Twenty-first annual CONNECTIONS(TM): The Premier Connected Home Conference will be held May 23-25, 2017, at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco

DALLAS, TX--(Marketwired - Nov 17, 2016) - IoT research firm Parks Associates today announced that the 21^st-annual CONNECTIONS™: The Premier Connected Home Conference will take place May 23-25 at the Hyatt Regency, San Francisco. The conference focuses on the changing consumer IoT markets for the smart home, connected entertainment, digital health, smart energy, and mobile apps and services.

New research from Parks Associates shows that 73% of U.S. broadband households now have an Internet-connected entertainment device, nearly 20% own a smart home device, nearly 90% own a smartphone, and 65% own both a smartphone and a tablet.

"As connected devices proliferate, consumers are shifting behaviors and finding value in new features, functions, and services," said Stuart Sikes, President, Parks Associates. "The industry is in a transformative phase, moving from standalone devices to devices integrated into a system that can leverage cloud-based connectivity to bring new value and new use cases to consumers. In the past year, voice control features from products such as Amazon Echo and Google Home have demonstrated new possibilities for transforming connected device user experiences. Consumers are embracing these innovations and quickly developing new use cases, signaling the beginning of another major shift in technology adoption. CONNECTIONS™ will focus on IoT as the change agent for consumer engagement."

CONNECTIONS™ will feature three preshow research workshops highlighting new data from Parks Associates' research team as well as insights from industry leaders. The Parks Associates analyst team will moderate all event sessions, sharing new consumer data and highlighting trends, evolving business models, and new technologies advancing the reality of the connected home.

Topics include:

• Innovations in Entertainment Services
• Auto Industry Transformation -- Lessons and Opportunities for IoT Players
• Connected CE Strategies: Building Product Ecosystems
• Connected Entertainment Next Stages of Growth
• Connected Health and IoT: Next Stages of Growth
• Energy Management Solutions: Moving the Market Forward
• From Hospital to Home: Partnering for Success
• Independent Living and Caregiving Market
• Industry Insights: The Evolution of the Business of Entertainment
• Insurance Strategies for Disruptive Consumer IoT Markets
• Integrating Connected Health into the Smart Home
• IoT and the Smart Home -- Investments, Start-ups, and Growth
• IoT Monetization Models: Building a Mass-market Smart Home
• Protecting Consumers: Privacy and Device Security
• Smart Home and IoT: Insights: Growth and Business Models
• Smart Home and IoT: Distribution and Channel Strategies
• Smart Home and IoT: Next Stages of Growth
• Smart Home Platforms: Revolutionizing the Consumer Experience
• Tech Support: Big Data to Power the User Experience
• The Future for the Connected Consumer
• Virtual Reality's Emergence -- Platforms, Services, and Content

"The consumer technology industry is reinventing itself, moving to service-oriented business models that can easily address a variety of consumer demands," said Jennifer Kent, Director, Research Quality & Product Development, Parks Associates. "CONNECTIONS™ will address new form factors and use cases for consumer products, the impact of more bandwidth on the content experience, and how data analytics can provide manufacturers and service providers with insights to refine the user experience and develop next-generation products."

More than 700 executives will attend CONNECTIONS™ from the IoT industries, new media, digital entertainment and gaming, home networks, Internet and television services, software and middleware, smart home, digital health, insurance, mobile applications and services, consumer electronics, home control systems and security, technical support, and energy management.

"CONNECTIONS™ continues to be the one event where leaders from different markets, all active in the IoT, can come together to discuss new use cases and emerging business models that will engage consumers and grow revenues," Sikes said.

Early sponsors for 2017 include Greenwave Systems, MivaTek, and ULE Alliance.

To download the past CONNECTIONS™ Event Summary visit www.connectionsus.com. To schedule an interview with an analyst or request specific research, contact Holly Sprague at hsprague@gmail.com, 720.987.6614.

About CONNECTIONS™

Parks Associates' 21st-annual CONNECTIONS™: The Premier Connected Home Conference will take place May 23-25 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in San Francisco. CONNECTIONS™ is the premier connected home event hosting over 700 executives from the connected entertainment, IoT, and smart home industries. The event provides a day of pre-show research workshops highlighting Parks Associates' consumer data and analysis and two days of conference sessions focused on technology adoption and trends, forecasts for new products and services, evaluation of new business strategies, and recommendations about technology innovations, strategic partnerships, monetization opportunities, and value-added services.

The event provides executive networking opportunities and insights from industry leaders on entertainment, mobile, and smart home market segments. Throughout the event, sponsors offer tabletop demos during networking events, spotlighting new technology innovations and services.

For more information, contact sales@parksassociates.com, call 972-490-1113, visit www.connectionsconference.com.