Aubrey Thelen of Nest Labs Makes Your Home Life Easier and Cheaper

The Head of Developer Relations for smart device manufacturer Nest Labs comes to the TechFestNW 2016 main stage to talk about making your house save you time and money.

SKREE SKREE SKREE SKREE SKREE—that's the deafening, panic-inducing shriek of your smoke alarm happily reminding you that the roast chicken you're making for dinner, is, in fact, roasting.

Fair enough. But then you can't get the smoke detector down to turn it off—and what if you're not even there to hear it?

The whole point of theInternet of Things is to attune devices to your needs even from afar. The smoke alarm from Nest Labs will buzz your phone even if you're next door. And you can also turn it off using your phone instead of smothering it with a dishtowel.

Nest Thermostats lower the ambient temperature of your home while you're away or asleep to save you money, and monitor when you're at home so you're never chilly. Nest Cameras are motion sensitive and will alert you when visitors (or potential intruders) show up, while letting you keep an eye on your kids while at home.

But there's more. Aubrey Thelen, Head of Developer Relations at Nest, wants your other smart devices to be able to talk to Nest products so that your home is as cost effective, safe and convenient as possible. That's why it's her job to work with other developers to make sure their their smart devices can work with Nest's, bringing your home well into the 21st century. Have an Amazon Echo? It can be programmed with a Nest Thermostat to turn the heat up or down.

There are dozens of these smart device friendships and more coming every month. Aubrey makes them happen, and she's coming to the TechFestNW main stage to talk about it with her talk: Your connected home – What does it take to build a home that takes care of you?

Join Thelen and our other excellent speakers at TechFestNW 2016: April 25-26 at The Armory in Portland, Oregon's Pearl District. For more information or tickets to TFNW, visit techfestnw.com.

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