The first of the Connect 2007 conferences is this week in Boston (subsequent events in China in two weeks and in Spain in five weeks). Last year's conferences provoked some really interesting controversy, uncovered some interesting (bizarre?) mobile applications, had fun and highlighted some western vs. Asian approaches.
I'll be moderating the panel "Increasing Service Velocity" on Tuesday afternoon and presenting "IMS: Lessons Learned" at the end of the day on Wednesday afternoon.(hopefully a few will stick around,,,).
Here's the list of speakers for day one:
Industry Overview Session
Andrew Bud, Executive Chairman & Co-founder, mBlox
Prior
to Executive Chairman, Andrew was the CEO of mBlox, the world’s leading
mobile transaction network, which he co-founded in 1999 and led to
profitability. Andrew was head of mobile technology for Olivetti SpA in
Italy. He became the founding technical head of Omnitel (now Vodafone
Italia). He led the European development of DECT (the predecessor of
WiFi), and launched Europe's first wireless LAN system. He was a
Director at Connect Communications Group, and was the Group Marketing
Director with Azlan plc, the £200m European distributor of internet
technology. Earlier he was in mobile technology R&D with PA
Technology. Andrew is a Board member of the global Mobile Entertainment
Forum (MEF), which he helped found in 2001. In 2005 he was appointed to
the Board of ICSTIS, the UK regulator of premium-rate telecoms
services. Andrew is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the IEE, and is
a graduate of the University of Cambridge.
Hassan Ahmed, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Sonus Networks
As
chief executive officer and chairman, Hassan Ahmed is responsible for
the strategic direction and management of the company. Prior to joining
Sonus Networks as president and CEO in 1998, Dr. Ahmed was executive
vice president and general manager of Ascend Communications’ Core
Systems Division, which grew under his direction to a $1 billion
business. Before Ascend’s acquisition of Cascade Communications, he
served as Cascade’s chief technology officer. Previously, Dr. Ahmed was
president and founder of WaveAccess, a pioneer in high-speed wireless
network products. Additionally, he has held the positions of product
engineering manager, Analog Devices, and director, VSLI Systems,
Motorola Codex. He was also an associate professor at the Graduate
School of Management, Boston University. Dr. Ahmed holds a BSEE and
MSAE from Carleton University and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering
from Stanford University.
Seamus McAteer, Co-Founder & Chief Product Architect/Sr. Analyst, M:Metrics
As
co-founder, chief product architect and senior analyst at M:Metrics,
McAteer determines how services are shaped to match client needs. He is
also the company's primary evangelist. McAteer has been analyzing the
wireless industry since its inception and has been assisting clients in
the wireless and portable computing sectors since the early 1990s. Most
recently, McAteer was managing partner at Zelos Group, a boutique
advisory services firm focused on wireless and voice applications.
Prior to founding Zelos Group, McAteer was a director and research
fellow with Jupiter Research, where he headed Jupiter's coverage of new
technologies and services. Before joining Jupiter, McAteer focused on
wireless services and pervasive computing as a senior analyst with SRI
International. McAteer is frequently sought as a speaker and expert
commentator. He has been quoted in numerous international media
outlets, including: the New York Times, USA Today, Nikkei Weekly, Wired
Magazine, the Associated Press and a variety of trade journals. He has
made frequent TV and radio appearances, commenting on technology issues
for CNN, Fox News, NPR and TechTV. McAteer often speaks at prestigious
industry events. He received an undergraduate degree at Trinity College
Dublin, and a Diploma in Advanced Marketing Techniques from the Dublin
Institute of Technology.
Application Innovation Session
Gianluca Ferranti, Director of Marketing, Reitek S.p.A. Gianluca Ferranti has over 14 years of experience in the ICT industry. He has proven track records in marketing and sales of complex solutions and services through diverse channels and vertical markets. Gianluca is an adept at building and maintaining customer relationships and exceeding company sales and revenue objectives. Earlier, he spent his career at the head of a strategic business unit part of an international business, providing telecom building blocks to OEM and VAR customers like Nokia, Marconi, Siemens, Lucent, Tektronix, and Cisco. Early in 2000 Gianluca joined Reitek S.p.A. Gianluca holds an MBA from MIP—Business School of Politecnico di Milano; he is now president of Alumni MIP Association.
