What you missed at DTW Ignite! 2025
...the industry may be struggling to break away from its legacy roots, but this event in particular is the place to be for those looking to do so.
AWS, Cisco, Verizon and other big names partnered on the catalyst project “Game X” to meet the needs of the rapidly growing eSports industry by ‘combining standardized network APIs and AI
orchestration to enable fixed–wireless convergence for ultra-low-latency cloud gaming and immersive applications’. The collaboration met the needs of bandwidth-hungry professional gamers by
creating a network that automatically adapts to ensure a quality of experience that is required for high-level online gaming, such as tournaments.
One of the most visually satisfying events at the show was the Hackathon, tucked away in a modest corner in Hall C4 just in front of the Impact Stage. A couple of little booths and what could
be some of the greatest minds in the industry were working away. Despite there not being much action, it was nice to see some of the actual talent that fuel events such as DTW and the industry
as a whole and are behind industry innovation.
The cybersecurity elite were battling it out for prizes, including $6000 of Google Cloud credits, three months of follow-up support from a Google mentor, a TM Forum article and more. Just taking
part in the event gave entrants the opportunity to work with the latest version of Gemini 2.5 and the chance to take on some of the hardest telco-industry challenges.
As I made my way through the main exhibition halls known as The Quad, I was struck by the visual representations of marketing investments, including the domineering exhibits of tech giants.
Google, Amdocs, Ericsson and Nokia flexed with some of the event’s biggest stands (and Nokia kept their tradition of putting their signature cafe at the hall’s entrance as well). Huawei was also
a big player with a beefy stand, a modest departure from their entire hall that they rented out at the previous MWC in Barcelona. The Symphonica VIP Lounge overlooked the whole event from a
mezzanine floor, offering a place of quiet solace from up high. Symphonica’s CEO, Leandro Rzezak, proudly shared that he was happy to be sponsoring the lounge this year and that ‘DTW to our
industry is the most valuable trade show’. He was also impressed by ‘interesting talks’ and like others shared the thought that ‘DTW has the right people and it’s easier to connect than
MWC’.
It was good to see some more visual props at this year’s DTW, making the show floor feel more alive. Ericsson’s stand was adorned with their playful slogan “OSS. BSS. NO BS.” which was
also on a large banner located above the main entrance to the Bella Centre. Oracle ditched the Formula One car but replaced it with a more interactive and immersive driving simulator, which
demonstrated how incredibly difficult Formula One driving is. Shirin Esfandiari, Senior Director Product Marketing at Oracle, shared more of Oracle’s palpable innovations by telling
Pipeline about tech that will support first responders to keep the public and themselves safer in the line of duty. Esfandiari claimed that “Oracle are focused on real life uses
cases” and went on to explain how their first responder monitoring solution, helps to protect users with a network of body cams that allows senior management to remotely take control of stressful
and complex situations that may be beyond the scope and experience of staff on scene.
All in all, Copenhagen played a tremendous host to DTW once again this year. The TM Forum did an outstanding job creating an open, airy, and accessible environment (see Figure 3) for those who
attended. The general feel was spacious, and the feedback we received from exhibitors and sponsors was that it was well worth the investment, providing a more focused and collaborative
environment for the telecommunications industry. While we feel the industry may be struggling to break away from its legacy roots, this event in particular is the place to be for those looking to
do so.
