Countdown to ITU Telecom World 2011

TELECOMS

Hundreds of delegates are heading to Geneva for the ITU’s biggest annual event – Telecom World. Stakeholders around the world can tune in for live webcasts.

The event, from 24 – 27 October, also marks the 40^th anniversary of the ITU’s existence.

Stakeholders around the world can follow proceedings  at ITU Telecom World 2011 via live and archived webcasts of key events, from the Opening Ceremony at 12.00-13.00 CET on Tuesday 25th October to the Closing Address at 16.00-17.00 CET on Thursday 27th.

For those unable to attend ITU Telecom World 2011 in person, ITU is creating a full portal of 20 key Forum and workshop sessions. Much more than just a static channel, selected webcasts will also offer viewers the chance to interact and influence discussions, with virtual participants invited to pose questions to moderators and participate in polls.

Highlights of the 3-day programme include:

Pathway to a Connected World (Tuesday 25th, 14.30-16.15 CET)

The first Forum session of this year’s event will set a new benchmark in interaction and virtual participation. The panel, moderated by BBC World presenter Nik Gowing and featuring ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré; Igor Shchegolev, Minister of Communications and Mass Media, Russian Federation; Jianzhou Wang, Chairman & CEO, China Mobile; and Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy, Australia will discuss – and answer – questions raised during the invitation-only Broadband Leadership Summit, providing feedback from the Summit and setting clear challenges to Forum delegates and online audiences alike.

Digital Cities (Wednesday 26th, 11.00-12.30 CET)

A special programme centred around the challenges of urbanization, the Digital Cities stream features leading stakeholders in city development, including mayors of the world’s major cities, digital innovators, utility experts, industry CEOs and city planning and transport specialists. Together, they will share knowledge, visions and case studies on the opportunities and solutions offered by ICT – and on how public, private and R&D sectors can together shape the next-generation connected urban environment for the benefit of all.

Heads in the Cloud (Thursday 27th, 11.00 - 12.30 CET)

This session examines the rapid spread of cloud computing, and taking a look at questions around how people, organizations, and governments will handle information and interactions in the cloud environment. While moving to the cloud offers recognized cost benefits, questions of information security, data privacy, interoperability, reliability and liability persist and need to be considered carefully and addressed rigorously. Lack of interoperability and portability between providers can also make it difficult to migrate data from one service to another – good for cloud service providers, but not necessarily for end-users.

Media will also be able to participate in the Opening Press Conference (Tuesday 25th, 16:30-17:30 CET), which will include the unveiling of new global broadband targets from the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, a global Broadband Challenge from Commissioners to world leaders, and the release of the very latest ITU ICT statistics report The World in 2011.

The ITU Telecom World 2011 webcast portal can be accessed directly from the main ITU Telecom World 2011 event page from 18:00 CET Sunday 23rd October featuring a full schedule of sessions to be webcast: http://world2011.itu.int.

Follow ITU Telecom World 2011 event activities on Facebook at www.itu.int/facebook and through the @ITU_News twitter account #ITUworld11.