Management World once again features its popular Forumville installation. Each themed zone of Forumville is designed to showcase a topic of note in the industry. In addition, the Forum has planned each zone to map to a conference track taking place at the event, which should allow attendees to focus their attention on their chosen topic in a targeted, multimedia fashion. It's an interesting move, as it could bring the feeling of a half-dozen co-located mini conferences under a unified umbrella.
And, of course, Catalyst demonstrations will be a part of the exhibit.
We're told that 15 Multi-Company Catalyst Demonstrations are scheduled to take place at Management World this year, "with 20 Service Providers and 40+ Vendors joining forces to show TM Forum-based solutions for timely management and IT challenges including managing cloud, customer experience, analytics, mCommerce, and delivering digital services."
If you're not familiar with the Catalyst set up, each catalyst consists of a team of suppliers addressing real-world problems presented and defined by service providers, who act as
A half-dozen co-located mini conferences under a unified umbrella.
Revenue Management and mCommerce - Addressing revenue management challenges and new business models in a complex and changing market
"project champions". Since the CSPs define the Catalyst topics, the problems tend to be practical, allowing for constructive cooperation by all participants.
The list of service providers taking part in these projects is longer and more geographically diverse than the run-down of keynote speakers. Participant CSPs include BT, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Swisscom, Qwest, Telstra, China Telecom, China Unicom, ZAIN and a host of others. Vendors taking part include Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Ericsson, Huawei, and Amdocs.
The demonstration at Management World is just one stop on a long road of research. Catalyst projects typically run 3-6 months in duration, which still enables service providers to have possible solutions to their requirements in a much shorter period of time than a standard RFx and lab testing process.
Each Catalyst takes place as one of the larger themes within Forumville. The breakdown of themes and topics is as follows:
Cloud Services -- Enabling the business of Cloud Services.
So, between the topics, the location, and the focus, Management World keeps our hopes alive for a strong event in the midst of an era of decline for trade shows. We will make the trip to Nice next month. Will you? Let us know what you think by contacting me at editor@pipelinepub.com.
Pipeline
Publishing, Volume 6, Issue 11
