KEY TAKEAWAYS Robots can change the social behavior of human beings. Robots can become the third channel in customer engagement. Drones are being used for humanitarian aid in disaster zones. Over 1 million drones are expected to be sold globally in the two months prior to Christmas. Instead of the five weeks it currently takes to manufacture clothing, in the future, it may take only a single day to produce 3D- printed, personalized clothing. Facebook is developing aircraft to bring Internet access to zones outside urban areas. Hyperloop transportation could make the world a village again. If a wearable gadget stops functioning, it should still look fashionable. What Is Web Summit? In its first year, 2010, Web Summit welcomed 400 attendees to the Irish capital. The event has now become the largest tech conference in Europe, and this year, over 30,000 people from over 100 countries attended. Multinational tech companies, from Google to Facebook, have offices in Dublin, and many have their European headquarters in the city. Here, we outline some of the highlights and key takeaways of the event. Life with Robots According to Andra Keay, Managing Director at Silicon Valley Robotics, people often prefer not to have a social interaction with another person when they are not feeling sociable yet they still enjoy having a social interaction with a robot. She explained how anything with a screen and speakers becomes a gateway for people to communicate. Robots such as the Mabu personal healthcare companion can become an extension of people s wishes. Just like Mabu, smartphones and cars are examples of how robots and robotics can change many aspects of everyday life, from social interaction and communication to transportation. 1
Julien Seret, Business Development Director at Aldebaran, and Pepper, the social robot developed by Aldebaran Robotics, together gave a presentation on how robots can enhance the shopping experience. Pepper has the ability to read human beings body language and emotions, and adapt its behavior to their moods. The audience was given an example of how Pepper can contribute to a personalized shopping experience: the robot can scan a customer s membership card and, within seconds, advise the customer on the size, color and shape of a piece of clothing the customer is interested in. Pepper can also give an honest, yet polite, opinion on the fit of the clothing on the customer s body. Will robots like Pepper replace shop assistants? Seret assured the crowd that people will not be replaced. Instead, he said, people will be able to focus on what they do best while Pepper performs the repetitive tasks. In that way, robots can become the third channel in customer engagement, after teller and counter, and Web and mobile. Revolutionizing Travel: Drones, Solar- Powered Aircraft and Hyperloop Drones: User Cases and the Need to Regulate destruction from the air. We also stopped by to hear from Randy Braun, Global Director of Product Experience at DJI, and Patrick Meier, Founder of Humanitarian UAV Network, who showed us how drones are being used in areas that have been affected by a natural disaster. Braun and Meier have worked in the earthquake- hit areas in Nepal, helping residents rebuild cities with the assistance of drones that can capture and map the DJI drones are equipped with cameras that can take 4K ultra- HD images. The controlled aircraft can fly in a two- kilometer radius and remain stable even in strong winds. According to Braun, the sophisticated drone technology has finally taken off this year. PCs, the Internet, digital cameras and smartphones have paved the way for the technological revolution. Drones, which are already being used in humanitarian aid in disaster zones, could be the next disruptors in changing people s everyday lives. Public perception and acceptance is an obstacle in the commercial use of drones, noted panelists from AirDog, DJI and DroneDeploy. AirDog s action sport drone follows the user, who can control the aircraft via a wearable device. The drone will be commercially launched in early 2016, and the company is targeting participants in extreme sports, who can use the craft to capture images while they are on the move. 2
DroneDeploy s unmanned aircraft is designed for the agriculture industry, for use in mapping fields. The health of a crop can be analyzed from the images the drone captures from the air. The company s cofounder, Jono Millin, emphasized how drones could function as cheap labor in the skies. In order to change public perceptions of drones, the panelists agreed that the focus should be on applications that can save lives and create economic benefits. One headline number stood out to us from a panel session on drones: in the two months prior to Christmas 2015, 1 million drones are expected to be sold globally. Ralph James from the Irish Aviation Authority and Nick Aldworth from London s Metropolitan Police discussed how drones present a risk to one of the most regulated industries in the world the aviation industry. Currently, there are no clear regulations on drones in the speakers countries. Both panelists agreed that drones come with limitless potential, such as use in humanitarian aid efforts, but without regulations on commercial use, the illegal and unsafe use of drones