Since 2015, Meralco and its partners have held the Meralco Technology and Innovation Summit (MTECH) to showcase innovative new technologies in the utilities and energy sector. While past MTECH’s have been mostly business-to-business affairs, MTECH 2018 last week was a bit different; tons of exciting new tech were showcased, with some even being geared towards consumers in general.
MTECH 2018 took place at the Meralco Center last November 19-21, and it featured the theme of “A New Wave of Disruption.” Continuing from last year’s summit, Meralco showcased technologies that will disrupt our current way of life — for the better of course.
While the three-day summit featured a number of showcases, the third day was undoubtedly the biggest as it h the MTECH 2018 Forum. The forum acted as the sort of culmination of the whole MTECH Summit, with keynotes and speeches from the likes of Manny V. Pangilinan (Meralco Chairman), Oscar S. Reyes (Meralco President & CEO), Gavin D. Barfield (Meralco Chief Technology Adviser), and many more.
The meat of the Forum was Meralco’s future innovations, especially in forging the way for a Pinoy smart home along with developments on the internet of things. In case you aren’t familiar with it, the Internet of Things (or IoT) refers to a network of devices and appliances that allow them to store and exchange data — basically it refers to “smart” devices (such as TVs, kitchen appliances, etc.) that can connect to the internet and are able to interact with the user and/or other devices.
Some examples of Meralco’s inroads into the IoT space includes plans to set up smart home devices that can keep track of electricity usage on-the-fly, as well as being voice command-ready. These tech may not be available yet, but Meralco has already set up online services to serve as a backbone to these upcoming technologies.
Aside from the keynotes at the MTECH Forum, the summit also held exhibition spaces for a multitude of tech companies to showcase their latest innovations. Exhibitors include: Nokia, Delnet, Trends, Schneider Electric, Pazifik Power Inc., Nuvve, NTT Data, Microsft, Indra, Dimension Data, Amazon Web Services, SAP, CapGemini, Voyager, and many more.
Finally, MTECH also hosted another tech forum, the Young Engineers and Scientists Summit (YES). The summit was made for senior high school and engineering students to showcase and develop their skills in the field of tech.
For more information on MTECH, visit the official MTECH website.