Colm Healy, CEO, XIAM
Colm,
42, co-founded Xiam Technologies in 2004. A frequent speaker at
industry conferences, he has over 7 years experience in the mobile
marketing and content industries. A seasoned executive, Colm previously
held senior positions with Price Waterhouse Coopers and the Bank of
Ireland in Dublin, New York and London. Colm holds a Masters Degree in
Management Science (first class honors) and a Bachelor of Commerce
Degree from University College Dublin and is a graduate of the Stanford
University Leadership 4 Growth program.
Stan Reiss, General Partner, Matrix Partners
Stan
Reiss, a General Partner in the Waltham office, joined Matrix Partners
in July of 2000. Prior to Matrix Stan was a manager in McKinsey &
Company's electronics practice, where he led teams that advised
technology companies on strategy and operational issues. He also brings
to Matrix experience that he gained designing chips with National
Semiconductor's Local Area Network Group. Stan holds a BSEE with
distinction from Cornell University as well as SMEE and SMOR degrees
from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his research focused
on optical communication networks. He also holds an MBA with high
distinction (Baker Scholar) from the Harvard Business School. Stan
serves on the boards of 4th Media, Intelliden and Noble Device
Technology.
Sunil Vemuri, Co-founder and CPO, QTech Inc.
Sunil
oversees product development at QTech and contributes to the company’s
product vision. Prior to QTech, Sunil worked at France Telecom and
Apple Computer. Sunil’s interests include Human Memory Assistance,
Information Retrieval, Information Extraction, Information
Visualization, Knowledge Acquisition, Organizational Memory, Speech
Recognition, and Interface/Interaction design. He has three patents and
his research has been extensively covered in the New York Times, Boston
Globe, Newsweek, CNN, and MIT Technology Review. He received his Ph.D.
from MIT’s Media Lab, his Masters Degree in Computer Science from
Stanford University, and his Bachelors Degree in Cybernetics from UCLA.
The User?
Dean Bubley, Founder, Disruptive AnalysisDean Bubley is the Founder of Disruptive Analysis, an independent technology industry analyst and consulting firm. He primarily specializes in mobile, wireless, networking, and telecoms fields, with further expertise in certain aspects of the software, semiconductor and IT hardware sectors. He is the author of the Disruptive Wireless blog at: disruptivewireless.blogspot.com. Formerly, he was an equity analyst, with the UK arm of investment bank Robert W. Baird. Prior to that, he spent eight years at the UK research firm Datamonitor, where he co-founded the company's Technology business unit and held the titles of Chief Analyst and Director of Consulting. Mr. Bubley has extensive experience in both published analytical research and bespoke consultancy, and has regularly spoken at industry conferences and events. He holds a BA in Physics from Keble College, Oxford University.
Edwald Anderl, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, Kirusa
Anderl
brings to Kirusa more than 20 years of leadership and executive
experience in the telecommunications industry, with a proven track
record of building teams that deliver innovative solutions to market.
Prior to joining Kirusa, Mr. Anderl led the software and customer care
teams at Xebeo Communications in developing and delivering state of the
art software releases into successful trials. Mr. Anderl served at
Avaya as development director, where his team successfully engineered
and deployed an innovative class of Internet communications
applications. Previously, he was Chief Technical Officer for the IP
Business Applications Group. Mr. Anderl has had an extensive career at
Bell Laboratories and AT&T — where he headed development teams
specializing in data networking software for voicemail and unified
messaging systems, as well as other applications and system level
products. He holds several patents for Smart Card technology that were
invented during his tenure at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Mr. Anderl
holds both a BS and an MS in Electrical Engineering from Rutgers
University.
John Puterbaugh, Founder & Chief Strategist, Nellymoser
John
Puterbaugh, Ph.D., founder and Chief Strategist of Nellymoser, Inc. has
over 15 years experience in creating and developing interactive
multimedia solutions for IP networks, mobile phones and other consumer
products. Before Nellymoser he was CTO of Reelworks, which provides
voice technology solutions for the film and entertainment industry. He
was also part of the early team and held a number of senior management
positions at Voxware, Inc., one of the first companies to provide
Internet voice chat and real-time streaming solutions for companies
such as Disney, Microsoft, Nokia and Netscape. He holds patents in
wireless voice platforms, voice analysis and synthesis, user-generated
ringtones, and in sound transformation. Educated at Princeton
University, Dartmouth College and Oberlin College, he has taught
courses and lectured on interdisciplinary topics related to music,
computers and cognition. John is a frequent speaker at industry events
including the CES, CTIA, Game Developers Conference, Digital Music
Forum, 3GSM on a wide range of topics such technology roadmaps for
Mobile TV, on-deck and off-deck strategies, and business models for
mobile music.
