Overview - Belden Innovation Summit 2026

Joseph C. Belden Innovation Summit and Award 2026:
Innovation in the IT/OT converged world

Innovation is not about chasing what is new. It is about making what is possible useful.

In the IT/OT converged world, innovation happens when connectivity becomes visibility, visibility becomes intelligence, and intelligence becomes measurable business value. It is the work of connecting systems, data, people, and decisions so industrial organizations can operate with greater resilience, security, speed, and insight.

That is the focus of the Joseph C. Belden Innovation Summit and Award 2026: Innovation in the IT/OT Converged World.

The summit will bring together industry innovators, technology leaders, partners, and customers to explore how IT/OT convergence is reshaping the connected industrial enterprise. Through education, inspiration, and collaboration, attendees will examine how emerging technologies such as edge infrastructure, industrial networking, private 5G, physical AI, network automation, cybersecurity, and IT/OT orchestration can solve real operational challenges.

The goal is not simply to showcase technology. It is to help organizations understand what is changing, imagine what is possible, and collaborate on how to turn innovation into practical progress. The summit will also celebrate the 2026 Joseph C. Belden Award finalists, recognizing breakthrough innovation and real-world impact in the IT/OT converged world.

The Relatable Leader: Create a Culture of Connection
Rachel Mahoney, JD, CSP - Communication and Leadership Expert | Author of The Relatable Leader

Innovation runs on technology, but it's delivered by people — and people perform for leaders they trust. In this research-backed keynote, Rachel Mahoney reveals what teams are actually looking for in their leaders and shares practical strategies to connect, communicate, and inspire across roles, functions, and generations. You'll leave with real tools to build trust, break down silos, and create a culture where collaboration and innovation thrive. Because relatable leaders deliver real results.

Joseph C. Belden Award Finalist Presentations
Introducing the 2026 awards finalists, who will provide a rapid-fire pitch about innovative solutions.

G-SPACE with the Microgravity Design Platform
Dr. Ioana Cozmuta, Founder & CEO, G-SPACE

About G-SPACE: G-SPACE is a Silicon Valley-based New Space company developing an end-to-end AI-powered software platform that transforms microgravity research and development into scalable, real-world manufacturing innovation. Founded by Dr. Ioana Cozmuta, G-SPACE sits at a remarkable intersection of space science and industrial application — turning the unique conditions of microgravity into a competitive design advantage for products here on Earth.
PROLIM with the PROMIS Manufacturing Intelligence System
Prabhu Patil, Founder & CEO, PROLIM Global Corporation

About PROLIM: PROMIS is PROLIM's Digital Manufacturing Platform, built to give industrial operations real-time visibility, AI-driven analytics, and smart automation across the entire production floor. It sits at the intersection of Industry 4.0 and practical manufacturing execution — turning data complexity into operational clarity and measurable efficiency gains.
Thread with an AI-Powered Execution Orchestration for Network Infrastructure Delivery
Justin Vandehey, CEO and Co-founder, Thread

About Thread: Thread is redefining how complex network infrastructure gets planned and delivered — replacing slow, fragmented processes with AI-powered orchestration that gives executives real-time intelligence and control at every stage. Thread sits at the intersection of AI and enterprise infrastructure, turning what was once a bottleneck into a genuine competitive advantage.

Panel Discussion: The Impact of Finalist Innovations
Dr. Ashwani Singh, Senior Director - Global R&D Operations, Belden

With three groundbreaking finalists on stage — each tackling a distinct frontier of industrial innovation — this panel cuts to what matters most: what these solutions mean for you and the challenges you're navigating today. Guided by Jeff Winter, the discussion connects the dots between the morning's IT/OT convergence pain points and the real-world potential of what you've just seen — exploring how each breakthrough ripples across the converged industrial landscape and what it means for the way you innovate, operate, and compete.

NVIDIA Virtual Fence: A Physical AI Fence
Hari Sukumaran, Senior Director, Solution Line Management, Belden

Developed in collaboration with Accenture and powered by NVIDIA Omniverse, Belden's virtual safety fence is a landmark example of Physical AI moving from concept to commercial reality — where industrial-grade network infrastructure bridges the IT/OT divide to protect workers and enable autonomous systems on the factory floor in real time. This showcase demonstrates how that convergence of OT environment and IT intelligence, engineered together with world-class ecosystem partners, is what makes the next generation of safe, autonomous manufacturing operations not just possible — but deployable today.

Breakout: Future Solving
Jeff Winter, VP Commercial Strategy, Belden

The most powerful preparation for an uncertain future isn't a single forecast — it's the ability to imagine multiple futures and shape them together. In this closing breakout, participants take everything absorbed throughout the day and put it to work, collectively mapping out distinct scenarios of the IT/OT-converged world ahead and defining — as a room full of innovators — the strategies and solutions that will get us there.

Belden HORIZON
Divij Agarwal, Senior Director, Platform Engineering, Belden
Belden Horizon is Belden's AI-powered OT platform that fundamentally bridges the divide between IT and OT — simplifying complex industrial networks, unlocking the power of operational data, and enabling advanced applications like predictive maintenance, digital twins, and intent-based networking through a single unified platform. This showcase reveals not just what Horizon can do today, but the transformative layer of intelligence it places beneath everything that follows — from agentic AI to autonomous operations — making it the backbone of the next generation of industrial innovation.

Virtual Coworker
Dr. Ashwani Singh, Senior Director - Global R&D Operations, Belden

BHVA turns network troubleshooting — a process that sometimes consumes 100 days of L2 engineering time — into a minutes-long diagnostic conversation inside Belden Horizon. It gives every network administrator, regardless of their VLAN or MRP expertise, the diagnostic capability of your most experienced engineer. That's not a support tool upgrade; that's a structural reduction in the expertise dependency that limits how fast you can scale your network operations.

Showcasing Time to Value with ACEIO
Mike Fisher, Senior Manager, Solutions Architecture, Belden

ACEIO — Belden's Advanced Compute Edge Input Output system — is a landmark step in edge computing for sensor-heavy industrial environments, delivering modular I/O and compute capabilities that bridge the gap between OT signals and IT intelligence directly where it matters most — on the factory floor. This showcase demonstrates what radically fast time to value looks like in practice: a fully operational edge setup running in under an hour, collapsing the traditional divide between operational technology and IT infrastructure and unlocking real-time data extraction, on-site analytics, and the foundation for predictive maintenance, digital twins, and autonomous operations at scale.

BRS 5G Demonstration
Artur Wachtel, Senior Principal Wireless Strategy, Belden

The BRS-5G is a landmark moment in industrial connectivity — the world's first industrial 5G switch, born from Belden's proven Bobcat Rail Switch heritage and engineered in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies to bring private 5G performance natively into the factory floor. This demonstration shows what true IT/OT convergence looks like in motion: OT devices communicating seamlessly over a private 5G network in real time, dissolving the boundary between operational and IT infrastructure and opening the door to precision automation, intelligent logistics, and connected manufacturing at scale.

RUCKUS
Saurabh Mathur, Vice President Product Management, RUCKUS

RUCKUS Networks has spent decades engineering purpose-driven wireless infrastructure that performs where others fall short — and today they're pushing that further with AI-driven platforms, Wi-Fi 7, and intent-based networking that transforms how enterprises design, manage, and scale their connectivity. As the line between IT and OT continues to blur, this session digs into what those innovations unlock at the convergence point: smarter, more resilient networks that don't just carry data across the factory floor — they actively drive operational outcomes on both sides of that divide.