Session Abstract:
As cities embrace digital transformation, interoperability has emerged as a crucial factor for achieving scalable and sustainable smart city solutions. This panel will discuss the pivotal role of interoperability in enabling smart city ecosystems to grow seamlessly, allowing diverse technologies, platforms, and data systems to work together effectively and scale efficiently. Panelists will address the challenges of integrating various systems, analytical tools and applications, overcoming data silos, and navigating technologies. And how these problems limit the scalability of smart city solutions while emphasizing the importance of collaborative frameworks, cross-sector partnerships, and open standards. The discussion will cover potential solutions and will also highlight some successful case studies where interoperability has driven the scalability of smart city initiatives.
Speakers:
Dr. Divya Gupta brings over 11 years of experience in cloud computing, distributed systems, fault tolerance, big data analytics, technical consulting, and business collaborations. Divya is Senior Solutions Architect at SAS Global IoT Division. Her current work involves the integration of SAS Event Stream Processing in the cloud/on-premises platforms using Kubernetes and Containers, providing architecture solutions to customers to solve their business problems using various technology solutions and bridging the IoT edge to the clouds. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science, Cloud Computing, from Université Grenoble Alpes, France.
Evan Guarniaccia began his career as a particle physicist, transitioning into the world of streaming analytics and the Internet of Things as a product specialist and Solutions Architect. He brings deep technical knowledge along with excellent communication skills to develop and deliver connected and integrated solutions to a wide variety of industries.
Todd Spraggins is an unapologetic telecom evangelist with an extensive career of deploying leading-edge solutions to many of the world’s largest service providers. As Director of Strategy in the Oracle Communications CTO office, he pushes the boundaries of what Operators can do with SaaS by bringing the mobile core to the web-scale cloud. He holds a Masters of Science in Telecommunications from Southern Methodist University and a Bachelors of Science and Engineering from Tulane University.
Jennifer Halstead is the chief financial officer at Link Labs, a leading provider of an end-to-end IoT platform for tagging, locating and monitoring equipment, supplies and assets anywhere at any time. An expert in start-up and early-stage financing, Jennifer plays a vital role in projecting, forecasting, budgeting and reporting the capital required to support Link Labs’ go to market strategy. With more than 20 years of experience in finance and legal compliance, she also plays an essential role in the company’s marketing, human resources and operations management. Prior to joining Link Labs, Jennifer spent seven years as the director of finance with Cloudistics, an on-premises cloud computing company, delivering a complete public cloud experience with composable on-premises infrastructures to medium and large enterprises. During her time with Cloudistics, she supported the company through its integration of core technology into Lenovo’s ThinkAgile CP and acquisition by Fungible. Preceding Cloudistics, Jennifer was the controller for AppAssure Software, a software provider of backup, replication and recovery solutions for virtual, physical and cloud infrastructures, where she led the company’s sale to Dell Technologies. During her tenure at AppAssure, she played a key role in driving the company’s 33 consecutive quarters of revenue growth. After the acquisition by Dell Technologies, Jennifer was the controller for Dell Software’s data protection division, managing worldwide finance functions for all data protection products. For 15 years, Jennifer also ran her own public accounting firm, Halstead & Halstead PC, which specialized in outsourced CFO services to software companies and non-profit organizations. Jennifer holds a master’s degree in accounting and business management. She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), passing the CPA exam in the top 1% in Virginia. Jennifer is a musician who performs regularly with her spouse and seven children, including performances at The White House.
Al Filoreto Senior Business Development Manager at Phoenix Contact Harrisburg, Pa. is a tenured wireless professional with 33 years of Telecom Industry experience starting in 1989 with Motorola Communications. He has been in his current role since May 2019 as Senior Business Development Manager developing a vertical in Telecom and Data Centers at Phoenix Contact a $6 Billion Dollar Global Supplier of 5G Automation and Engineered Surge Protection Solutions with their US based office in Harrisburg, Pa. He is a high impact performer who has a track record of sales excellence being in the elite Top 5% of all sales teams at every organization. He has held VP and Director Level Leadership Positions with Hutton Communications, Spectra-Site (American Tower), Alcatel -Lucent and Nokia (Radio Frequency Systems). During engagements with his customers, he has developed friendships and trust among his peers and is respected at all US Wireless Carriers and OEM Suppliers Nationally and Internationally. Working across the many academics of wireless starting with 2-Way Radio and Paging Systems, Tower Construction, Operations, Distribution, Tower Leasing and OEM Equipment Sales he has successfully developed talents, concepts, and business practices to create positive P/L results at both starts up organizations and Fortune 500 Companies. He holds positions as a Board Member for the of Pennsylvania Wireless Associations and Tower Trails Therapy Services and Rehabilitation. Al graduated from Millersville State University with a degree in Sales and Marketing and a Minor in Finance with Cum Laude Honors. He also served a total of 6 Years in the US Army as a Combat Engineer attaining the Rank of E-4 and earning several service commendations. Some of his many hobbies and interest are Aviation, Military History, Human Psychology, Reading, Outdoor Activities and flying high performance jets.
