Event preview
European Communications checks out 3GSM World Congress to be held in Barcelona 13-16 February 2006
The 3GSM Congress is getting bigger. Given the potential market-grab of 3G services, that’s hardly surprising, and the conference organisers are certainly not missing the opportunity to emphasise growth – not only in terms of expected attendance figures (around 40,000) and venue size, but also in the scope and variety of the conference programme and events.
And while we’re on the theme of size, 3GSM is undoubtedly fielding big-hitters among its keynote speakers for 2006. Among the CEOs headlining the event are Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Antonio Viana-Baptista of Telefonica Moviles, Arun Sarin of Vodafone, Sanjiv Ahuja of Orange, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo of Nokia, Carl-Henric Svanberg of Ericsson, Peter Erskine of O2, Ed Zander of Motorola, and Mun Hwa Park of LG Electronics Mobile Communications. A veritable Who’s-Who of the good and the great in mobile telecoms, representing between them access to some 850 million subscribers worldwide. A slightly later addition to the keynote line-up, Wang Jin Zhou, President of China Mobile, is not only a considerable feather in the 3GSM Congress cap, but serves to underline the considerable attention now being given to the massive potential of emerging markets. Indeed, the organisers are keen to point out that the Congress agenda, as a whole, will focus on increasingly important global issues, with keynotes examining developing market opportunities – the regions that will drive growth over the coming years. Given the expected explosion in mobile take-up alone – in such countries as China and India – 3GSM could hardly fail to focus on these issues.
As a result, the ‘Growth Market Analysis Seminar’ is intended to examine these very markets. Designed for business analysts, financial analysts and strategy managers, the seminar will focus on some of the key growth markets that have enabled the GSM community to reach its current impressive subscriber numbers. Some countries are attracting particular attention as they expand and create new opportunities for the industry, so the seminar will focus on six specific areas: China and India, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The sessions are intended to provide an overall picture of the market, summarise the latest key trends and statistics, and highlight key service and enabler topics. The sessions will also provide forecasts and suggestions for the future developments of specific markets.
As well as identifying new geographical markets, 3GSM is clearly also concerned with the breadth of opportunity now coming under the ‘mobile communication’ umbrella.
“The line-up of speakers and the issues they will address underlines the 3GSM World Congress’s role as a key force, driving multimedia developments for business and consumers alike,” comment the GSM Association’s Chief Marketing Officer, Bill Gajda.
Certainly, 3GSM aims to reflect the multifaceted world of mobile media, with the spotlight on mobile advertising, mobile entertainment (music, games, video and mobile TV), multimedia handsets, and, of course, the evolution of 3G technology. Other sessions being given the high-profile treatment include low-cost handsets, service convergence, and customer loyalty and retention.
The Congress week begins on Monday, February 13th, with the GSMA’s Leadership Summit, a by-invitation-only gathering of CEOs from the global mobile operator community, to discuss industry strategies and opportunities for the future, in the appropriately sumptuous surroundings of Barcelona’s National Palace (the Palau Nacional de Montjuic). At the 3GSM World Congress 2005, over 200 CEOs representing global GSM operators and vendors joined together to hear about the strategic and commercial priorities that impact the future vitality of the industry, directly from the GSMA Board. According to the GSMA, the event resulted in “tangible outcomes, setting in motion many of the GSMA’s central strategic initiatives”.
The GSMA will also hold its second Global Governance Mobile Forum, where it will host more than 20 senior government delegations in global regulatory policy and strategy discussions. A closed-door event, the Forum will include combined sessions with operator CEOs within the Leadership Summit, as well as keynotes and presentations by Ministers and global institutions.
The first day of 3GSM 2006 also witnesses the Mobile Innovation Forum, a Growth Market Seminar, a Billing Seminar, as well as the opening of the Congress Exhibition, and, of course, the welcome party.
The Mobile Innovation Forum basically gives the kids on the block the chance to show the grown-ups what they can do. Designed to strengthen innovation in the mobile industry, the Forum provides a platform for young, small and start-up companies to pitch innovative ideas to mobile operators and strategic investors from the venture capital arena. According to the GSMA, over 150 such ‘young’ organisations applied to participate in the Forum for 2006. Among the ‘grown-ups’ this year will be Cingular Wireless, Hutchinson Group, O2, Orange, Smart Communications, Telefonica Movilles, T-Mobile and Vodafone.
