London, 25 October 2012 – The world’s foremost broadband conference and exhibition, the Broadband World Forum, took the broadband industry into a new era of connectivity and services, as thousands of visitors filled Amsterdam’s RAI Exhibition Centre last week. The new venue and fresh new programme reflected the evolving nature of the industry, specifically focussing on the power of broadband to transform lives and the possibilities and opportunities with innovation. It debates the challenges for broadband networks, the policy that governs them and the applications and services that drive demand.
With over 400 speakers, this was a record breaking year for the event. Attendees had the opportunity to listen to the European Commission’s Vice President for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, who took to the stage to call on policy makers to spur network investment as a matter of urgency. Kroes’ message was supported by Eelco Blok, the CEO of KPN - Dutch incumbent operator and broadband leader, who went on to outline the new services possible with better broadband from eHealth and personal safety to energy services. This message on the achievements possible with broadband could not have been better illustrated than through Gerry Pennell’s Keynote – the CIO of LOCOG who, in a highly topical presentation, shared his experience with delivering a connected London 2012 Olympic Games.
The event went from strength to strength each day as Day 2 saw Keynotes from industry heavy weights including Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, Group CTO, Deutsche Telekom who affirmed the great power in being connected; Tony Malone, CTO of Verizon who explored how to keep pace with the rapid transformation in today’s industry; and US Cable giant Comcast. Day 3 gave delegates the unique opportunity to witness a fascinating snapshot from Richard Cooper, Controller of Digital Distribution at the BBC, on how they delivered their incredibly comprehensive digital coverage to UK users this Summer over the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Gavin Whitechurch, Executive Director at Informa Telecoms & Media, said: “The event truly reflected the evolving nature of the industry with the right balance of network, technology, policy and governmental representation, as well as showcasing service and business innovations that are driving the demand for broadband.”
The event this year saw a significant surge in attendance from C-level Executives with this industry leading keynote line up, as well as the highly exclusive Executive Summit hosted by Vodafone Germany, and the Broadband InfoVision Awards and Gala Dinner.
The beautiful De Duif in Amsterdam provided the perfect backdrop for the Broadband InfoVision Awards ceremony which acknowledged outstanding technologies and services and celebrated excellence across the entire broadband industry. A host of new categories were introduced which attracted an unprecedented number of entries from key operators and vendors.
2012’s event had the largest and most exciting exhibition ever seen by the Broadband World Forum to date with impressive growth and a diverse spread of companies exhibiting on the show floor. The event saw an array of exciting activity from over 200 sponsors and exhibitors, including Adtran who provided live presentations of the industry’s first cloud-based mobile offload architecture; Genesis who launched its DSL Rings with live demonstrations; Lantiq, who showcased their access networks and home gateway solutions; and ZTE who launched a full hardware and software solution integrating low bit rate high definition, OTT TV, and multi-screen convergence.
Following the huge success of this year’s event, Informa Telecoms & Media can confirm that Broadband World Forum 2013 will return to the RAI Exhibition Centre in Amsterdam.
“We’ve already had some great feedback about the event, which has been our biggest and best yet. We’ve even heard comments from attendees saying that they can’t remember an event with so many operator CEOs, interesting OTT players covering such a mix of network and commercial challenges and issues. Exhibitors are already booking space for next year, so we’re looking to forward to even greater success in 2013,” concluded Whitechurch.
To view the official event videos, please visit:
http://www.broadbandworldforum.com/conference/presentations/.
The dates for next year’s Broadband World Forum are 22 – 24 October 2013. For further information, visit
http://www.broadbandworldforum.com/ or follow @BBWorldForum to gain sneak previews about next year.
