60 Seconds With… Don Deloach, ITA Midwest IoT Council and Rocket Wagon Venture Studios

Title: Co-founder and co-chair, The ITA Midwest IoT Council; co-founder and CEO of Rocket Wagon Venture Studios

Location: Chicago

Mission: To promote the Internet of Things and related technologies in the Midwest

Modern: Don, just what is the ITA Midwest IoT Council?

DeLoach: It’s an offshoot of the Illinois Technology Association, which is located in Chicago and looks to elevate the local tech community and make Illinois and the Midwest the place for tech companies to thrive. The council is a group of individuals and organizations that want to promote the Internet of Things and the technologies related to the (IoT) digital world in the Midwest to better prepare ourselves to be a more prosperous region in the future.

Modern: What’s your mission?

DeLoach: It’s really to promote the awareness and thoughtful enablement of the IoT. When people think about IoT, some think one step ahead of the crowd and a few think two steps ahead, but issues are going to surface that are probably three, four or five steps ahead of where the technology is today. Part of that is the role of data, data governance and even who owns the data. You hear the phrase that data is the new oil, and I believe that’s not the right way to view IoT data. The right way to think of it, and this isn’t my phrase, is that trusted data is the new oxygen. You can survive without oil for some time, but you cannot survive without oxygen. If as a society we are not careful, I can see a time where all of the data is owned and controlled by eight or nine organizations around the world. If so, that’s going to have dramatic effects on how our world evolves. So, I think we need to focus on how this technology is implemented, and we want the Midwest IoT Council to be a steward of the dialogue about how that happens.

Modern: How did the organization come about?

DeLoach: In 2013, I was on the executive committee when we launched the Midwest IoT Summit of the Illinois Technology Association. It’s a two-day conference focused on IoT technologies. I engaged this along with my co-chair Brenna Berman, who was the CIO of the city of Chicago for six years and is now the executive director of the City Tech Collaborative. The company I was running at the time was an analytic data base company that dealt with analytics associated with machine-generated data, or what some called M2M back then. I could see M2M evolving into IoT and became passionate about its potential for dramatic change. Here’s the interesting thing about IoT: It’s at the intersection of operational technology and information technology. Here in the Midwest, we are not dominated by any one industry, but have a footprint in many industries where IoT can play a role, from agriculture to manufacturing to transportation. Our thesis was that the Midwest can and should take a leading role in promoting IoT. That led to the Summit, which was very successful and will be held again for the 7th year this fall. The Summit also led to the creation of the IoT Council in early 2015.

Modern: Tell us about the Summit.

DeLoach: First and foremost, it’s a thought leadership conference focusing on the cyber-physical world. It brings together people who are out in front of where the market is going. We pay very close attention to the content of the event, and the speakers are very forward thinking. It’s generally held in October or November.

Modern: How important is supply chain in the IoT world?

DeLoach: Very much so. Recently, I spoke to the U.S.- Mexico Chamber of Commerce about the role of IoT in the supply chain. Thanks to the increased granularity coming from IoT, further augmented by distributed ledger technology like blockchain, the supply chain has changed dramatically in recent years.

Modern: How do I get involved?  Do I have to live in the Midwest?

DeLoach: You can find more information on our website. But, you don’t have to live in the Midwest. We’ve gotten calls from other cities about their efforts to replicate what we’re doing, and we are always willing to help where we can. It’s a network effect. If you’re trying to help create a better world, the boundaries don’t exist.