2014 finally year of Digital Automated Home (and proper BI)

Why is the digital home finally coming around? its BI (Business Intelligence) probably

The automated home has been a long time coming, over 10 years ago I marvelled at the remote control curtains in his UK house that my colleague Keith could command from his holiday home in Florida, however, while very impressive, and capable of doing many things, the reality was that putting it together was not easy, even the hardware design of X10 stuff was very "engineer with no brief or requirements" which meant usability was low and a knowledge of coding necessary.

Years have gone y and things moved on; and while products like the nest weather station, connected cars, etc. I suddenly came out of new year's celebrations with a 2014 full of home automation, first we had Google buying Nest and the whole world, including giant Samsung joining the smart watch race.

But why is 2014 connected home year all of a sudden? Why these purchases? Well for me its simple; from years of building MVNOs I have seen that thoese that truely know their customers and can adapt their BI to fit win. They don't just win by a small amount, like the majority of companies that constantly mine their BI for small, incremental gains, these are companies that leverage what they know about their customers and say:

"these are our first 100,000 customers who will buy our new mobile service because they have bought this, this and this from us, they consume this media, live in this area, have this sociodemo group, and we are marketing them both directly and indirectly in these ways that achieve this conversion"

And they do that as the key to understanding them is how they live and from that what makes them tick, or otherwise, what makes them buy. Clever supermarkets get this data from your credit cards and shopping bills (place and sociodemo group as well as purchase preferences) for example. But what to do if your customer is more anonymous? what to do if your BI is not up to scratch? well buy a company or create a product that can give you this data that fits with your business.

The Google Nest acquisition will tell Google how many people there are in a household, the sociodemographic derived from location, when the house is heated and spend, how people share households, who manages certain aspects of a household, etc. Even anonymously, this data can tell you how to charge effectively for ads to the household and mobiles and can be critical for their core business.

Samsung sells fridges and phones and TVs, combine these with a smart watch that can tell when people exercise and preferably what they do or should eat, and the ecosystem from what entertainment products to the really smart fridge starts coming together with real data - not some guys in a room trying to come up with products based on his or her own personal experience.

So this got me thinking, what other opportunities are there in the household, and how often do we use them / how important are they. I tried to put this together simply over a year ago, but ironically been tied down working hard, and thought I would share it. The Venn circles are at the moment just built around what makes up my automated home, and size roughly dictated by how many devices / how often they are used.

My Automated home by devices and 4 simple categories: Work, Play, Health and environment

2014 has seen many entrants into digital home, Google with Nest, Samsung et al with smart wearables...

It surprised me how little is actually work related, despite me working from home most of the time when I am not on a client site, and the fact that I must be one of the few people where PABX is on my home automation list and have and army of NAS (not sure what the collective noun for NAS is??? suggestions???) This has certainly changed, as the SOHO was a key target of early digital homes...

I was more surprised how little "play" there was as well, especially after deleting the Playstation due to it being relegated to smart TV and blueray duties (hence inflated smart TV, etc. bubble), and the phone / tablet being prime game console.

So the two bigger diagrams are health and environment, which is where the array of smart watches and companies like Nest are playing, and where e-cars, e-bikes, and the future of utilities is headed... (smart meters, personal solar/wind supplementing the grid, low energy and where Google is also looking to get inverters. This latter part will take a while; as we offload the batteries from e-cars that are under their 3 year 80% power output cycle, but still are over 60% and more than enough to power most things in the house except white goods.. charging them by wind or solar will be a logical step....

I shall be looking at ways of developing this diagram over time, any suggestions welcome...

How ballots break great events - Hyde Park and London lose again...

As you get into triathlons, marathons, half marathons, etc. you get used to talking about your experience as the curious and would be athletes constantly ask about your experiences, training, and generally the process of getting into these sports...

... as this happens, and being a Londoner, you rapidly learn how lucky we are as Londoners in having Hyde Park, and other parks to train in. My friends who live in the country cannot train due to country lanes accessing open areas being dangerous, others live in cities that just do not have the parks we have in London.

However, aspiring sportsters very, very seldom do their first event alone, nor do they do it far from home. They do it with people who have done it before and they do it close to home and at key locations, like Hyde Park (and uniquely Blenheim Palace). This is where Hyde Park has been pivotal in getting myself and all the people I know who do triathlons and half marathons into these great sports that have changed peoples' lives and make London one of the best places in the world to live in. For me, the Hyde Park triathlon was the London 2012 legacy we heard so much about.