could have far- reaching negative consequences. It is almost certain that, within the next year, the UK and Ireland will require that commercial drones be registered. Facebook, Virtual Reality and Solar- Powered Aircraft Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer said his company s vision for the next 10 years includes connecting the world and investing in artificial intelligence and virtual reality: Connectivity is taken for granted in developed countries, Schroepfer said. Outside dense and urban areas, it is extremely expensive to provide it. Facebook has been developing a solar- powered aircraft that could remain in the air for up to three months. The incredibly strong and light aircraft is designed for long- endurance flights and can provide Internet access to areas that lack it. Schroepfer also commented on virtual reality, and showed videos that illustrated how people in different parts of the world can have a virtual game of ping- pong. The inventions and developments Schroepfer shared may seem like they have been taken from a science- fiction movie, but Facebook is relentlessly focusing on making the plans reality in the next 10 years. 3
Hyperloop Is Transforming Transportation and Infrastructure At Web Summit, Hyperloop Technologies announced that it had received $26 million in funding as it works toward launching new models for high- speed transportation. Shervin Pishevar and Rob Lloyd believe that the Hyperloop concept using levitating trains in airless, tubelike tunnels will make the world a village again. The company is planning to build a three- mile test track by the end of 2016. Pishevar and Lloyd were reticent about where they plan to build the track, but said three projects will be close to completion by 2020. Hyperloop could change the infrastructures of cities. Suburbs could be built even 150 miles from city centers. Traveling from Los Angeles to San Francisco could take less than half an hour. With Hyperloop, areas lacking infrastructure, like some areas in Africa, could skip st over needing to build all the preceding 21 - century infrastructure. The high- speed transportation system could be built today, according to Pishevar and Lloyd, but first the project has to become cost- efficient. With the announcement of the recent funding, Hyperloop s technology is closer to becoming a reality. Source: Hyperloop Technologies Merging Fashion and Technology Instead of it taking five weeks to manufacture clothing, in the future, retailers could 3D- print personalized clothing in a day, according to Ben Alun- Jones from Knyttan. The blue- and- black striped jumper he wore onstage was 3D printed by his company. Alun- Jones believes that the trend of personalized, made- on- demand clothing could eventually offer a sustainable solution to the problem of clothing waste: people may DEBORAH WEINSWIG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR HEAD OF GLOBAL RETAIL & TECHNOLOGY DEBORAHWEINSWIG@FUNG1937.COM US: 917.655.6790 H K: 852.6119.1779 CN: 86.186.1420.3016 Copyright 2015 The Fung Group. All rights reserved. 4
consume less fast fashion if they buy personalized clothing that they are happy to wear for longer instead. Alun- Jones did note that 3D printing still has a long way to go before it can serve the mass market, but, based on the example set by the likes of Knyttan and Nike, the method will likely become a disruptor in the traditional manufacturing industry. Source: Techcrunch.com Panelists from Third Wave Fashion, Intel and Forbes discussed how wearables in fashion should be much more than just gadgets: Third Wave Fashion Founder Liza Kindred believes wearable technology will become part of people s identity. She said that if a wearable gadget stops functioning, it should still look fashionable. Intel s Philip Moynagh spoke about Moore s law and how the size of the circuitry needed to run a computer keeps shrinking. Intel has developed a button- size Curie chip, which can provide computer power for wearable technology in everything from rings and wristbands to jacket and jeans. Forbes contributor Rachel Arthur argued that consumers are not ready for wearable technology. She believes that the core function of clothing should not be to track data, but instead to look and feel good. In terms of wearable technology developments, she noted the potential of clothing to be both functional and stylish, citing the example of a coat that could adjust to body temperature. In the future, wearable technology, such as fabric that changes its color based on skin color, will become as commonplace as using skin moisturizer, one panelist said. But the panelists agreed that in order to make wearable technology fashionable, technology developers must cooperate with fashion designers. 5
