International wireless industry leaders to gather in Calgary to explore future

Wireless industry leaders from around the world are gathering in Calgary next month at Wireless Connections 2003 to discuss the current state and the future of the wireless communications industry in Canada and globally. Issues to be discussed include the role of content in mobile wireless operators’ strategies, the future of third-generation wireless networks and potential business cases for Wi-Fi networks. Barb Richardson, principal/director at SpringBank TechVentures and chair of the conference, admits that the conference has an ambitious agenda, but says this was a conscious choice. "Our audience base is really going to be a combination of wireless entrepreneurs and CIO-type people as well as the VC (venture capital) strategic investor communities. We’re really trying to put something in there for each of them," she tells Report on Wireless. The conference has been set up in such a way that every delegate will be able to take away something from it. The event is not only an opportunity for new and emerging companies to get perspectives from industry experts, but also to discuss business strategies with successful companies. Breakout sessions will be tailored to each particular interest group. For example, the wireless entrepreneurs will be able to follow a specific stream relating to their needs. The main keynotes will, on the other hand, be more general in nature and provide vision on the direction of the industry. Richardson says the main sessions will try to answer the following questions: "Where’s the industry going? What are the business models that are going to work? How are the different players in the value chain – be it the carriers, the content provider – ever going to start making money in this business area?" Calgary and environs will be front and centre at the conference. "I think one of our goals is putting Calgary and western Canada on the map as a centre of excellence for wireless activity. We’ve got a lot of innovative, start-up, emerging companies in this area and we want to have an opportunity to showcase them," Richardson explains. She tells RoW that in bringing dominant wireless players such as Nokia, Intel and Microsoft to the event, start-up participants can begin to form connections that might lead to eventual customer relationships or even acquisitions. The wireless telecommunications industry has suffered through a long and protracted downturn that has seen companies cut staff, scale back marketing activities or even fold completely. The conference will, therefore, serve as a venue to explore the chances of success of existing business models or new business methods emerging in the new wireless industry environment. Richardson says exploring ways to generate revenue and achieve profitability will also be one of the key conference thrusts. "How am I going to make money? What are the business models in the wireless sector that actually make sense and that will survive in this tougher more critical investment economy?" she says of the agenda. The North American mobile wireless industry is only now beginning to explore to a greater extent the opportunities for wireless data services such as downloading ringtones, playing games and sending pictures. Two conference sessions will provide some insight, Richardson says – one with Finnish company Radiolinja and Rogers Wireless Inc., and another with Japanese wireless operator NTT DoCoMo. "Because Radiolinja has probably been the most aggressive content provider in the world in terms of what they’ve rolled out, how they’ve started to make a lot of money and content providers selling services to consumers," Richardson explains. "Hearing what they’re doing relative to what’s working in North America and hopefully what we can plan on doing over the next year, I think will be most insightful." The conference chair states that the past two years have been extremely tough on both the telecom and wireless industries, but says things are beginning to improve. Richardson suspects the industry will look quite different in two years. "I feel like we’re at a start now whereas two years from now I suspect we’ll have content providers getting up and talking about their great success with mobile applications. We’ll have carriers getting up and talking about how instead of data being 3% of their revenue base, it’s 20% of their revenue base. We’ll have middlemen, billing infrastructure guys, getting up and talking about where they fit in the value chain between content providers and the carriers and how they’ve carved out this innovative kind of niche." In an upcoming issue, Report on Wireless will explore the difficulty venture capitalists have had over the past couple of years and what they are now looking at in terms of potential investment opportunities in the wireless space.

International wireless industry leaders to gather in Calgary to explore future

News | April 29, 2003

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