The key to these events changing peoples' lives, helping them live longer, stay fitter, being proud of their city and to keep doing these sports is not only that they get people into sports, but they keep them in these sports by creating a stable event around which to keep bringing people into these events. Yes, some go, but for each that goes, at least one new comes, and the one that goes often come back again.

The Hyde Park Triathlon is, or was, a "must do" event that we hyped up, got everybody to subscribe to, to the point that we all follow the event religiously as we did all the brands that sponsored these events: We checked the pages weekly, daily, even hourly and when the moment came, we acted; there was no room for doubt - you were in, and committed to doing the event as it became available - but moreover, we were "all in".

Hyde Park Triathlon was an olympic experiment that got many Londoners into triathlon

This "all in" is important, as we are in together, we train together, and so the event is a success. You cannot expect to sign up for your first triathlon or half marathon alone and expect it to be a success. Do it alone and the chances of it being an unmitigated disaster you tell all your friends never to do is almost guaranteed. Join or participate alone it will most likely be a one-off, like the London Marathon and like so many "bragging rights" events that people come to, they do and they leave with the t-shirt.

Marathons are different; a marathon is 3 or 4 times the distance most avid runners ever want to run and then some more...they are bragging events and so the ballot works: Ironman is the same.

Half marathons and triathlons however are different: We are all members of clubs, either registered clubs or social clubs of our own making via email and social networks - we train together year after year, we plan the following year together, we race together and we compare personal bests year after year together... Which bring others in.

That is until someone who has no interest in the sport, or just wants to exploit an event for short term gain, decides to turn marketing and sponsorship gold that is a whole city gripped for an events release into a mass market maybe in one foul swoop by putting a ballot in place. It happened to the Royal Parks half in 2011 and it happened now in 2013 to the Hyde Park Triathlon. In 2011 I know of spouses who got a place in the Royal Parks Half, but the person who got the spouse into half marathons did not. In the 2013 hyde park triathlon I know 30 people in 5 groups who entered but only one got in. None of us have returned to Royal Parks half and none of us, not even the one who got a ballot ticket for the Hyde Park Triathlon, want to do the event again while there is a Ballot.

While I am very happy for those who got a place, and want as many people who can and want to, to enjoy a great event and a location I am lucky enough to train in every day; the long-term value of an event is built on the fact that it grips its locals and continues to change lives and return sponsor value year after year, and carries on building the legacy of the people who built it and the Olympics that changed London. It also depends on the people who are dedicated enough to follow the event and its sponsors to be on top of the event, its sponsors, their social presence so keenly that the moment they announce entry they buy a ticket and email the people who they bring into the sport and will continue in, the sport. The legacy builds this way.

A ballot not only ruins this community spirit, but also ruins sponsorship value: the Hyde Park tri this year is sponsored by Pruhealth, my insurance provider of many years, and a provider I have introduced and convinced many to join over the years... Is now a sponsor and health insurance provider, like the event, that I now no longer not want to be associated with! In 2010 and 20111 we all came back from holiday to compete and in 2012 we did the same and even took days off while screamed ourselves hoarse at last year's event we could only watch (due to the Olympics) while discussing next year's come back. This year we are unlikely to even turn up, even the one who got a ballot ticket, such is the disconnect a ballot causes.

At the same time, my loyalty to last year's sponsors; Garmin, Tata and Specialized, could not be stronger, and if they sponsor a rival event; I and my training partners will most likely follow wherever they go. And at least there is still the Blenheim Triathlon, which despite being just a sprint continues to grow from strength to strength, like the legacy of the of the man who was born there.

Organisers of events take note - the people who build your event are those who will maintain your event and its ability to continue to attract bigger and stronger sponsors, who in turn will attract more dedicated following and with it more tourism, bigger crowds and new entrants alongside loyal followers and the long term chance of your event going from a "must do" to a legendary fixture. Put in a ballot an you turn it into an x-factor that churns out one hit wonders and attracts second tier follower brand sponsors instead of market leaders... This is not the legacy London 2012 was supposed to create, and it should not be allowed to repeat itself.