stability of LoRa communication.
About Andreas
Andreas Spiess

Talk: How We Are Crowdsourcing An IoT Network To Cover The South West
SWIN are leading a project to deliver an IoT project in the SouthWest of England which has come from the local developer community working across sectors from Marine and Agritech to Health and Pollution.
All using shared Gateways and resources creating a ground up Agile project, working for all the community including citizens who usually get ignored by new technology.
About Wo
Wo King
Southwest Internet of Things

Talk: DIY LoRa from Orbit
FossaSat-1 is a 5cm sided pocketqube satellite developed by Fossa Systems, a non profit juvenile association based in Spain and dedicated to the development of picosatellite technologies.
FossaSat-1 will test LoRa IoT telecommunications from space without the need of any ground infrastructure. $5 transcievers with monopole antennas at 10mW will be capable of connecting to the fully free and open network. FossaSat is a fully open source project developed by a group of Students from all over the world. Fossa aim to democratise access to space by reducing launch costs and democratise access to IoT by reducing necessary ground infrastructure.
This talk will also cover some of the less known characteristics of LoRa regarding its long range and behaviour at extreme settings (36,000km range at 7.8khz SF12 and TCXO modules) as well as practical tests beating national LoRaWan records.
About Julian
Julian Fernandez
Fossa Systems

Talk: How to create a better AI (Provisional)
An exploration of how data from IoT can lead to improvements in AI by overcoming the historical biases and flawed methods that current algorithms have been built from.
About Sharon
Sharon Richardson
University College London

Talk: LoRaWAN Enabling Efficient Predictive Maintenance
A presentation on examples of how organisations have used KoolZone LoRaWAN technology to schedule predictive maintenance and achieve beneficial results.
About Ali
Ali Miller
KoolZone

Talk: The future of deep learning is 8-bit: Building smart sensors
Using optimisation techniques, machine learning models can now run on small microcontrollers, enabling raw sensor data to be turned into actionable insights locally.
This technology is the perfect partner to LoRaWAN sensors, enabling just the event metadata to be transmitted.
Workshop: Building Smart Sensors – ML on MCU
Attendees will:
- Assemble a Gesture Pod which recognises movement gestures from MPU data
- Understand how to capture new gesture data, process it, and generate a new gesture model (there are follow-up steps to be completed post workshop)
Attendees will need to complete the pre-workshop steps documented here. and download the git repository from here.
About Paul
Paul Foster
Microsoft

Talk: How to be a designer in a world that doesn't really need more things
At a time when the world seems to be waking up to the effects of our consumptive economy, the plastics in the oceans, fast fashion, e-waste and climate change – what role can the design of “Things” take in helping to shape a sustainable future? One where products are designed considering their lifetime and not for landfill.
About Erica
Erica Purvis
Technical Nature

Talk: Cars, Kettles, Cows, and the Cloud. Insecurity explained
From parking sensors that tell when a bay is in use or tagged cows broadcasting their location on a farm, LoraWAN has many practical applications, but is what’s connected to it secure? Is the cloud the best place to hold that information? Based on my experience of buying an iKettle that had the sellers credentials in it and was findable on wiggle.net I’d say “maybe not”.
In this session you’ll get a solid understanding of the security and implementation of mobile API’s and Industrial IoT on the internet e.g. A/C disinfectant and oil drilling rigs.
We’ll also explore why hard coded credentials and poor coding within the connected devices present such a risk, and why addressing updates in the production and development cycle is so important, as is telling the users.
About Nigel
Nigel Hearne
Pen Test Partners

Talk: CityGate: An Urban IoT data acquisition platform
The vision of the CityGate platform is to collect, integrate and analyse big data to improve urban systems and quality of life.
This will lead to smarter and greener cities that are of great importance to billions of people.
About Adel
Dr. Adel Aneiba
Birmingham City University

Talk: LoRa Communities of Practice: Innovation for Inclusive Growth
For years we’ve talked about how ubiquitous technology will be transformational.
Imagine a world where that’s matched with more people equipped with the tools and digital skills to embrace that change.
LoRa is supporting an emerging phenomenon for everyone to innovate with low-cost sensors and data rates, and provides an opportunity to talk about sustainable growth that is socially inclusive. In this session we will look at examples including community-led projects focused on improving air quality and boosting diversity in the digital talent pipeline.
About Claire
Claire Garside
Foundation for Digital Creativity

