Modern "smart" homes are surprisingly dumb: your lights might stop working when the Internet is down, your fancy new doorbell can weaken your network security, and poorly-written apps put your privacy at risk.

A locally-controlled smart home is reliable, secure, and puts you (not some giant tech company) in control. And it's easy to get started!

In this session we'll compare hubs (and explain why they matter), demystify the different protocols they use to talk to devices (Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter), and show you how to integrate lights, plugs, sensors, and switches into a cohesive system. You'll even discover how to get smart alerts from your old "dumb" appliances and how to add voice control without Alexa or Google listening in.

Join us for a tour of local-first home automation, and leave ready to build a smart home that's faster, safer, and finally under your control.

This talk grew out of a ton of research I did during quarantine when I adopted a new hobby and started playing around with Raspberry Pi and home automation.

My goal is to give attendees all of the basic knowledge they need to get started in an accessible and entertaining way. I cover the different types of device protocols people need to know about and how to do some cool things, such as adding notifications to legacy appliances.

Thank you for your consideration!