.gif)
Event preview - 3GSM World Congress 2007
3GSM World Congress in Barcelona will once again contain all the elements expected of the leading event for the mobile industry
In February of 2007, the global mobile community will shift its attention to the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, the world's largest mobile industry event. The Congress combines the world's biggest exhibition for the mobile industry value chain with a cutting edge conference that features some of the most influential chief executives from mobile operators, manufacturers, content owners, application developers and others from across the globe.
Each year the event defines the agenda for the development of the mobile communications and media marketplace. In 2007, the convergence of mobile devices and mobile entertainment will be more pronounced than ever before. Music, gaming, video and social networking are now key technology and revenue drivers and the feel and theme of the congress will reflect that fact.
A number of exciting new themes and initiatives appear on the agenda for 2007. All of which have been put in place to align global business strategies in support of mobile services in the future, separating the hype from the reality in order to provide a basis for the industry's development on a global scale.
As part of the headline mobile entertainment theme, the GSMA has announced a groundbreaking joint project with the Sundance Institute, a champion of the independent film genre for the past 25 years. It's President, world famous actor and director Robert Redford, recently announced a project with the GSMA to commission five short films created by six established and new independent film makers, exclusively for mobile devices. The initiative, known as the Sundance Film Festival: Global Short Film Project, will culminate in the world premier of the five films at the Congress in Barcelona. The Congress will also feature discussions with the six directors of the films who were selected by the Sundance Institute on the basis of their previous work, shown at the Sundance Film Festival.
Exhibition visitors will be invited to download these five films to their mobile phones in a variety of ways, and then share these movies with others around the world. As mobile devices are becoming the 'fourth screen' for film audiences, the 3GSM World Congress in 2007 represents a unique opportunity for the industry to generate tremendous excitement around this new content genre, which the GSMA believes is a first mobile entertainment showcase of its kind to feature such a high calibre of creative talent.
An entire hall of the congress exhibition will also be dedicated to the mobile entertainment world, providing a platform for the established and rising players in the sector to showcase their products and services.
“The first congress to be held in Barcelona earlier this year was a resounding success, with more than 50,000 visitors from across the mobile eco-system,” says Bill Gajda, Chief Marketing Officer for the GSM Association. “The congress is not only the mobile industry's biggest event, but also a bridge for the entertainment, Internet and IT sectors that are intensely focused on the mobile space today.”
“There's no doubt that the 3GSM World Congress is a key mobile communications event and an important destination for the entertainment industry,” adds Bill Roedy, President of MTV Networks International, who will keynote at the congress. “I'm looking forward to talking with leaders from global mobile operators and vendor communities about how we can deliver the best and most exciting content to mobile phone users.”
The GSMA also announced a world-class line-up of industry leaders to speak at the five keynote sessions of the congress in 2007. The sessions will feature the highest level insights on the hottest topics today, such as mobile broadband, convergence and emerging markets that are defining and shaping the future of mobile communications. Confirmed speakers include:
From operators:
- Rene Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telecom / T-Mobile
- Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone
- Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and CEO of Orascom
- Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO of Orange Group
- Phuthuma Nhleko, CEO of MTN
- Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO of Telenor
- Ben Verwaayen, CEO of BT
From handsets and infrastructure:
- Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO of Ericsson
- Patricia Russo, CEO of Lucent / Alcatel
- Kaoru Yano, President of NEC Corporation
- Simon Beresford-Wylie, CEO Designate of Nokia Siemens Networks
- Mike Zafirovski, President and CEO of Nortel Networks
From content providers:
- Bill Roedy, President of MTV Networks International
- Edgar Bronfman, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group
- Eric Nicoli, President of EMI
There are also three streams to each day of the Congress, including a newly introduced 'CEO Strategies for Growth', featuring C-level speakers and addressing the major industry topics including convergence, market structure, segmentation, emerging markets and IP service strategies.
The 'Technology Symposium' will set out to define the evolutionary path and address the major technical challenges of 2007. Finally, the 'Mobile Entertainment Summit' will highlight the views, demands and expectations of the entertainment and mobile communities.
After its highly successful introduction in 2006, the Innovation Forum will return to showcase the most innovative companies of the year as they compete for the GSMA's prestigious Mobile Innovation Award. The forum's objective is to provide valuable insights and advice on how to take big ideas from small companies to market.
The 'Business Operations Seminar' brings together the developments and challenges of BSS and OSS with strategic industry priorities, while separating hype from reality.
New additions to 3GSM this year include the CMO Forum, a unique forum bringing together Chief Marketing Officers from around the globe and across the value chain to discuss key issues associated with taking new mobile services to market effectively. There will also be a 'Growth Markets Seminar' providing in-depth analysis of the geographic markets that are driving subscriber growth and industry development.
The GSMA Annual Government Mobile Forum (GMF) will provide a unique environment where governments and industry leaders come together to discuss the future of wireless communications at the highest level.
The exhibition floor space at the Congress is almost sold out and will host more than 1,300 exhibitors from all sectors of the mobile industry, including the dedicated mobile entertainment and content zone. Over 60,000 visitors are expected to attend.
Details: www.3gsmworldcongress.com
Share this article with others
Post to del.icio.us
Printed from http://www.eurocomms.com/features/111500/Event_preview_-_3GSM_World_Congress_2007.html
Comment on this article
Skip to comments
We encourage users to analyse, comment on and even challenge European Communications's articles, including the one above - 'Event preview - 3GSM World Congress 2007'
User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site.
Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site.