Talk: Challenges of Deploying a System 4 hours from Home - (it's like its in another country)
Tony will discuss the challenges of installing a complete network consisting of Gateway and nodes more than 4 hours drive from home.
He will review the real life experience of installing 12 nodes and several gateways, and consider the future developments required before this can be accomplished by a non-technical customer with a site visit.
He will also discuss the concept of an automated test set which can provide site evaluation of the backhaul system.
Workshop: Antenna Design
Tony’s Antenna workshop was last presented to the TTN Adelaide Lora Community.
The workshop covers RF Engineering basics for non-technical people. It will explain the basics of antennae and the parameters which characterise an antenna – gain, VSWR & bandwidth. It explains dB, dBm, dBd and considers the downside of high gain antennas.
The presentation also includes installation tips such as installation and clamping, water proofing the connectors, cable losses and the use of short flexible tails.
The second half of the workshop will be interactive where I answer questions from the participants. Instead of answering on the spot, we ask participants to submit questions before the workshop and Tony will prepare more detailed answers.
About Tony
Tony Smith
Joto Systems

Talk: The story of LoRaWAN, 5G and Helping Lonely People.
DefProc are a consortium partner in Liverpool 5G Health and Social Care Testbed. Our role is to provide a TTN network to work in conjunction with 5G nodes and produce a service that helps combat Social Isolation using this network.
We would like to share our story so far.
About Jen
Jen Fenner
DefProc Engineering

Talk: If you build it they will come
An overview of Norfolk’s plans and how they are progressing
About Kurt
Kurt Frary
Norfolk County Council

Talk: “Smart buildings” - where/how does LoRaWAN sit alongside/integrate with existing systems?
This talk will introduce the types of automation systems found in commercial buildings such as BMS (Building Management Systems)/LMS /CAFAM etc. and how LoRaWAN based solutions compliment and integrate to these systems.
The majority of buildings don’t have these systems. Lawrence will show how LoRaWAN can be used to create affordable solutions.
About Lawrence
Lawrence Griffiths
industrial internet

Keynote: Go faster and hotter with LoRaWAN
This talk will focus on two of the Digital Catapult’s latest projects, leveraging the full capabilities of LoRaWAN in extreme environments.
We are helping UK businesses break barriers, set new records and avoid getting burned.
Hear about what we did, the challenges faced and overcome, and the end result.
About Peter & Michael
Peter Karney - Head of Product Innovation at the Digital Catapult
A seasoned technologist and senior product manager, Peter Karney heads up Digital Catapult’s Product Innovation team which defines the scope and features of the platforms that support our key activities. With a team of researchers, designers, tech evangelists and product managers, Peter helps turn project ideas and concepts into tangible assets and services. He has been instrumental in setting up Things Connected, the UK’s largest LPWAN network and an associated innovation programme. He brings over 20 years' experience in telecommunications services and the product management of digital consumer applications and has worked for some of the largest telecoms companies (NEC and Vodafone) where he was involved in 5 new mobile network launches across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Peter has also worked for smaller startups and innovation organisations (Livewire Mobile - now acquired by Onmobile and Wholesale Applications Community - now acquired by Apigee and Hibu Labs).Michael Setton - IoT Technologist at the Digital Catapult
Michael Setton got a degree in materials science and semiconductor technology from INSA Lyon and a PhD from University of Pennsylvania in 1990. He worked for 10 years in the semiconductor industry developing advanced processes regarding plasma etching and CMOS integration. From 2000 to 2014 he founded and led Sensaris, a company developing M2M solutions for preventive maintenance, mobile health and environmental monitoring using Bluetooth and Wifi technologies. Michael is consulting and mentoring start-ups looking to bring Internet of Things solutions to market and has been IoT technologist at Digital Catapult since August 2017 working on advanced POCs.Peter Karney & Michael Setton
Digital Catapult

Talk: Sensor alert! … what next?
So you’re ready to invest in IoT for your business. LoRaWAN sensors are great! Plus, you’ve got your head around the acronyms, the tech (at a high level), and what it’s going to cost.
But, are alerts and graphs going to be enough to demonstrate real ROI?
In this talk we look at how mpro5 generates real value from IoT by triggering reactive workflow from sensor readings.
About Ruby
Ruby Whip
Crimson Tide mpro5
Workshops

workshop: Ultra-low-power
This workshop talks about hands-on low level Embedded engineering. It revolves around the problem of powering and running ultra-low power devices. It teaches you to respect batteries and how to test if they are up for the job. After attending you will have the confidence in designing your own Ultra-low power device. You will learn what to do and what to avoid.
What users will need to participate in the workshop
A bit of time (30-40 minutes) and a listening ear.
What level of knowledge / experience is required for the workshop
Basic Electronics.
About Bart
Bart Hiddink
Ideetron B.V.

