Sample Agenda: Day One:
While keynotes from SK Telecom, and Kevin Tao, CEO, Huawei Europe, will be informative, Eric Klinker, CEO, BitTorrent is the most interesting keynote on Tuesday. It must be strange to be invited to speak at a conference of service providers who have had to change entire business models in part due to the massive popularity of P2P services like BitTorrent. The lineup looks primed for lively discussion, so hopefully we get to see some candid dialogue.
As the session begin, it's a toss up between the IPv6 conversation at the start of the Network Evolution track, or the broadband and LTE deployment program on the Business Evolution track. If neither sounds interesting, the Connected Vehicles summit will highlight the potential for broadband in new markets.
Following a quick crepe break at 1:30, head on over to the Service Management track, which will be talking OSS/BSS exclusively, and end with refreshments at 3:35. If you stay on this track, it will be an afternoon of subscriber management discussion, starting with the future of the cloud, which looks like a winner. If you're looking to learn more about the transition to all-IP networks, than the Network Evolution track is where you should spend your afternoon.
Sessions close around 6pm on Tuesday, and if you're not lucky enough to have a ticket for the floating awards ceremony, you still have plenty of time to take in Paris and work on your fashion sense.
Day Two:
If you didn't stay out too late on Tuesday night, then the Analyst Breakfast Briefings might be your cup of tea. They start at 8am, and feature four analysts who will present on four different topics. These briefings also occur on Thursday morning (with a different lineup of analysts), so my advice is to pick one day to attend breakfast before the keynotes, but not both; you are in Paris and should come home with at least one late-night adventure story!
Keynotes on Wednesday start kind of weak, with C-levels from NSN and Alcatel-Lucent attempting to answer the unfathomable question: "Who Needs Broadband?" After listening to 45 minutes of discussion that leads up to the word "everyone," the day will get slightly more interesting as top brass from BT Group and Deutsche Telecom attempt to answer the same question. (Note to self: remember to pack NoDoz). Maybe this will turn into a "future of broadband," crystal-ball gazing session—I certainly hope so—but as it's written in the conference brochure, it looks to be a slow morning.
The Services Implementation and Access Evolution tracks look to be the best on Wednesday, with SI focused on enterprise services and AE trained on wireless broadband. Bouncing between the two isn't too difficult, but make sure to start in the SI track and stay there until lunch, as valuable sessions cover one of the hottest areas in the industry for telcos: enterprise and cloud services. Head over to the AE track after lunch to talk wireless backhaul, femtocells, and broadband access for the underserved.
Day Three:
The final day of the conference ends with an engaging question posed to the keynote speakers: How do we leverage the cloud for network expansion? Executives from ZTE, AT&T, Hong Kong Broadband, France Telecom, and China Unicom will all weigh in, and they'll be joined by Pierre-Alain Graf, CEO, SwissGrid, who will offer some unique perspective from the energy industry.
Start your sessions in the Business Strategy track, which looks at broadband business model evolution, and ponders services like OTT and IPTV, and whether or not they can be monetized, or serve as a retention tool. Grab a baguette at 1:15, then jump over to the SI track to attend sessions on multi-screen content and broadband TV. And then to understand the charging and management of these services, hop to the NE track at 3:40 to attend the interactive panel discussion on traffic/bandwidth control and differentiating services.
The conference ends at 6pm, and hopefully you have time and energy left to enjoy Paris. If you didn't attend the expensive awards gala, you could probably even book an inexpensive boat ride along the Siene. Regardless, the last week of September will be a great time to be in France, and BBWF will be a solid show that uncovers the true potential of broadband and offers good access to service providers without the headaches associated with navigating a mega-show.
