eCommEurope2009: Emerging Communications Conference

The Emerging Communications (eComm) Conference & Awards was created to promote and accelerate communications innovation.

Telecom, mobile and to a lesser extent, Internet based communications, had been innovation stagnant for far too long. Yet the opportunities for innovation had never been greater. Those opportunities are only going to grow as drastic changes further impact the multi-trillion dollar a year telecom industry. Changes include:

• Telecom is becoming software
• Today's model of the telephony and SMS cash-cows will significantly dry up long-term
• "Phones" are becoming general purpose always-on computers
• A march is underway to change how spectrum is allocated and utilised
• Applications innovation is being democratised
• The media industry is converging with personal communications
• Internet-style ecosystems are starting to pressurise the traditional value chain
• Search engines and computer manufactures are encroaching into the space
• App downloads; media content and even communication streams are increasingly routing-around operator's billing systems
• The telecom kingdom is fragmenting daily.

There is not a migratory way from where we are to the future; this means unprecedented opportunity for those ahead-of-the-curve.

The debut San Francisco America 2008 conference broke a lot of new ground and created a forum attracting 300 top influencer's and 80 speakers from 15 countries. San Francisco America 2009 built upon that foundation with world-class speakers and a 25% increase in attendees. Amsterdam Europe 2009 is the debut European event and promises to further cement the community.

Major topics of Europe 2009 (so far) will include:

• New communication paradigms i.e. Google Wave, Rebelvox
• Telecom restructuring, threats, & new business models i.e. "double-sided" business model, app stores: co-existence or survival of the fittest?
• The fusion of media, informational and conversational worlds
• Towards an edge-centric world networks & edge economics; it doesn't matter how smart the pipes get - the edge & the cloud will be smarter still
• Open communication platforms demos of applications which show the power of convergence of Web, Telco and mobile technologies
• Improving efficiency thru communications innovation particularly mobile enterprise applications and Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP). What does Freephone 2.0 look like?
• Android Scripting Environment (ASE) and iPhone 3.0 OS applications
• Operator futures: bit-pipes, platforms or supermarkets?
• Industry predictions; picture of the next 5 or 10 years
• Democratisation of communications and communications innovation i.e. Iran post-election in the case of the former, Skype as an example of the latter
• Voice and messaging 2.0+
• Growth of handset apps and PC-based mobile broadband
• Real-time Web as conversational platform

The Emerging Communications Conference & Awards:

• Attracts executives and top influencer's from across the telecom, mobile and Internet space
• Launches real-world startups
• Explores business models and new partnership structures
• Gives stage time to cutting-edge academic projects
• Presents views from the incumbent telecom players
• Stirs required policy debates
• Promotes garage based hacks
• Brings out visionaries
• Provides a venue to meet and do business, as well as be inspired
• Showcases bleeding-edge technologies
• Provides a critical forum for all players across the full spectrum

The mammoth sized telecom industry - including cellular - is in the process of being re-written. You either stand on the side to be written into the past or instead join with the growing community to write the future.

Opportunities to profit from the radical restructuring and in accelerating the development of how humanity connects, communicates and collaborates have never been so great.

Opportunity Doesn't Always Knock. Sometimes It Calls.