#OMR22 Festival - what an adventure!

Yesterday I attended the #OMR22 Festival in Hamburg, a festival that brings together international players in the digital space for a packed 2 days of demos, exhibitions, and keynote talks. I only had 8 hours in Hamburg, but how amazing those 8 hours were!

I started off my day with a coffee prepared by a robotic arm and I have to say it that it tasted just as great as the one I usually get at my local coffee shop. Feeling full of energy from the coffee, I played with a dog-robot and had a very insightful conversation with humanoid robot.?

After seeing the rest of the stands and spending some time with my Vodafone colleagues, I gave a short talk about the important digitisation for SMEs and finished the day with a G&T prepared by the same robotic arm that made my coffee in the morning.

As I was sipping my G&T, I had a moment to reflect and feel grateful that my entire day was made possible by our 5G, Edge and MPN technologies. And this is just a small example of what these technologies can enable; over the past years I have seen remote surgeries happen over 5G, trees being tracked against illegal logging using IoT sensors, and even wildlife being better off thanks to technology.?

A bee protection project is taking place in Germany to explore how smart technologies, including AI and IoT, can preserve and protect them. Vodafone has also developed the world’s first IoT anti-theft solution for beehives, GigaBeeProtect, which delivers real-time updates on hive safety and location to a beekeeper’s smartphone.

Finally, I reflected on how much these types of festivals have changed. 20 years ago, the language used was purely technical, we were all so hungry to innovate but I feel that we forgot to ask what we were doing it all for. I am happy to see that these days, the language has changed considerably and that we’re still hungry to innovate, but now the technology has a purpose bigger than just seeing where the limit of innovation will take us. Today we are innovating for the planet and our society and I think we are much better for it.?