Sorry, let me try that post again ...
A reminder of what previous trade shows has led to:
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW 2016 & MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS 2016
In the first half of the 2016 calendar year, Buddy is exhibiting or participating in at least three major trade shows – the Consumer Electronics Show, Mobile World Congress and IoT World. Each of these trade shows caters to a slightly different scope of customer and audience, and the Company is participating differently at each.
The Consumer Electronics Show 2016 (“CES”) was held in early January in Las Vegas, NV, and is traditionally the largest such trade show in which Buddy participates. That said, it is also the least focused – with exhibitors spanning the entire spectrum of consumer electronics technology. This year, there were three key themes which emerged from the show – IoT, drones and connected cars. It can be [FONT=OpenSans]demonstrated that all three represent opportunity for Buddy, as drones will soon become connected and need endpoints to stream their telemetry to (think of an aircraft “black box in the cloud” scenario), and connected cars will be amongst the most significant generators of consumer device data in the short to medium term.[/FONT]
[FONT=OpenSans]While Buddy did not formally exhibit at CES, the Company did host a meeting suite to conduct business with exhibitors and attendees alike. Halfway through the show, the Company hosted an evening reception for existing and prospective customers, and while the Company’s presence at CES was the smallest of the three main trade shows for this half year, substantial leads were derived from the show.[/FONT]
[FONT=OpenSans]Emerging from CES, Buddy has added an inflight entertainment technology provider, an online retailer, an Asian consumer electronics vendor, two connected home product vendors, a connected lighting vendor, a prominent Asian electronics testing facility, an auto OEM, a connected door lock vendor, a US retail chain, amongst others, to the customer pipeline. Additionally, the Gimbal and Ombitron deals were initiated at CES.[/FONT]
[FONT=OpenSans]This past week, the Company exhibited at Mobile World Congress 2016 (“MWC”) in Barcelona, Spain. Traditionally the largest trade show globally for the mobile industry, MWC has increasingly evolved into other technology areas such as mobile applications and connected devices/IoT. Attendees at this year’s show were left in little doubt that the mobile industry considers the IoT to be the most broadly disruptive technology the world has yet seen. Across roughly ten large halls worth of technology exhibitors and over 94,000 attendees, barely any exhibitors were not describing themselves as IoT companies, or talking[/FONT]
[FONT=OpenSans]about their products in the context of the IoT.[/FONT]
[FONT=OpenSans]As with previous years, the Company has exhibited at MWC as part of the State of Washington Department of Commerce’s “Choose Washington” consortium. Having received a U.S. Federal Government grant to assist in Buddy’s expenses at the show, Buddy was one of the two largest exhibitors on the Washington State booth. This investment – in addition to bringing six team members to the show (including CEO David McLauchlan and Chairman Rick Borenstein) – has already yielded dividends.[/FONT]
[FONT=OpenSans]Although far too early to tell for certain, it is quite possible that MWC 2016 was the Company’s most successful trade show effort to date – with a slew of very immediate opportunities emerging, some of which have already progressed to NDAs and pilot/trial kickoff discussions to be held in the coming weeks.[/FONT]
[FONT=OpenSans]A major takeaway from MWC was that given the hype around IoT, customers are being careful to seek solutions, not technologies – and purchase value creation, not product features. Customers want to know how the application of the IoT, and Buddy in particular, can make them money, save them money or -make them smarter. Participants in this space are beginning to fall into one of two categories – vertical [-solution providers with proprietary technologies, or horizontal developer tool providers offering building-blocks. Buddy’s ability to be a substantial component of a vertical solution – but built using open standard-[/FONT]technologies, while interfacing with just about any system in or out, positions the Company very nicely in this space. The horizontal developer tool providers (Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, etc…) also are complementary in this sector, as developers wishing to build their own platform are by definition not customers of Buddy. It is our (early) experience that a growing proportion of those customers will later seek to move to a hosted platform solution, and Buddy stands ready to win that business in due course.
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[FONT=OpenSans]At the time of writing, new opportunities are still inbound from Mobile World Congress – however we can already count amongst them two auto OEMs, a mining data opportunity, a connected civic lighting provider, a major European power utility, a manufacturing facility looking to connect sensors across their production lines, a major Japanese systems integrator, a major Indian systems integrator, a mobile carrier, a prominent silicon manufacturer, a water filtration opportunity, a device management provider and several more.[/FONT]
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[COLOR=#000000]As with previous updates, management reiterates prior guidance that commercial enterprise deals such as these may typically take four to six months to close out. Efforts are continuing to minimize this sales cycle, but investor expectations should be set appropriately. The Company does not typically announce the commencement of pilot programs or trials of the Buddy Platform product, but will announce commercial deals at the earliest possible opportunity.[/COLOR]
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