Martel shines at ICT2018

Martel is back from one of our biggest events of the year, ICT2018 in Vienna, held 4-6 December. ICT: Imagine Digital – Connect Europe is the European Commission DG CONNECT‘s flagship event, which meant Martel was hard at work representing many of our Horizon 2020 projects. This year’s ICT edition was the largest ever, with more than 6,000 registered participants and 130 exhibitors.

Martel’s main hub was the Next Generation Internet (NGI) space. As managers of the NGI Outreach Office, we animated the NGI booth at ICT 2018, with help from other partners active in the NGI programme. The booth was a huge success, with a Fortune Wheel, photo booth and visits from local students, VIPs, EC authorities and the press.

We prepared for the event with a well articulated communication campaign. This included press office activity that saw interviews with Martel’s CEO and Head of Media & Communications Dr Monique Calisti published in high-profile ICT publications IEEE Spectrum and ACM Communications to coincide with the IC2018 event. We also coordinated an advertising campaign on social media channels. This included an engaging live Twitter stream, plus Facebook and LinkedIn posts from the event.

NGI and the Future Interent Forum

The EC’s Pearse O’Donohue at the NGI booth

On 3 December, just before the start of the ICT 2018 conference, Martel attended the Future Internet Forum Meeting (FIF). The EC organised the FIF and it was hosted by the Austrian Ministry for Transportation, Innovation and Technology. The EC invited Dr Calisti to present how to join the NGI. She also outlined how the National Contact Points from Member States and Associated Countries can participate in NGI activities.

The NGI initiative also participated in several key sessions at ICT2018.  On day one, Dr Calisti introduced the NGI initiative to an engaged audience in the networking session: Let’s create the Next Generation Internet: it’s ours to shape.

“It’s always an honour to present our projects at a big conference such as ICT2018,” says Dr Calisti. “Martel worked hard this year and I’m pleased to say our team really shone. The NGI booth was one of the most enticing and well-visited in the exhibition area.”

New and ongoing projects on show

Martel curated the promotion and communication of our 5G projects. We contributed to the 5GPPP booth in the main hall and the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) space in the exhibitors’ area with 5G DRIVE and FLAME.

The 5GPPP kiosk at ICT2018

The newly launched NGIoT project, as well as U4IoT, got plenty of attention with information about the projects on the IoT Large Scale Pilots (LSPs) booth. This was significant because Dr Calisti was recently appointed Communication Officer of the IoT-LSP Activity Group 8 (AG08). The AG08 coordinates communication and marketing activities across the whole programme.

Martel, as ChiC project leader, also helped organise the Tech for everyone, by everyone: citizen-centred digital innovation for good session. This session gathered a range of projects that are using citizen-centred digital innovation to tackle social challenges. The session gave a voice to partners from across Europe who are funded by H2020’s Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability (CAPS) programme. The Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative was also represented.

Networking opportunities

Martel CTO Dr Federico Facca was also at ICT2018 to present and discuss Orchestra Cities, our smart cities platform and networking with the FIWARE community.

Dr Monique Calisti on stage at ICT2018

“ICT2018 involved a lot of networking, some hard work and also lots of fun. We caught up with many of our contacts and made new ones. There’s some exciting prospects as we move forward,” says Dr Facca. For Martel’s Lab it was a chance to align with top researchers and innovators on our technical and work.

ICT 2018 was a high point in what has been a busy and productive year for us. And we’re not finished yet! We are, however, looking forward to taking a short break over Christmas and starting 2019 with renewed vigour.

If you’d like to work with Martel to make your next event or H2020 project a big success, drop us a line to [email protected]