Getting together with like minded people always helps drive innovation. So Making Sense’s CEO, Cesar Donofrio, and Sales Director, Juan De Abreu, were delighted to attend the fifth annual InnoTech San Antonio on April 5. Here they joined more than 1,000 professionals for the region’s biggest business-to-business technology event.
Speaking Out Loud for the Cloud
Deepak Rao, Director for Cloud Computing Platforms at Microsoft, made the opening keynote on Leveraging the Cloud to Grow and Optimize Your Business. Deepak showed that over the last half century, there’ve been several quantum leaps in computing capability. Each has meant massive changes in infrastructure, protocols, connectivity and hardware. The latest of these seismic shifts, cloud computing, offers reduced IT costs and easier ways to develop apps. Deepak went on to prove how organizations are harnessing the power of the cloud to host production workloads, create new business models and reach new customers.
Join the Moment Movement
Next up, Gary Shapiro, President and CEO at the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), led an eye-opening session on The Innovation Moment. Gary pointed out that America’s culture of entrepreneurship relies on more than just advances in technology and the right business mentality. It also needs tuned-in policy makers who pass laws that help the spirit of innovation to thrive. The CEA’s Innovation Moment initiative seeks to build an engaged and diverse community who believe innovation is key to America’s economic growth and wider world influence.
Going Mobile
Other inspiring sessions included N. San Antonio Chamber CIO Panel’s session on the Business value of Mobile Technology. Here panelists discussed:
- The growing influence of mobile technology and apps.
- How businesses need to update if they’re to bring customers the best services.
- The growth of BYOD – more than 90% of people say they’re happy taking their own smartphones to work and applying their employers’ policies to them. To make the most of these opportunities, companies will need to introduce protocols like password protection and the ability to delete data if a mobile’s user breaches security.
- How people expect more and more from their mobile devices. Here, Greg Nicholas from WellMed Medical Management pointed out people want to be able to use their mobiles for all kinds of healthcare-related purposes. From accessing their medical records, to requesting appointments.
Lander Makes a Splash
Making Sense also had a big say in InnoTech’s Beta Summit – the competition for new media, software, securities and related technology developed by companies from the San Antonio region. To an audience of top decision makers, we presented our new Lander app – launched just four weeks ago – and it got a great reception. Call Grader was named Beta Summit’s winner, and we got to say ‘Well done’ to the app’s developers.
As in previous years, InnoTech San Antonio also meant seminars and networking opportunities galore. So if you’re in town next year, we recommend you come along.