Conference at Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2017

Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2017 (MWCS17) is set to be the biggest Asia event yet. Under the theme of “The Human Element”, the event will be held from 28 June – 1 July, and is set to attract more than 65,000 attendees and 650 participating companies. The conference programme is a key feature of the event and will explore the latest mobile trends and topics.

The conference, which has been extended to three days, from Wednesday, 28 June through Friday, 30 June, will feature thought-provoking presentations from some of the mobile industry’s most influential executives. And in another first, all keynote and conference summits will be held alongside the exhibition at the SNIEC, in Hall W3. The format of this year’s conference has also been updated, with each day divided into keynotes in the morning, followed by summit track sessions designed to take a deeper dive into the topics that interest audiences the most.

In the first of a three-part blog series, we’ll give you a preview of the opening day’s conference content. The opening keynote will explore how advances in mobile connectivity impact us individually in our personal and business lives, how they affect companies across the value chain, and even how they impact governments and other organisations. Mats Granryd, GSMA Director General, and Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman, Bharti Enterprises and Chairman of the GSMA, will open the conference, joined by Shang Bing, Chairman of China Mobile, Lu Yimin, President of China Unicom, and Takashi Tanaka, President of KDDI. The second keynote of the day will feature global leaders from AsiaInfo, Huawei, Qualcomm and Telstra.

The afternoon’s conference sessions will give attendees the choice of four focused summits, each built around a particular theme including media and content, data security, strategies for operator evolution and more.
 
The summits on day one of Mobile World Congress Shanghai are as follows:

MMIX Asia Summit: The 2017 edition of the ever-popular MMIX Asia Summit will focus on how the mobile and media industries are evolving together and what that means for the future of both. The summit will provide an insight into monetisation strategies, content formats and distribution, partnerships and more. The top-class speaker line-up includes Travis Johnson of Ansible, Neeraj Roy of Hungama, Chris Park of Major League Baseball International and Andy Huang of OTV Cloud. Explore the agenda and speaker line-up in detail here.

Data Security Summit: Recent data leaks and hacks have brought the topic of data security for businesses to the forefront. This summit is designed to address business concerns around data security, and equip business leaders with strategies to manage these challenges as their companies become more digitised. Attendees will learn what businesses should prepare for, and find the best responses to any data breach. Speakers include leaders from Architech Corner, Brunswick Group, Ctrl-Shift, others from internet security firms such as InterTrust and McAfee, and finally from the World Economic Forum. Explore more here.

Operator Evolution Strategies Summit: This summit is designed for operators and the companies that depend on them. It will address the role and function of operators, their relationship to the rest of the broadening telecoms ecosystem and the strategies they are adopting to grow and adapt to an environment radically different from even five years ago. Speakers include executives from well-established brands like Comptel, Nokia and PLDT, as well as upcoming companies taking advantage of the dynamic environment, such as the China Transport Telecommunications & Information Centre and immmr. Read more details here.

Transforming Industries Summit: The summit will focus on the impact of technology on different industry verticals such as finance, retail and consumer electronics and their global competitiveness. Progressive industry players around the world are already embracing the technologies and benefits of IoT, big data/ smart data, robotics, cloud and mobility. However, this explosion of interconnected technologies brings with it a set of challenges. Speakers, including Edith Yeung of 500 Startups, James Sha of Acer, Raimon Rafols of AXA and TS Anil of Visa, will peel back some of the uncertainty with insights from their industries. View the detailed agenda here.

In addition to hearing from CEOs and C-level speakers responsible for driving significant changes in the industry, the summits are a great place to network with industry leaders. Don’t forget, it’s not only conference pass-holders who can attend this year. Exhibition pass-holders can also upgrade their passes to attend one or two of the summits, allowing people with specialised interests to get the most value out of the conference at Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2017.

Next week’s blog will explore day two of the conference agenda. In the meantime, be sure to join the conversation on social media using #MWCS17, and follow the latest news and developments about the event on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Details on the many ways you can get involved with the GSMA on social media can be found here.