Buzzwords like big data, smart city and the brighter future could be heard all the time when the second Nordic Edge Expo was arranged in Stavanger. I went down to discover which opportunities lies for entrepreneurs who want to participate in one of the next big industries, where the Nordic countries are already paving the way world wide.
1) Turn big data into smart decisions
At one of the biggest stands at the expo hosted by Microsoft, Øystein Sulutvedt, head of Smart City at Microsoft, and I started to discuss possible opportunities for entrepreneurs over a coffee.
What can entrepreneurs do to get involved in the smart city scene?
– For every day that goes, we collect more and more data. Most of it is public and available for everyone. The value is not in the data, but in how you can transform it into usable information to create better decisions. Oslo used smart data to decide how and where they should roll out new bicycle paths. Entrepreneurs should find ways of how we can turn big data into smarter decisions, Sulutvedt says.
Another big, though positive challenge we are facing in Norway, is the huge amount of people switching to electrical cars. The powerline can be overstrained at times, which can cause problems for delivering a steady supply of electricity to the houses.
–With the new smart electricity meter that will be installed in to all Norwegian homes by 2019, there are huge opportunities for entrepreneurs to disrupt how we use and buy our electricity, I believe.
2) Let there be light!
By the Philips stand, I asked Anders Runemalm, Nordic Enterprise Marketing Manager of Phillips Lighting, about his thoughts when it comes to opportunities for entrepreneurs.
– Well, first of all, big data plays a huge role in how we do decisions these days. Both as big corporate businesses, and local governments. The challenge is to visually present it in an understandable way. There are huge opportunities for entrepreneurs to find new tools and ways to transform all the big data into visuals that will make sense and that’s easy to present.
– The second big opportunity now, is smart light. Light plays a huge part in our public spaces. The question is, how you can use light to make a change in public spaces in the smartest way possible? There are several case studies where light has for example prevented crime, increased number of people going out, leaded to more customers for local businesses and so on. Now is a good time for new startups who wants to improve their city by using old technology and inventing new, in order to find smart ways of using light.
3) Everything, everything will be connected
Telenor, the Norwegian multinational telecommunications company, had some thoughts about what we can expect in the future and what the key challenges will be.
– One of the challenges entrepreneurs can embrace, is that in big corporations it can be hard to share the knowledge and information in a smart way at times. How can big organizations keep knowledge and take smart decisions? That´s something absolutely worth looking closer into, says Roy Schjølberg, Key Account Manager for Telenor.
– When it comes to smart cities, we will see a huge growth in every day things that will be connected online. From our garbage bins to the bicycle to the cars. The question is; what solutions will turn up, that will make our cities smarter and improve efficiency? This will become huge, and will give lots of opportunities to new startup companies to take part in creating the smart solutions for our new smart cities!
