Echelon Corporation and LonMark® International today announced an agreement to jointly organize the 2004 LonWorld® Exhibition and Conference in Shanghai, China on October 20-21, 2004 at the Shanghai Marriott Hotel Hongqiao. Asia represents an enormous market opportunity for members of the LonWorks® community as massive infrastructure and building investments are taking place across the continent. Shanghai was selected as the host city for LonWorld 2004 because its growing economy, construction boom, and commitment to advanced residential communities is representative of the entire Asian market. Echelon is partnering with LonMark International, a global trade organization dedicated to fostering the development, installation, and adoption of open interoperable solutions using LonWorks® based products and services. Building on the successful two-day conference and exhibition format, the LonWorld event will include an international trade mission to help companies involved in manufacturing, designing, distributing, installing and using LonWorks based products and services gain access to the thriving Asian marketplace. More information can be found at http://www.lonworldexpo.com.
"We're very excited about co-hosting the LonWorld event in China – arguably the world's largest, fastest growing and most sought after market," said Barry Haaser, LonMark International's executive director. "The Asian automation market is an incredible opportunity - many of the 300 member companies within LonMark International as well as the large majority of companies in the LonWorks community are interested in doing business there. The addition of the trade mission to the LonWorld event will help foster and facilitate cooperation among the companies in the LonWorks community and the ministries, organizations and commercial companies in Asia."
The LonWorld 2004 event, open to all members of the LonWorks community and other interested companies and individuals, will be comprised of two parts: an Exhibition featuring company exhibits and a LonWorks Conference featuring educational, technical, and business sessions. This year's event will also feature sessions, meetings, and symposia in cooperation with key construction and trade ministries and organizations. Trade representatives from European, North American and other Asian countries will participate in the Conference to help facilitate business within the Asian market.
"Working with LonMark International to organize a LonWorld event at this juncture makes perfect sense as the organization undergoes a rebirth of sorts – embracing the LonWorks market beyond device level interoperability to now include the complete automation network," said Anders Axelsson, Echelon's senior vice-president of sales and marketing. "I believe that our two organizations, acting in concert, can rapidly accelerate the awareness and adoption of the LonWorks platform in China and all of Asia."
The LonWorks platform is an open standard that enables everyday devices such as appliances, elevators, lights, thermostats, air conditioners, electric meters, water heaters, and security systems to be made "smart" and to communicate with each other and across the Internet to improve the way we work and live. A LonWorks based product designed to the LonMark Interoperability Guidelines that has been tested and certified by LonMark International earns the right to bear the LonMark logo. This logo signifies that the product can be easily integrated with other LonMark certified products into a single network without resorting to customized or product specific software tools.
The LonWorld event is the world's leading annual forum for the LonWorks industry, allowing hardware and software manufacturers, specifiers, integrators, value added resellers, consulting and design engineers, distributors, facility managers, energy managers and executives, and buyers of "smart" products to see and learn firsthand about new products, applications, and technological advances in networking everyday devices. For registration and exhibition information, visit http://www.lonworldexpo.com.