Jud Bowman, Chief Technology Officer, Motricity
Jud
Bowman is the chief technology officer and the general manager of media
& entertainment for Motricity and is responsible for overseeing the
company's technology and product strategy and managing Motricity's
efforts serving the mobile businesses for global media and
entertainment companies such as MTV, BET, Warner Music and Universal
Music. Bowman is a founder and chief architect of one of the industry's
leading mobile content delivery platforms, Fuel, that has delivered
more than $750 million of mobile content to date, and has been named as
one of the world's “Top 100 Young Innovators” by MIT's Technology
Review and one of “Tech's Best Young Entrepreneurs” by BusinessWeek in
2007. Prior to being named chief technology officer for Motricity,
Bowman was co-founder and chief executive officer of Pinpoint Networks,
which merged with PowerByHand in 2004 to form Motricity. Bowman led
Pinpoint to a leadership position in the mobile content market
providing software and services to mobile operators and raised $20
million in venture capital. Bowman was instrumental in leading the
integration of PowerByHand and Pinpoint Networks and raising over $200
million in venture capital for Motricity, and has helped grow Motricity
to over 300 employees globally.
Russ McGuire, Strategy, Sprint Nextel
Russ
McGuire is a leading strategist and visionary in the telecom industry.
As director of strategy for Sprint, he is responsible for developing
the strategic vision and competitive strategies for the $40 billion+
telecommunications giant. Mr. McGuire is also the author of The Power
of Mobility, a book about how businesses can prosper in the next
technology revolution which will be published by John Wiley & Sons
in the fall of 2007. His daily weblog on these topics can be read at www.law-of-mobility.com.
Mr. McGuire's experience includes 20 years in the telecom industry.
Prior to joining Sprint, Mr. McGuire was Chief Strategy Officer for
TeleChoice, and prior to that he was vice president of strategic
development for Williams Communications. Mr. McGuire has also founded
or co-founded two technology start-ups. He began his telecom career as
a software developer for Northern Telecom.
Ken Olewiler, Managing Director, PUNCHCUT
Ken
Olewiler heads the business practice of Punchcut. Under his strategic
direction, Punchcut works with device manufacturers, operators, and
major entertainment brands to leverage emerging mobile technologies to
enhance and improve mobile user experiences. Ken’s deep understanding
of the challenges and opportunities in the mobile sector has allowed
him to drive effective user experience design solutions for a range of
industry-leading mobile technology companies. Past successes include
initiatives and projects with a range of strategic partners including
carriers, OEMs and major entertainment brands. Other major brands
well-served by Ken’s expertise include Disney, Yahoo!, Cisco Systems,
Sun Microsystems, The Discovery Channel, and Hewlett-Packard.
Community Goes Mobile Session
Bill Makley, Marketing Programs Director, Nokia Siemens Networks Bill Makley has more than 25 years experience in high-tech, serving as a marketing and communications consultant and writer at Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens, a host of Silicon Valley startups, and currently Nokia Siemens Networks, where he is Marketing Programs Director. An author of hundreds of client articles, white papers and speeches about technology and its role in human development and social interaction, Bill has a particular interest in human factors and interface design. He has addressed scores of conferences about these same topics. At Apple, Bill led a small skunkworks team that developed the world’s first company intranet in 1991, using the company’s HyperCard software to produce the first point-and-click, hyperlinked browser two years before the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NSCA) released Mosaic, the first popular World Wide Web browser. Bill graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Marketing and Journalism. He is accredited by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).
Prakash R. Iyer, Founder and CEO, envIO networks
Prakash
Iyer is a co-founder and CEO of envIO networks. Prior to envIO, Prakash
led Product Development at Motorola for Push to Talk, IMS and Seamless
Mobility. He joined Motorola in 2003 through the acquisition of
Winphoria Networks, a pioneer of Mobile Wireless SoftSwitch and
Push-to-Talk applications for the wireless market. Mr. Iyer's earlier
career includes roles as a Department Head and a Distinguished Member
of Technical Staff at Lucent Technologies Bell Labs. He has authored
numerous patents, and has a number of pending patent applications in
the telecom infrastructure and applications space.
