Verizon Wireless EVP Ronan Dunne and Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure will be among a cast of heavy hitters to take the stage at the inaugural Mobile World Congress (MWC) Americas show, put on by GSMA in partnership with CTIA.
Dunne and Claure will be joined by other industry giants, including Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri, FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, Acting Head of Ericsson ConsumerLab Rebecka Cedering Angstrom, AT&T SVP of Federal Regulatory Joan Marsh, Qualcomm SVP of Spectrum Strategy and Tech Policy Dean Brenner, and T-Mobile SVP of Government Affairs Kathleen Ham. CTIA President and CEO Meredith Atwell Baker and GSMA Director General Mats Granryd will also take the keynote stage.
This will be the first MWC show held stateside (in San Francisco). The September 12-14 event is replacing CTIA’s old Super Mobility Show, which was also traditionally held in September. MWC Congress Americas “will continue to serve CTIA Super Mobility attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors, and will also attract new audiences from across the growing communications ecosystem,” CTIA said when it announced the change in June 2016.
“Mobile World Congress Americas will reflect an experience truly representative of North, Central, and South America, capturing many of its region- and culture-specific nuances,” GSMA’s Chief Marketing Officer Michael O’Hara commented. “Mobile is an essential part of how we interact, communicate, work, and play, and the event will highlight key areas intersecting with mobile, from media, content, and entertainment to enterprises and brands. We are looking forward to showcasing an industry that impacts literally billions of people around the world.”
GSMA on Wednesday also announced the conference will include several different session tracks that span topics like the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, infrastructure, sustainable development, 5G, and policy. A “Content and Media” track will tackle augmented and virtual reality as well as entertainment more generally in a 5G world. The “Fourth Industrial Revolution” path will delve into AI, digital enterprise infrastructure, autonomous cars, and IoT platforms, services, and security. There will also be tracks on “Consumer IoT” covering cybersecurity and AI and “Network” looking at IoT connectivity and the 5G ecosystem, as well as an “Everything Policy” path addressing spectrum auctions, wireless infrastructure, 5G, IoT, public safety, drones, and more.
A number of partner programs will be held during the three-day conference as well. Those include Women4Tech, the 4YFN Startup Event, a NEXTech Showcase, and MKF’s Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (WiSTEM) conference.
