Today at 11:30 a.m., Google + Nest Booth #5349
For the first time, Google and Nest are presenting a unified front at CEDIA 2017, and the muckety mucks from the Alphabet companies will be manning the shared booth, answering your questions.
So, whaddya wanna know? (Post your questions below.)
CE Pro is hosting a fireside chat during the show, with product managers and and IoT experts from each company taking questions from yours truly and the rest of the home-technology community.
Google + Nest Fireside Chat
CEDIA 2017
Friday, Sept. 8
11:30 a.m. – 11:50 a.m.
Booth #5349
With Mike Soucie from Nest, Mark Spates from Google, and Julie Jacobson from CE Pro
QUESTIONS FOR PANELISTS? Leave them in the comments section below or email Julie Jacobson.
Representing Nest, Mike Soucie has a deep home-automation background and currently spearheads the “Works with Nest” developer program. From Google, Mark Spates was head of Logitech's Connected Home Platform before before working on Google's smart-home strategy.
In a pre-chat interview recently, I spoke with the duo, a little concerned that this chat might become an exchange of company-approved talking points. But Spates and Soucie are clearly there to share, and their insights will help home-tech pros understand not just what their companies are up to … but where IoT is going in general.
Choice nuggets from our visit:
- “We have to change the paradigm of user interaction. You can’t replace a light switch by having a user pull out a phone.”
- The pro channel has served the luxury market well … “Is there a lost opportunity more downstream? What does the channel need?”
- “How do we better anticipate users' needs?” Strong collaboration between Google and Nest puts the companies in a “better position to achieve that.”
- With a move towards learning, predictive analytics and AI, a growing number of connected products “contributes to the greater good of the ecosystem.”
- Ironically, the more connected devices in the home, the better the analytics, so potentially the more data to monitor for security breaches.
By the way, did you know Google products and services are now part of the Nest Pro program? Dealers are eligible for pro pricing on products like Google Home and Google Wifi.
Related: I’ve Seen the Future of Home Automation and it Starts with Google Now