Nicolas Arauz, Co-founder, Xipto LLC
Nicolas
Arauz is the Managing Director and a Co-Founder of Xipto, a unique
mobile advertising content solution built around 'Micro- endorsement'.
Xipto connects individuals to brands, campaigns, and issues they love,
and enables them to share these passions with their friends using their
mobile phones. Prior to Xipto, Nick spent more than a decade developing
social and community-driven brand strategy and experience design for
consumer retail and technology brands, developing projects that
leverage real- world experiences, social media and mobile devices as
platforms for crowd-sourced marketing, fundraising, and
change-forecasting; and advising F500 companies on how to effectively
drive marketing efforts through emerging social media. He is also a
co-founder of 88bikes, a peer-driven social fundraising project that
donates bikes to children in developing countries.
Dan Melinger, Co-founder and CEO, Socialight
Dan Melinger is a co-founder and the CEO of Socialight (http://socialight.com),
the platform that lets anyone create communities around location-based
content. Socialight users find information and share stories with
friends about places they go to. Publishers create, manage, and grow
user communities around their location-based content with Socialight’s
location-aware mobile and web interfaces. Previously a technology
consultant, Melinger has worked with leading global financial
institutions, helping them to develop and deploy mobile solutions. He
also has experience in radio and television production, working with
media outlets including CNBC and Bloomberg. Melinger holds a Master's
degree from New York University's Interactive Telecommunications
Program (ITP) and a B.A. in Communications from the Annenberg School at
the University of Pennsylvania. In 1999, his undergraduate thesis
explored the potential impacts of P2P before Napster became a dirty
word. In 2005, Melinger helped found the New York chapter of
Helsinki-based global organization, MobileMonday (http://mobilemonday-ny.com/), a group that fosters NYC's mobile industry.
Mashups: Web Meets Telco Session
Matt Gross, Director, Product Management, uLocate
Matt's
path to product management started with writing code and led to a
position managing the best-selling mobile application in the US. Matt
previously managed MapQuest Mobile, a product which by late 2005
accounted for 20% of US mobile application revenue. While at MapQuest,
Matt was also responsible for launching an enterprise mapping platform
to handle 2.3 billion transactions annually for customers including
Orbitz and Travelocity while retiring 4 legacy products. Previously at
ActiveStrategy, Matt directed technical sales of executive dashboards
to C-Level staff at Intel and Carlson Companies, and at eCal
Corporation launched the first commercially-available XML calendar
service for companies including Reuters and Disney. Matt is the
co-founder and lead organizer of Mobile Monday Boston, one of the
largest Mobile Monday chapters globally. Matt's education includes a
B.A. from Swarthmore and coursework at the University of Ghana in West
Africa. He keeps people posted on what he's thinking about at his blog,
entangledparticles.com.
Kevin Nethercott, Founder, President and COO, LignUp Corporation
Kevin
brings over 20 years of experience in international sales and business
development, and over 10 years of experience in the Voice over IP
(VoIP) industry. As founder and CTO of SkyWave, Inc., a Pulver 100
company, Kevin pioneered the deployment of VoIP technologies,
established the first operational VoIP network in Japan, and developed
the first real-time VoIP billing engine. Kevin’s leadership at SkyWave
has forged successful strategic relationships with leading IT systems
integrators such as Net One Systems, NEC Systems Integration and
Construction, NTT-ME, K Solutions (KDDI Group), Sun Telephone and
Hitachi Information Technology Co. As co-founder and Executive Vice
President for iCall, Inc., Kevin spearheaded the company’s efforts
through two rounds of private financing, directed the acquisition of
strategic technology assets, and established strategic alliances with
industry leaders Cisco and NEC. As a recognized leader in the VoIP
industry, Kevin was also responsible for the creation of the VoIP Forum
of Japan and is a member of its board of directors. Kevin is fluent in
Japanese, is a regular speaker at VoIP conferences and holds a B.A. in
Marketing from Utah State University in Logan, Utah.
Michael Zirngibl, President and CEO, Angel.com
Michael
is the Founder and President of Angel.com and is responsible for the
company's business, product and technology strategies. A prolific
industry speaker, Michael holds numerous voice messaging patents and
continues his track record of technology innovation. Driven by his
vision to make speech applications as ubiquitous and easy-to-use as the
Internet, he established Angel.com - the fastest growing provider of
turnkey speech and IVR solutions as a service. To date, more than 1,600
customers have implemented hundreds of voice applications from virtual
receptionists and virtual call centers to interactive polls for
grassroots activism. Prior to Angel.com, Michael led product management
for Microstrategy Inc.'s Broadcaster and Telecaster voice messaging
products. In addition, he was the founding partner of Marketing and IT
consulting firm in Munich, Germany. He holds a master's degree in
business administration from Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich.
