Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

Yes! Another conference for me to Chair. This is definitely my last conference of the year. Well, the last one that I’m going to Chair or speak at anyway. Looks like I’ve got about 5 hours sleep ahead of the gathering so I hope they have plenty of coffee on standby with my name on it.

So, here’s the breakdown…

Interview with Ofcom

• How are the quad play and triple play offerings affecting regulatory strategy?
• Managing spectrum: ensuring that auctions are fair and technology neutral
• Protecting the customer: does convergence mean more complexity?

Ed Richards, Chief Executive Officer, Ofcom
Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, Media Editor, Financial Times

Panel Discussion
What legislation and regulation is necessary as convergent services increase?

• What will be the impact of the spectrum auctions?
• Rights and content: how should content be protected?
• How should next generation networks be handled?
• Will competition issues arise as a result of M&A activity?
• Assessing the degree of competition: how will regulatory strategy develop as markets change?

Yvonne Fern, Regulatory Counsel, T-Mobile UK
Andy King, Director of Regulatory Policy and Compliance, Virgin Media

Understand the customer: The key to success
Communicating communications: how telecoms marketing must move with the times

• Challenges facing telcos in understanding customer needs
• Multi-channel marketing in the move to multi-play services
• Beyond churn – the pitfalls of a badly balanced campaign
• Winning new customers whilst growing existing relationships
• The winning formula: telecoms best practice

Clare Morgan, Director of Telecoms and High Tech, Acxiom UK

Panel Discussion
Reaping the rewards of convergence: exploring opportunities for advertising

• The power of the Internet: how has advertising changed?
• Is advertising effectiveness more measurable and consumer behaviour more measurable in the digital world?
• The red button: increasing the impact of interactive TV advertising
• What is the potential for advertising on mobile TV and IPTV?
• Will revenue splitting for user-generated content increase?
• Which services should be funded by advertising and which should be subscription based?

Tess Alps, Chief Executive Officer, Thinkbox
Jim Marshall, Chairman, Starcom MediaVest Group & Chairman, Media Futures Group, IPA
Jimmy Maymann, Chairman, GoViral
Clare Morgan, Director of Telecoms and High Tech, Acxiom UK

The next generation of communications

In this session, three panelists will give short presentations to explore the potential of next generation networks and assess what the communications landscape of the future will look like.

Exploring the potential of 3G
Professor Ed Candy, Chief Technology Officer, Hutchison ‘3’ Group

Understanding 21cn: how will Britain’s communications landscape change?
Cameron Rejali, Managing Director Products and Strategy, BT Wholesale

Exploring the potential of WiMax
Brendan O’Rourke, Chief Operating Officer, FREEDOM4

Questions and discussion forum

• What investments need to be made if media and communications services are to succeed?
• How is current infrastructure coping with delivering convergent services?
• Just the beginning: where next for 3G services?
• How will the growth of social information structures affect communications operators?
• What will be the impact of WiMax?

I’ll then bring the afternoon to a close with my enlightening overview of the day. I’m glad I didn’t have it as easy as Michael Nutley who Chaired today. Michael had straightforward presentations. Actually, I take that back. Talk about shuffling the pack on Walshie!