“Opportunities for smaller and independent organisations to pitch great ideas and inventions to a gathering of strategic investors in one place are very rare indeed,” comments Craig Ehrlich, Chairman of the GSM Association. “We are providing a platform to pitch to the entire industry, and one successful organisation will gain considerable recognition by winning the Mobile Innovation Award. The potential for access to funding, and a route to the market is obviously tremendous.”
In early December, a panel of judges, comprising the supporting operator and venture capital representatives, shortlisted some 15 or so organisations that will be invited to pitch their ideas at the Mobile Innovation Forum. The panellists will assess brief ‘elevator pitch’ presentations by the short-listed organisations, three of which will go forward to present their ideas in the ‘Identifying and Encouraging Innovation in the Mobile Industry’ session on Tuesday, February 14th, allowing a further question and answer grilling from the judges and the audience. The Forum culminates in the selection of one final winner to be presented with the award during the GSMA’s Award Night at the National Palace on the Tuesday evening.
Awards are, without doubt, becoming a major feature of the 3GSM World Congress. With the growing convergence of information and entertainment, it’s probably hardly surprising that the staid, old communications industry is placing itself firmly in the glitz and glamour arena more readily identified with the entertainment world. To this end, there will be awards-a-plenty at 3GSM 2006, intended, according to the GSMA, to “celebrate excellence, recognise achievement, catalyse innovation, and promote creative content and applications across the GSM world”. Along with the established awards for such areas as Mobile Handsets and Devices, Marketing and Promotion (including best broadcast commercial), Billing and Customer Solution, Mobile in the Community, and the GSM Association Chairman’s Award for ‘Outstanding contribution by an organisation or individual’ (Oscar, eat your heart out), a whole clutch of new awards is also on offer.
Quite apart from the already described Mobile Innovation Award, other new categories are intended to reflect, according to the GSMA “the dynamic pace of global mobile communication evolution and innovation”. These include the Mobile Entertainment Awards, covering ‘best made for mobile’ game; music service; video service; and sports infotainment; Mobile Applications Awards, covering enterprise products or services, and messaging service; and under the established Network Products and Solutions Awards, new categories for Radio Access, Network Quality Initiative, Roaming Product or Service, and Service Delivery Platform – all delivered at, of course, a black-tie gala dinner.
“Entertainment’ is a word which, these days, seems to trip naturally off the tongue along with ‘communication’. The 3GSM Mobile Entertainment Summit, should, therefore, come as no surprise, offering a forum for entertainment and content brands to come together with the mobile industry, as the two worlds increasingly converge. The session is intended to address the key issues affecting the mobile infotainment business, and act as a platform to define the path to its future.
On the exhibition floor at 3GSM, life might not be as glamorous as the images conjured by the entertainment world, but it will – if all predictions of attendance are accurate – be just as buzzy. Exhibition space sold out early, with more than 600 companies signed up and key names such as Intel, Microsoft, Telefonica Movilles, Motorola, Panasonic, HP, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Huawei, and ZTE showing their wares. The total of slightly less luminous names is too great to list, but covers a wide cross section of the industry, and will include (taking a broad, random, but, hopefully, representative sweep) the likes of cable and antenna systems designer and manufacturer Radio Frenquency Systems: telecom software provider Aepona: mobile entertainment specialists BeTomorrow; billing solutions suppliers Cerillion, Martin Dawes Systems, Formula Telecom, CBOSS, and Orga Systems; mobile data outsourcing solutions provider End2End; support systems developer Telcordia; revenue assurance specialists Azure Solutions; and smart card solutions suppliers Giesecke & Devrient.
While the organisers point out that the new venue – the Fira de Barcelona – offers more than double the capacity available last year, they are keen to stress that the ‘village’ atmosphere of the exhibition, established in Cannes, will be maintained. Indeed, following the long-running, faithful relationship with Cannes, 3GSM has now shifted its allegiance very firmly to Barcelona, pointing out, for instance, that the city welcomes some of the largest international congresses in Southern Europe and tops the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) ranking.
The 3GSM World Congress 2006 will clearly be bigger than before – it now remains to be seen whether it will also be better...
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