The ECS'13 was held last week for the 8th time in Stockholm. Actually, this year it was moved to a northern suburb Kista, from Älvsjö which is a southern suburb of Stockholm. Kista is titled as the Science City or Silicon Valley of Sweden, with 70'000 technology jobs in a compact area.
The move was definitely a good thing. Total number of visitors was increased by 50% from previous year. I assume that's mostly thanks to moving to Kista, where people can easily pop-in from surrounding companies for just a couple of hours. Instead of spending whole day by traveling back and forth to Älvsjö.
Embedded Conference is becoming the leading embedded event in Northern Europe. The trade fair is very well focused, all technology provided is relevant, and all visitors are more or less potential customers. The exhibition hall was rather crowded from 10 am until 4 pm (Opening hours 9-5), and according to organizers, many conference talks were fully booked.
I had my presentation at the demo square, in the middle of the exhibition hall. I covered many of the same subjects I have discussed here in my blog earlier. I had nice amount of audience, but more importantly we had plenty of visitors on our booth. Overall, the event was very succesful and we will definitely join next year as well.
What comes to the technology, looks like Sweden is becoming towards the same way how things have been done in Finland already for a decade. Linux and ARM are in embedded mainstream replacing Windows and Intel. Traditionally, Swedish consulting companies have provided more on-site consultants than providing turn-key product development services in supplier's own premises. Now, according to our competitors, also in Sweden customers are becoming more interested in off-site consulting services (product development).