His master's thesis investigated innovative marketing strategies for
new communication networks, such as one-to-one personalization based on
real-time analysis of customer behavior.
Alan Quayle, Consultant, Business and Development Services
Alan
has 17 years experience in the telecommunication industry, focused on
developing profitable new businesses in service providers, suppliers
and consultancies. He consults extensively around the world on SDP
(Service Delivery Platform), CDM (Content Delivery Management), ODP
(On-Device Portal), and IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) with operators
such as AT&T Mobility, BT, Etislat, M1, Swisscom, T-Mobile, Verizon
and Vodafone; and suppliers such as Adobe, Alcatel, BEA, Ericsson,
Huawei, Leapstone (Motorola) and Nokia Siemens Networks. The focus of
current projects is identifying opportunities in adopting the emerging
service creation methods of the Internet. For more information check
out his website, www.alanquayle.com or his Linked-in profile for endorsements from his customers http://www.linkedin.com/in/alanquayle.
Increasing Service Velocity Session
Jouni Welander, Head of New Solutions, US, Nokia Siemens Networks Jouni is currently heading a solutions business development group called New Solutions for Nokia Siemens Networks in the US. Jouni's team is responsible for defining competitive solutions in the US market turning ideas into business opportunities. His group orchestrates a solution creation process for new service architectures and designs based on customer requirements for Mobile and Fixed operators. He has been working closely with the IMS, SDF, applications and enabler product lines for several years and comes from a telecom and IT background with prior work history with Exomi, Compaq Computer and Logica.
Kjell Johansson, Director of Solutions Management, Multi Media, Market Unit North America, Ericsson
Mr.Johansson has 21 years experience in the telecom industry. Kjell
has been with Ericsson since 1985, and has recently been solution
responsible for the Ericsson IMS-based product portfolio and
professional services, in the AT&T account. In this role, Kjell has
worked closely with the AT&T CTO and CMO groups and with select
partners to design and align Ericsson solutions with customer short-
and medium-term requirements. Kjell has also been responsible for
alignment of the Ericsson and AT&T long-term technology
requirements & roadmaps within the context of the strategic
partnership. Prior to joining the AT&T account, Kjell has held a
number of Product Management positions within Ericsson, including one
in the HQ organization in Sweden as P&L responsible for our global
SS7-portfolio, and one in the Market Unit for North America managing
the Ericsson Mobile Core Network portfolio for North American
accounts.Kjell has a background in Software R&D and advanced
systems design, and served as a principal systems architect within the
Ericsson switching division, specializing in call control and
subscriber databases.
Doug Tucker, CTO, Ubiquity Software Corporation
Doug
has been with Ubiquity since 2004 and has been working to advance
Ubiquity’s SIP SOA development strategy. Doug has more than 20 years of
research and development experience, including developing one of the
first IP telephony products to distribute audio and video over TCP/IP
networks. In his varied engineering career, Doug has held the positions
of VP Engineering, CTO, and Chief Scientist, working in both visionary
architecture roles and core product development in a number of
companies, including MCK Communications, Videoserver, ClearOne,
PictureTel, and Codex Corporation/Motorola. He has also served as a
consultant specializing in VoIP product definition, architecture and
development for companies such as Siemens, Microsoft, Intel, and
Spectel/Multilink. He holds a Bachelor of Science, Electrical
Engineering degree from Fairfield University and is literate in a
multiplicity of programming languages, development environments and
communications protocols and actively participates in the standards
process.
Susan Norris, Communications Industry Advisor, Norport Technology Management
Susan
brings more than twenty-five years of diverse telecommunications,
business, and education experience to her advisory role in Technology
Management. Since 2Q03, she has formally consulted with companies
ranging from high-tech start-ups to much larger telecommunications
vendors. As preparation for her advisory role, Susan held increasingly
responsible positions within the Service Provider arena. Most recently,
as Assistant Vice President of Network Systems Development at Sprint,
she was responsible for the technical design, development, and
implementation of its 2.5G network infrastructure.
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