3GSM congress moves to Barcelona

For the first time in the his-tory of 3GSM World Congress organized by the Global System for Mobile (GSM) Association, the congress would next year move to the city of Barcelona, Spain, from its usual host Cannes in France.

A press statement from the organizers said that another world class line-up of keynote speakers including the chief executive of LG Electronics Mobile Communications, Mr. Mun Hwa Park, would take the stage at the congress, holding February 13 through 16, 2006.

Other confirmed CEOs, the association said, consists of Arun Sarin
of Vodafone Group, Antonio Viana-Baptista of Telefónica Móviles, Sanjiv Ahuja of Orange, Peter Erskine of 02, Steve Ballmer from Microsoft and Mr. Bill Roedy from MTV.

Also confirmed participant are Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo of Nokia, Carl-Henric Svanberg, Ericsson
Ed Zander of Motorola, Wang Jianzhou from China Mobile and Steve Tiley of McDonalds.

The organizers also noted that the outstanding key speaker line up for next year covers the full spectrum of the mobile ecosystem.

Mobile Innovation Forum, the association said, has grown in importance for the year ending 2005, and brings together small start up companies with the investment community, mobile operators and vendors.

Directly allied to this event is the new Mobile Innovation Award, a unique and prestigious addition to the GSM Association’s Awards categories.

Further, the Mobile Entertainment Summit (MES) it noted has become the global forum for entertainment and content brands to assemble with the mobile industry as the two worlds converge at breakneck speed.

Featuring some of the world’s most recognisable brands and addressing the key issues, an unprecedented line up of experts speakers would include Mr. Thomas Hesse of SonyBMG, Cedric Ponsot of Universal Mobile International, Attila Gazdag from Walt Disney, Eric Mika of Variety, Angel Gambino from MTV, Justin Richardson from Warner Bros Online and Ted Cohen of EMI Music as well as Stephen Nutall of BSkyB and Frank Sagnier of Electronic Arts.

The congress organizing team also said that next year’s event promises the biggest and best ever, bringing together industry leaders and visionaries from around the world and across the mobile value chain to explore the top strategic, commercial and technology challenges ahead of the global industry.