On April 13, 2017, the China Automation Industry Annual Conference 2017 (CAIAC 2017) was held in Beijing by the Chinese Association of Automation (CAA). The Edge Computing Consortium (ECC) made its debut at the conference, for which it was also a sponsor. Edge computing's innovative concept, architecture, and industrial values caught the eyes of attendees. 

The CAIAC is China's most influential annual event for the automation industry and has been successfully held 12 times. With the theme "Intelligent Automation Changes the World", the CAIAC 2017 provided a platform for all academics and technicians in automation, enterprise executives, and users from industries to share ideas about innovative development of automation in this new, smart, connected ecosystem, as well as intelligent transformation of manufacturing enterprises in China. Attendees analyzed and discussed the future development of the automation industry, focusing on hot topics such as the Industrial Internet and smart manufacturing.

Figure 1-1 Yu Haibin, Chair of ECC, was delivering Edge Intelligence Leads the Future

Yu Haibin, Chair of the ECC, delivered a report entitled Edge Intelligence Leads the Future at the conference. Focusing on trending topics, he analyzed problems encountered during the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the era of connectivity of everything, shared his insights into edge computing's role and significance in smart interconnection, and introduced the positioning, vision, and purposes of the ECC and current progress of ECC's tasks. According to Mr. Yu, the ECC expects to collaborate with the OT and ICT industries to jointly build an open edge computing industry cooperation platform and a new ecosystem that facilitates digital and intelligent transformation in all industries.