Chris Jones

Chief Technology Officer

iRobot

Connectivity of devices in the home is pervasive, and the average number of connected devices in the home is increasing. Many traditional devices are now connected and “smart,” including lights, speakers, thermostats, and robot vacuums. While there are myriad devices that make up today’s connected home, the consumer benefits of having such devices are primarily limited to individual device functions and narrow features. In order for homes to go from connected to smart, these devices must be automatically orchestrated to provide seamless home-wide experiences.  This automation requires physical context about the space in which the devices are operating to be usable and personalized to an individual’s home. This presentation discusses how home robots in millions of homes today are already mapping homes and are ideally suited to provide such physical context required to address these challenges in enabling the smart home.

Charlie Kindel

Senior Vice President, Products and Services

Control4

Together is better. Join Charlie Kindel, Senior Vice President of Products and Services, Control4, as he imagines a five-level taxonomy to converge a cooperative vision for the smart home market. Charlie discusses what’s at stake in the residential automation market and how leadership today can drive the opportunities of tomorrow by better understanding how the collective “we” can all work together to advance the user experience and distinguish between smart homes and truly smart homes.

Anne Ferguson
Vice President of Marketing
Alarm.com

Security continues to be the leading channel for smart home and business solutions, and the predominant purchase driver for smart solutions. While this opportunity continues to fuel real growth for the industry, how can service providers maintain a leading position given the increasing complexity of smart solutions and interoperability demands of a growing set of connected devices? Join Anne Ferguson, Vice President of Marketing for Alarm.com, to understand what emerging trends new research have uncovered to help us collectively respond to key consumer purchasing drivers for smart solutions today and into the future.  

Integrating Wellness into the Smart Home - Regency Ballroom

Wearables, wellness solutions, and connected fitness and medical devices offer new growth opportunities for the smart home industry. This session discusses how smart home players can capitalize on growing interest in connected health and medical use cases in the home and how to think about integrating experiences.

Christopher Baskin, CEO, American Two-Way

Joey Neal, VP, Product, Hero Health

Chris Otto, Senior Vice President, MobileHelp

Sharlene Sternberg, Marketing Manager, Sensoria

Moderated by Kristen Hanich, Senior Analyst, Parks Associates

Energy Management Solutions: Smart Home Crossover - Grand Peninsula ABC

For many consumers, the natural progression of their smart home goes from individual devices delivering independent use cases to many devices working in concert to deliver an aggregate value proposition. A smart home where multiple devices are controlled in coordination maximizes energy savings and gives consumers new insights into the efficiency and operation of their home devices. This session discusses the multiple product categories active in the home, the outsized and underappreciated role of energy in the smart home, and energy management scenarios emerging from industry partnerships and crossover use cases.

Justin Berghoff, Director, Business Development & Product Management, Residential, Leviton Manufacturing Co., Inc.

Joseph Carangelo, Executive Director, Strategy and Innovation, Baker Electric Home Energy

Mel Fox, Product Owner, Nexia Home, Residential HVAC & Supply, Ingersoll Rand

James McPhail, CEO, Zen Ecosystems

Felicite Moorman, CEO, STRATIS IoT

Moderated by Denise Ernst, Vice President, Parks Associates

Connected Cars: Extension for the Smart Home - Grand Peninsula EF

New connected car features offer innovative safety, comfort, and entertainment experiences. This session examines the role of the car as part of the smart home ecosystem, with a profile of car shoppers and their interest in connectivity features, voice control, personalized infotainment and comfort options, and autonomous driving. Speakers also provide insight on new revenue streams and business models emerging out of the connected car, the impact on auto insurance, and best marketing strategies to capture consumer interest.

Brian Brackenbury, Director, Connected Products, Gentex Corporation

Jan-Philipp Gehrmann, Director, Head of Automotive Sales & Marketing Silicon Valley, NXP

Andy Hodge, CEO, Founder, Owl Cameras Inc.

Katie McMahon, Vice President and General Manager, SoundHound Inc. 

Dr. Alan Messer, CTO, Mojio

Moderated by Chris O'Dell, Research Associate, Parks Associates

DIY Disrupting Home Security - Regency Ballroom

DIY (self-installed and/or self-monitored) devices and systems are expanding the reach of the security market among previous non-owners, but do these consumers consider themselves “home security households”? This session examines the DIY buyer, impact of DIY option on the population of value-driven traditional subscribers, and the use cases truly driving DIY adoption. Speakers address new players, business models, and partnerships in the DIY smart product category.

Chris Carney, CEO & Co-Founder, Abode

Spencer Moore, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Rapid Response Monitoring

David Shapiro, Co-Founder and CTO, Scout Alarm

Thad White, Vice President, Product Management, Ooma, Inc.

Matt Wolf, Head of Partnerships, SimpliSafe

Moderated by Dina Abdelrazik, Senior Analyst, Parks Associates

Support and Installation: Making the Smart Home Work - Grand Peninsula ABC

Consumer onboarding experiences with connected home products and systems are critical to reducing product return rates and increasing brand loyalty. This session examines approaches to simplifying the “out of the box” smart home experience for consumers and the ripple effect on expectations and support business models when initial setup is transparent to the end user. Speakers share strategies to deliver support to connected consumers and how to monetize product and service reliability.

Yuval Boger, CMO, Wi-Charge

Rob Conant, CEO, Cirrent

Tony Frangiosa, CEO, InstallerNet, Inc.

Christine King, VP, Business Strategy & Partnerships, Puls Technologies Inc.