Communications: Is the Smartphone Dead? Email Too? Panelists from Thalmic Labs, Glide and Orion Labs discussed the evolution of communication. What many wearable technology developers are trying to do is to take communication off the screen. Glide CEO Ari Roisman illustrated how it will not be long before he will no longer need a keyboard to communicate with people, as he will be able to instead just tap and talk on his smartwatch. In the future, once facial and voice recognition functions improve on wearable technology, people may even leave their smartphones at home. The smartphone is definitely not dead yet, but its monopoly could be ending. Elsewhere, Stewart Butterfield, the cofounder of Slack, who also founded photo- sharing platform Flickr, spoke about his company s business- to- business workplace communication tool. Slack developed a team- messaging application and is one of the fastest- growing startups in recent years. The company s basic principle is to make communication within a company smoother and more efficient. Butterfield sees many benefits in email, but notes that messages often get locked up in a user s inbox. He believes that Slack s customer first attitude and positive word of mouth are key elements of its success. Slack may not kill email, but Butterfield believes many companies could go email- free internally. Building and Leading Business Giants Gilt Michelle Peluso from Gilt Groupe and Robert Gentz from Zalando took us through the challenges to building successful e- commerce companies: Peluso discussed how her company s US- based shopping website got lost as the company grew quickly and got into too many categories. She mentioned that multidimensional customers need multidimensional companies, but that in order to satisfy demanding customers, companies must stay true to themselves. Gilt Groupe, through mistakes, came to understand that fashion was the core element of the business to focus on. Zalando has become the largest online fashion retail business in Europe in just seven years. The company grew quickly in its native market of Germany. Gentz said he and his partners were afraid of international expansion at first, but decided to trial the market in the Netherlands. Currently, Zalando successfully operates in 15 markets in Europe, and invests significantly in localizing advertising, payment methods and logistics. 6
Dell We also heard from Michael Dell in conversation. Computer manufacturer Dell recently made a $67 billion bid to buy EMC, a data storage maker that is the number one enterprise system. The deal is one of the biggest bids in tech history. CEO Michael Dell said that the combined company could be the leader of tomorrow s IT. He noted that privatizing Dell in 2013 has allowed the tech giant to be more flexible, and given it freedom in terms of operations and investments. He also said that the company is still very much in the PC business, where he still sees plenty of potential for growth. More than 600 million computers in the world are more than four years old, and Dell is targeting the customers who are planning to upgrade their hardware. Microsoft Finally, Peggy Johnson from Microsoft and Kirt McMaster from Cyanogen discussed how to make partnerships work. From the perspective of investors, partnerships are not always an organic path to growth for startups. Johnson stated that her experience with partnerships is that one company is never fully in control when it comes to decision making. In order to have a clear understanding of the partner s needs, both parties have to listen to one another and give up a little bit in order to bring more value and benefit to customers. Key Takeaways In technology: Robots hold the potential to change everyday life as we know it. Robots in the retail sector are not likely to replace shop assistants, but could assist human staff by performing repetitive tasks. Drones are the next disruptors in the technological revolution. Authorities in the UK and Ireland are set to require that all commercial drones be registered. In order to improve the public perception of drones, manufacturers should focus on the life- changing applications of unmanned aircraft. 3D printing is not expected to be used in the creation of mass- market fashion in the near future, but it is set to disrupt the traditional manufacturing industry. The technology and fashion industries have not truly mashed up yet, and many consumers do not see wearable technology as fashionable. Hyperloop s ambitious plans of changing global transportation and infrastructure are one step closer to becoming a reality, as the firm has recently secured funding to build a test track. In communications: Companies might not need to rely on email for international communication in the future. Facebook will focus on investing in connectivity, artificial intelligence and virtual reality in the next 10 years. In the evolution of communication, the next challenge is to take communication off the screen. 7
Deborah Weinswig, CPA Executive Director Head of Global Retail & Technology Fung Business Intelligence Centre New York: 917.655.6790 Hong Kong: 852.6119.1779 deborahweinswig@fung1937.com Filippo Battaini filippobattaini@fung1937.com Marie Driscoll, CFA mariedriscoll@fung1937.com John Harmon, CFA johnharmon@fung1937.com Aragorn Ho aragornho@fung1937.com John Mercer johnmercer@fung1937.com Shoshana Pollack shoshanapollack@fung1937.com Kiril Popov kirilpopov@fung1937.com Jing Wang jingwang@fung1937.com Steven Winnick stevenwinnick@fung1937.com HONG KONG: 10th Floor, LiFung Tower 888 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Kowloon Hong Kong Tel: 852 2300 2470 LONDON: 242-246 Marylebone Road London, NW1 6JQ United Kingdom Tel: 44 (0)20 7616 8988 NEW YORK: 1359 Broadway, 9 th Floor New York, NY 10018 Tel: 646 839 7017 FBICGROUP.COM 8