North Carolina is the home for cutting-edge research in wireless development and in pushing the edges for Internet of Things development – That’s the message the Wake Forest-based Wireless Research Center of North Carolina and NCRIoT organization as well as six local firms are taking to CES, the world’s biggest tech show.

The Wireless Research Center has an exhibition booth at the Las Vegas event from which the evangelizing will spread. And six local firms are partnering with the WRC to help spread the word about opportunities in North Carolina.

Larry Steffann, general manager of the center, is heading up the effort. And his cohort in running the North Carolina Region Internet of Things (NCRIoT), Matthew Davis of Raleigh-based RevealMobile. They expect to be busy.

“NC RIoT and the Wireless Research Center will be announcing several new initiatives for 2016,” they say. “Smart Cities, an education series “ A MBA in IoT”, Our Global Cities Team Challenge project and our NSF [National Science Foundation] workshop on IOT.”

Raleigh-based Reveal (a spin-off from WRAL TechWire parent Capitol Broadcasting) also is making news.

“Reveal Mobile is launching TheBeaconMap.com, an interactive map that displays Bluetooth beacons that the company has been able to detect and place anywhere in the country,” Davis, the vice president of marketing for Reveal, says.

More CES coverage: For more Triangle connections at CES, including Scott Moody talking about startups and what’s Lenovo is doing, plus wrapups on CES from the Associated Press, see links with this post.

In an exclusive Q&A, WRAL TechWire talked with Steffann and Davis about the CES trip.

  • What are the key factors in your decision to invest in the exhibit?, What do you hope to gain from presence?

The main objective for the Wireless Center has been economic development for our community locally and to reach a broader audience. There’s no better place to reach our audience than CES.

Similarly, NC RIoT helps drive economic development by spreading the message of how deeply supportive and well-established our Internet of Things community already is.

We’re able to bring each group’s distinct message, and six other companies, to CES on a startup budget. The Wireless Research Center’s status as a non-profit grants special privileges when exhibiting at CES, including reduced cost.

By setting the right meetings ahead of the show, the entire cohort will meet with some of the largest players in their respective industries. Affordable cost plus strategic meetings that result on key partnerships make this a simple decision to spend the money.

(Note: For anyone attending the show, we’ll be at Booth 80819 in Eureka Park at the Sands Expo. Come by and see us.)

  • Will you be advocating for the Center and hoping to draw new clients?

The show allows the Wireless Center and the six other firms partnering with us in our booth to find customers, observe trends and build strategic partnership.

The mission here is to create new sales opportunities for each company and economic development for our community as a whole.

  • What technologies will you be touting?

The Wireless Center will be touting its global leadership in phantom testing for Wearable devices. The wearable sector for IoT will likely be a tremendous growth opportunity. The leadership established by the WRC partnership with Zurich based IT’IS creates a unique value to to the IoT market and for North Carolina. (See: http://wirelesscenter-nc.org/testing-services/wearablephantom-services/)

The Wireless Center will be advocating our unique value proposition. The Center is a world class testing, engineering and startup community that is validated by the quality of customers and entrepreneurs that are being served by the center.

  • Talk about the other companies that are participating
  1. Reveal Mobile builds mobile audience analytics software which helps app publishers understand and monetize their apps much more effectively.
  2. MiPayWay’s free mobile application allows consumers to deliver tips to service workers without the need to carry cash, via Bluetooth beacons. This safe, secure connection allows the transfer of funds between the two parties without any sensitive account or personal information being exchanged.
  3. Gigaband developed and patented a smart, heuristic wireless bandwidth distribution technology that can deliver cable/fiber-class performance and reliability at a at a fraction of traditional network deployment costs.
  4. EnVision is the southeastern representative for some leading semiconductor manufacturers; Marvell, Lattice Semiconductor, and Invensense
  5. Smashing Boxes is a consultancy that designs and develops products for Web, IOS, Android and Connected Devices.
  6. The nTeTe Group provides consulting services for innovation within the Internet of Things and technology licensing community.
  • What will this effort will cost? What is the hoped-for ROI?

The cost is basically travel since we are sharing the booth cost with our participating companies. It’s a great way to kick off 2016, and lay the foundation for impactful partnerships throughout the year.