Talk: The future of deep learning is 8-bit: Building smart sensors
Using optimisation techniques, machine learning models can now run on small microcontrollers, enabling raw sensor data to be turned into actionable insights locally.
This technology is the perfect partner to LoRaWAN sensors, enabling just the event metadata to be transmitted.
Workshop: Building Smart Sensors – ML on MCU
Attendees will:
- Assemble a Gesture Pod which recognises movement gestures from MPU data
- Understand how to capture new gesture data, process it, and generate a new gesture model (there are follow-up steps to be completed post workshop)
Attendees will need to complete the pre-workshop steps documented here. and download the git repository from here.
About Paul
Paul Foster
Microsoft

Talk: Challenges of Deploying a System 4 hours from Home - (it's like its in another country)
Tony will discuss the challenges of installing a complete network consisting of Gateway and nodes more than 4 hours drive from home.
He will review the real life experience of installing 12 nodes and several gateways, and consider the future developments required before this can be accomplished by a non-technical customer with a site visit.
He will also discuss the concept of an automated test set which can provide site evaluation of the backhaul system.
Workshop: Antenna Design
Tony’s Antenna workshop was last presented to the TTN Adelaide Lora Community.
The workshop covers RF Engineering basics for non-technical people. It will explain the basics of antennae and the parameters which characterise an antenna – gain, VSWR & bandwidth. It explains dB, dBm, dBd and considers the downside of high gain antennas.
The presentation also includes installation tips such as installation and clamping, water proofing the connectors, cable losses and the use of short flexible tails.
The second half of the workshop will be interactive where I answer questions from the participants. Instead of answering on the spot, we ask participants to submit questions before the workshop and Tony will prepare more detailed answers.
About Tony
Tony Smith
Joto Systems

Workshop: LoRaWAN, mBed, TTN backend - Engineering Hands On Workshop
An engineers hands on workshop on how to program a mBed LoRaWAN sensor end node and how to view received sensor data on TTN’s backend.
About Campbell
Campbell Elder
Multitech

Workshop: Simple IoT data storage and presentation with Node-RED
The Things Network (TTN) makes your data available globally with security, scalability & resilience. It does NOT store your data – except for Storage Integration & then only for 7 days…
TTN Integrations include: AWS IoT, Cayenne, Collos, EVRYTHNG, OpenSensors, Tago, etc. But what if you want to keep your LoRaWAN node data in-house?
TTN provides SDKs & libraries, such as: Go(lang), Java, Node-RED, Node.js, Python.
TTN also provides an MQTT API to securely expose your data. So, let’s use MQTT, Node.js & MongoDB to acquire and store the data, then display in a webpage with chart.js.
Nic will provide an overview of running a Node.js app to acquire data from TTN and store in a NoSQL database, based on his article here.
You will view data as stored in the database, using the MongoDB app Compass, then an HTML5 demo using chart.js to display the data as a line graph.
Attendees will need to bring along a laptop and follow web links to documentation / demo code at https://github.com/nicbkw/thingsconf2019
About Nic
Nic Burkinshaw
Thinnovation

Workshop: Data Science 101
Data scientists know the “magic” of making accurate predictions over time.
However, magic is just sufficiently advanced technology, and most of a data scientist’s magic is a good process, good data awareness, and the ability to know whether to make something new or use something that’s already out there. In short – it’s not all that different from software development, or any other technical field.
Let’s go behind the curtains and see the process and the fundamentals employed in making any prediction. Get comfortable with the basics of data science, and learn enough to start adding magic to your work.
About Steph
Steph Locke
Nightingale HQ

Workshop: The Things Network for absolute beginners
If you are new to LoRaWAN and don’t know your Arduino from your antenna then this is the workshop for you!
This interactive session will introduce you to LoRaWAN and The Things Network; what it is good for (and what it isn’t); and how it is being used in real life.
There will be plenty of sensors to play with (both commercial and home-made) and you will get to connect a sensor to The Things Network and see data appear on the internet.
Just bring your questions and ideally a laptop. Here are 3 things to do now that will help the workshop run more smoothly:
- Sign up to The Things Network for free at https://thethingsnetwork.org
- Create a free Evrythng account at https://dashboard-eu.evrythng.com
- Download the free “Elsys sensor settings” app onto your phone
About Mark
Mark Stanley
Thingitude

Workshop: LPWAN for Ambient Assisted Living
We will connect several commercially available sensors to TTN, and show data flowing to other platforms such as Google Sheets or Slack.
We will finish with an overview of solution design and discuss practical implementations.
About Michael
Michael Setton
Digital Catapult

Workshop: From Serial to Secure Trusted Provisioning of a LoRaWAN Node using Microchip SAMR34 LoRaWAN SiP
In this class we will cover multiple ways in which a Microchip SAMR34 LoRaWAN SiP can be provisioned onto The Things Network.
We will look at how to provision a single node using a serial interface and command line, through use of the API’s all the way to bulk provisioning of devices using the Trust’n’Go Secure Provisioning for The Things Network.
About Ian
Ian Pearson
Microchip
Reading UK have negotiated special delegate hotel rates for the conference.
Reading UK are our Elite Sponsor, and have organised special offers at local hotels for conference delegates.
Click here for details.
JOIN US
Buy tickets for the conference.
STAY UP TO DATE
We’ll keep you up to date with news about the conference.