Alton Martin, SVP Growth and Co-Founder, Trusource Labs LLC, An Everise Company

Renee Soulliard, CMO, Support.com

Moderated by Patrice Samuels, Sr. Research Analyst, Parks Associates

Connected Entertainment and Smart Home: Bridging Parallel Ecosystems - Grand Peninsula EF

Connected home networks are straining under the convergence of streaming media consumption, smart home device demands, simultaneous users, and network fluctuations. Consumers also have a variety of user interface options, including remote controls, apps, and smart speakers. This session addresses strategies for addressing issues of coverage, congestion, and network optimization to deliver a premium Wi-Fi experience for the whole connected home, as well as strategies for achieving a unified experience between smart home and connected entertainment products and services.

Ashish Aggarwal, Co-Founder & CTO, Caavo

Arsham Hatambeiki, Senior Vice President, Product & Technology, Universal Electronics Inc.

George Katsiris, VP Product Evangelist, Savant

Oz Yildirim, CMO, AirTies

Moderated by Lindsay Gafford, Research Analyst, Parks Associates

Data Security and Privacy: Empowering Consumers - Regency Ballroom

By their nature, connected devices pose a risk to consumers’ privacy. For consumers to embrace the value propositions of smart home products and services, they need assurances the industry is taking steps to secure their data and protect their privacy. This session addresses current attitudes around data privacy as well as how companies collect and manage their data, with speakers offering insights on the best solutions and strategies to communicate these practices to consumers.

Marcio Avillez, SVP of Business Development, CUJO AI

Dan Berte, Director, IoT, Bitdefender

Gary Davis, Chief Consumer Security Evangelist, McAfee

Paul Palmer, Director, Business Development, Consumer Business Unit, F-Secure Inc.

Moti Shkolnik, Co-founder & CEO, Firedome

Moderated by Patrice Samuels, Sr. Research Analyst, Parks Associates

Interoperability: Technology Convergence and Expanding the Smart Home - Grand Peninsula ABC

“Works with” is a key mantra for many smart home products, as brand ecosystems emerge from new and popular devices, such as smart speakers. But these initiatives risk the rise of isolated brand islands in the home. This session looks at the efforts to build a seamless experience that crosses brands, platforms, and ecosystems, invisible to the end user.

Avi Barel, Director, Business Development, ULE Alliance

Alex Capecelatro, CEO, Josh.ai

Pete Horton, Vice President, Market Development, Electrical Wiring Systems Division, Legrand

Soren Lorentsen, Director of Global Business Development, SmartHome IoT, Silicon Labs

Matt St. John, Strategic Partner Development Lead - Smart Home, Google Assistant

Moderated by Chris O'Dell, Research Associate, Parks Associates

Retailer Strategies and Smart Home Merchandising - Grand Peninsula EF

Retail is the leading channel for smart home point product acquisition. This session tracks the rise of the retailer in marketing and selling smart home products and solutions, drivers for online vs. in-store sales, and the potential to expand sales with a service brand offering installation, troubleshooting, and more benefits.

Elizabeth Mathes, Director of Smart Home, The Home Depot

Kathleen O'Hara, Vice President | GM, ServiceLive

Adam Sand, CEO, Shopkick

Moderated by Dina Abdelrazik, Senior Analyst, Parks Associates

Insurance and Smart Home Products - Grand Peninsula ABC

Smart home devices and sensors offer insurers new data-driven tools to enhance underwriting, mitigate risk, expedite and validate claims, and deepen customer engagement. This session addresses how insurers can leverage smart home solutions to increase their value propositions for protecting the home while also providing operational efficiencies and introducing new services.

Drew Doleski, Senior Product Manager - IoT, Connected Home, Verisk Analytics

Yuval Harry, Head of Partnerships, Hippo Insurance

Brett Jurgens, CEO, Notion

David Wechsler, Executive Director Channels and Partnerships, Comcast

Moderated by Kevin Meagher, European Associate, Parks Associates

Future Tech Driving the Smart Home: AI, Machine Learning, and Blockchain - Grand Peninsula EF

The smart home experience can be enhanced with emerging technologies such as AI, machine learning, and blockchain. These technologies have the potential to enable and enhance home automation through use cases such as biometrics, user identification and personalization, and advanced video and audio analytics. This session examines the impact these emerging technologies will have on the smart home and the associated challenges with implementing these technologies in the home.

Frederic Bastien, Co-founder and CEO, Mnubo

Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz, Electronics + Environment, Energy & Utilities Research Director, IBM Institute for Business Value

Dr. Chris Mitchell, CEO and Founder, Audio Analytic

Moderated by Chris O'Dell, Research Associate, Parks Associates

Dennis Mathew

Vice President and General Manager, Xfinity Home

Comcast

Comcast’s Dennis Mathew, vice president and general manager of Xfinity Home, the total home security and home automation service, shares the smart home solutions consumers want. His team connected with 2,000 customers and noncustomers across the country between the ages of 18-74 years old to ask specific questions about the smart home products and services they need and will use inside their homes. Learn what consumers are willing to pay for and the user experience they expect.  Dennis discusses how these compelling findings have helped to enhance Xfinity Home and how smart the smart home can get in the future.

Jeremy Warren

CTO

Vivint Smart Home

The path from interactive “remote control” connected homes to truly “smart” homes is rife with pitfalls. So many important home use cases revolve around interactions with people – residents near and far, and visitors welcome and unwelcome – and interaction with real people in the real world tends to make even the most cutting-edge AI seem dumb. How do we think about these challenges as we strive to craft the smart home solutions that will finally catapult this industry to mainstream adoption? Join Jeremy Warren, Chief Technology Officer at Vivint Smart Home, as he wades through issues at the intersection of people, homes, and imperfect AI.