industryevent
previous year, the event attracted a total of 4,874 over the two days – up from 3,900 in 2015. 2016 marked the show’s third birthday, and with 138 exhibiting companies (including major brands such as Tom Tom, Mio and Sony) it did not disappoint. The expo comprised The Augmented Reality Show and IOT Connect as well as The Wearable Technology Show, and featured six areas dedicated to innovation, lifestyle, connected home, AR/VR, healthcare and technology, as well as the Launchpad and the Swiss and Quebec Pavilions, which were new for 2016. The SGB team made a beeline for the sports stands to take a look at innovative wearables designed to streamline and maximise performance.
The market is expected to
explode as the trend towards Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to rapidly expand in the consumer sector. Global Connected Consumer Devices Report, 2016-2021
The show featured 50 exclusive products launched to the UK trade and media for the very first time, including the new golf watch from TomTom, and Antelope, which claims to be the world’s first performance enhancing sportswear.
Running alongside the exhibition was a
nine-track conference featuring more than 150 speakers, including representatives from Adidas, Microsoft, Team Sky, TomTom, Fitbit, Walt Disney Research, British Gas, Barclaycard and Glaxo Smith Kline. John Weir, chief operating officer at the
Wearable Technology Show, commented: “We have more than doubled our visitor numbers in two years and more than trebled our exhibitor numbers and we plan to return in 2017 bigger and better with an even richer offering for exhibitors and visitors. In the meantime, there’s the small matter of organising the second Wearable Technology Show USA, which will return on 4-5 October in Santa Clara, California.”
Conference highlights Featuring a wide range of different conference tracks, the Wearable Technology show offered important insights and information for all sectors in the wearables market – ideal for sports practitioners, coaches, distributors and retailers alike. The Performance Sports & Fitness Track contained presentations from key innovators in the sports and fitness industry – in particular, how wearable technology and the Internet of Things are creating improvements in performance. With top professional teams harnessing wearables to collect performance data, usage is increasingly filtering down to regular sports participants. In order to maintain sales and customer satisfaction, it is important for retailers to understand not only how data can be measured, but also how it can be effectively used by consumers and the format it should be provided in. Burkhard Duemler, director of the IT Innovation Program and Projects at Adidas, gave a presentation entitled, ‘Fitness Wearables - It’s Half Time’. “Fitness wearables have reached the point of getting into the mainstream. Coming from sport gadget domain, they are moving into the daily life of tech savvy consumers. How will we elevate the experience to the next level to be accepted by a broader community?” he asked. The presentation by Dave Wright, chief
executive officer at MyZone, looked at ‘Why Many Fitness Trackers Miss the Mark on Motivating You to Exercise.’ “So called `Fitness trackers’ have exploded into the consumer
market, often bamboozling the population with slick videos and snazzy marketing campaigns. However, studies have shown that the adherence to these devices have not lived up to the hype. Is this down to the device, the market or basic human behaviour and motivational techniques not being met?” Fitness trackers have huge potential for motivating consumers to embrace physical activity, but retailers and brands need to communicate with customers in order to keep them engaged with their devices and their fitness.
Appearance and design is the
third most important purchase driver for wearables, ahead of more technological features such as measurement reliability, cross-device compatibility and touch screens. Sara Ballaben, technology analyst, Mintel
In ‘What Makes the Perfect Sports Wearable
Device?’ a panel of industry experts discussed the technological advances in wearables, cameras and sensory devices, and debated the ideal format going forward. The US version of The Wearable Technology Show takes place in in Santa Clara, California on 4-5 October 2016. The show will return to the ExCel Centre, London on 7-8 March 2017. Visit
www.wearabletechnologyshow.net to find out more about pre-registration.
Insights in the seminar theatre
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