Technology Reseller - v12 2018

technolog y reseller.co.uk 43 EXHIBITION Glimpse of the future Third annual ptg tech expo is its biggest yet that despite unanimity about the need for digital transformation, 93% of global organisations admit they face obstacles to becoming a digital business by 2030. Neil Sawyer, Commercial Channel Director (UK&I) of HP, analysed some of the tech sector’s key trends, including the demands of the ‘experience age’, before Mimecast urged people to change their mind-set when it comes to cyber resilience. Rugby World Cup winner Will Greenwood closed the day’s programme with a recap of his career highlights and advice on teamwork, including the maxim that ‘to travel fast people should go alone, but to travel far they should go together’. Cliff Fox, ptg Group COO, heralded the day a great success. He said: “This event was about getting our customers and guests ‘hands on’ with future technologies from some of the world’s leading brands. Held in a 1,000 sq. metre structure, with state-of-the art AV, lighting and music, we More than 680 tech professionals, 28 vendors and six speakers gathered in Wakefield last month for pure technology group’s third annual tech expo. The largest event of its kind in the North of England, pt18 was held in the grounds of ptg’s Chapelthorpe Hall HQ and showcased a range of cutting edge technologies, from IoT and 3D printing to robotics and assisted reality. Highlights included a demonstration of Toshiba’s assisted reality smart glasses; the launch of a 3D printer from Ikonic; drone racing by DJI; demonstrations of Tesla and McLaren cars; and a guest appearance from Titan the Robot. In addition, pure technology group made a number of announcements, including the launch of new IoT and VR services and an enhanced IT security offering with full vulnerability and penetration testing. Learn from the worst Security was a key theme of the accompanying seminar programme, which began with a talk on developments in cybercrime given by Jamie Bartlett, author of The Dark Net: Inside The Digital Underworld. He urged attendees to view the growing cyber threat as an opportunity to design game-changing products and services and argued that despite its lawlessness the dark net is a highly innovative space. As he put it in a post-event tweet: ‘If you’re looking for new ideas, ingenuity and innovation – the criminal underworld isn’t a bad place to start.’ Bartlett was followed by Sarah Shields, Vice President and GM UK & Ireland at Dell EMC, who talked about the fourth industrial revolution now underway. She pointed out wanted pt18 to be as innovative as the tech it played host to. And the 98% Net Promotor Score (NPS) from delegates as they left shows that we fulfilled this goal… and then some.” IoT on wheels The Tech Data IoT truck is back in its garage after completing an eight- week, 10-city tour around Europe including stop-offs in Newbury and Manchester in May. The Tech Data European IoT on Wheels Roadshow 2018 visited six countries between April and June, giving partners across Europe the opportunity to see how IoT can help them deliver innovative business solutions for customers in the retail, smart spaces, manufacturing, transport and logistics sectors. Examples highlighted on the truck included a telemetrics solution showing real-time information on the roadshow truck’s location and engine load; the remote monitoring of connected fridges; interactive product recommendations for shoppers; inventory management of RFID-tagged items; and occupancy sensors to control lighting, heating and cooling costs. Craig Smith, Tech Data Vice President IoT and Analytics, Europe, said: “The aim of the IoT on Wheels Roadshow was to create a unique experience for our channel partners and show how to make IoT easy to understand, deploy and sell. We hope that we have demonstrated the tremendous opportunity IoT brings for organisations to bridge the worlds of IT and operations.” www.techdata.com Vendors in attendance included Barracuda, Bitdefender, Black Marble, Canon, Dell EMC, DigitalXRAID, DJI Drones, F-Secure, HP, Huawei, Ikonic, Jardine Motor Group, Lenovo, McLaren, Microsoft, Mimecast, PowerVision, S2S, Sphero, Symantec, Tesla, Toshiba, UBTech, Vapour, Virtual College, XYZ Printing, Zen Office and the Yorkshire & Humber Regional Cyber Crime Unit.