Tag Archives: networking

Cardiff, Events

Swiss Ambassador highlights close working relationship with the UK in Cardiff Business Club address

His Excellency Markus Leitner, Ambassador of Switzerland to the United Kingdom, addressed Cardiff Business Club at a lunch event sponsored by Eversheds Sutherland, on 27 February at Sophia Gardens.

Leitner spoke about the strong working relationships between Wales and Switzerland through programmes such as the electrification of the railways and the supply of a large number of trains as part of the significant redevelopment of the Transport for Wales network, focusing on the many links and partnerships between the UK and Switzerland.

His speech shed light on the Swiss government’s four focuses for our two countries to work more closely together in the near future, highlighting a modernised free trade agreement and improved mobility alongside a focus on financial services and science and research.

With negotiations currently in place for a modernised free trade agreement, Leitner said mobility needed to be improved in order to ease the trade process for the service provider, ensuring easier and freer trade between the two nations.

He highlighted that both countries hold major financial centres, mentioning Cardiff’s fintech industry, and said that there needs to be an agreement between these financial centres to work in tandem. With life sciences taking specific focus, the Ambassador supported the Government’s aims and outlined that the onus is now with the private sector to support his Government’s plans.

He touched on Brexit and how Switzerland can lead by example as a European country that is thriving outside of the European Union, thanks to its strong currency and dominant economy, alongside their policy of neutrality. Switzerland is fully committed to its policy of neutrality, which is not the same as indifference, he said. The Ambassador reiterated that the country is fully committed to international law, support to the civilian population and eventually peace in Ukraine.

 

 

One of the biggest challenge Switzerland faces is its relationship to the EU, as in some ways it was more integrated than some of its members, the Ambassador said.

Switzerland opted for access to the single market through five agreements, which should be updated and expanded by two more agreements. While the British and the Swiss starting points towards the EU might be different, a reinforced cooperation between the UK and Switzerland remains important.

Events, News, South East

New two-day outdoor festival will see Steven Bartlett and Gareth Thomas take to stage in Wickham

A NEW outdoor festival will see some of the biggest names in business come to Hampshire to share their expertise.

Ideas Fest is a two-day festival taking place in the site of the popular Wickham Festival.

Taking place across Wednesday 3 and Thursday 4 August, the festival will provide professionals from across the region and the rest of the country with a chance to enjoy insightful talks, networking and more in a relaxed festival setting.

The ethos behind the festival is to provide a relaxed and informal setting to allow busines leaders, founders and professionals to let their hair down and enjoy themselves while securing new business opportunities, meeting like-minded people and taking away valuable and actionable insights from industry-leaders.

Taking the stage will be some of the biggest names in business, including Dragon’s Den star and host of number-one podcast The Diary of a CEO, Steven Bartlett, as well as founder of meditation app Calm, Michael Acton-Smith.

More huge names including author of The Good Ally, Nova Reid, former captain of Wales and The British Lions, Gareth Thomas, will be giving talks and hosting panels across the two days.

Taking place across the festival will also be wellbeing activities such as morning yoga, workshops in skills such as public speaking and circus skills, a silent disco, independent food and drinks vendors, a ‘boujie’ car boot sale in association with Richmond Motor Group, with profits being donated towards causes in Ukraine.

There will also be live music, with a performance and Q&A session with So Macho star Sinitta, as well as performances from Oysterband, 10CC and Grace Petrie.

The event was founded by Francesca James, who also runs several national awards companies including the Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

The brain behind the event, Francesca James founded the festival because she wanted to bring something new and innovative to the world of corporate events, to reimagine the way business events are done.

She said: ‘There is currently a new wave of business leaders and future founders and they don’t want to wear a suit and tie and drink coffee in hotel conference suites. While there is absolutely still a place for corporate events that encourage this, it’s important that we move with the times and innovate where there is a desire for it.

‘The idea is that people will be able to let their guard down and have a deeper experience that will result in a bigger outcome for them personally or professionally. Regardless of what stage of business that people are at, there will be something for everyone to take away from the festival. We are looking forward to sparking lots of opportunities and inspiring conversations that could change the world.’

The festival is offering people within the Hampshire area 30 per cent off tickets for the duration of June.

Until June 12 it is also running a two-for-one buddy promotion, offering a free two-day ticket for every two-day ticket purchased, which the 30 per cent promotion will also be valid on top of.

Tickets can be purchased from www.ideasfest.co.uk.

Events, News, South East

Hampshire Business Show makes a return for 2022 with 15 industry-leading speakers

THE region’s largest B2B expo has officially launched for 2022.

The Hampshire Business Show is back for its third year, bringing together hundreds of businesses from across the South coast.

The show, which is the largest in the region, will make its return on Thursday, October 20 at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton.

More than 1000 attendees are set to come along to the event, which is sponsored by Southampton law firm, Paris Smith LLP, Portsmouth marketing agency, Vertical Leap and Oxford-based start-up support business, Oxford Innovation and more.

There will be 15 industry-leading speakers from across Hampshire, from a range of industries, including marketing agency owner Jade Scotney and entrepreneur Chris Schutrups.

The speakers will share advice and insight in their fields of expertise, allowing attendees to learn new things and grow their businesses.

More than 100 businesses will exhibit at the event, giving business owners and professionals of all backgrounds the opportunity to connect, collaborate and win new business.

The show will be split across two floors, spanning three zones across the two floors – two seminar zones and the keynote stage.

There will also be a headline keynote speaker, which will be revealed later in the year.

Last year saw the UK’s number-one motivational speaker Brad Burton and entrepreneur and TV personality Baroness Karren Brady give talks on the keynote stage.

The show’s founder, Josh Mitchell said: ‘Last year was the first year post-covid that the event went ahead, and it was one of the first big business events in the diary after lockdown. We were incredibly pleased with the event and had feedback that the attendees gained a huge amount of value in the way of connecting with others and winning business.

‘This year we’d like to see even more business being passed off the back of the event. Hopefully as a region we can grow the business community even more and continue to boost the economy with the work that we do.’

This year, the event’s charity partner is Basingstoke based charity EBP South, which connects businesses and schools across the central South region.

Sponsorship packages are still available for businesses looking to feature on the show’s merchandise and throughout online marketing activities.

Free tickets for the show can be booked at www.hampshirebusinessshow.com

News, Telecoms

Infovista launches Smart CAPEX solution to deploy and scale 5G networks that deliver maximum ROI

AI/ML-based network planning, optimization, and modelling solution to deliver mobile network with the highest revenue potential

Paris, France – February 10th, 2022 – Infovista, the global leader in network lifecycle automation (NLA), today announced its innovative Smart CAPEX solution for operators and businesses designing, deploying and operating 5G networks. Smart CAPEX accelerates and increases the return on investment (ROI) from 5G network rollout, expansion and densification by intelligently calculating and optimizing the predicted business outcomes – including revenue, churn and quality of experience. The solution enables senior business and technology leaders to develop a holistic business case for network investments based on a common expectation and understanding of how network investment drives revenue growth. This enables, for the first time, a shift in focus in network planning, from network KPI optimization to business outcomes optimization, by combining diverse and numerous network and business predictions within a single vendor-neutral software application.

The Smart CAPEX solution enables rapid, ROI-optimized CAPEX allocation for the highest predicted customer experience and revenue, through precise roll-out and expansion of radio coverage and performance, at the lowest cost. It reduces the time taken to reach investment decisions by incorporating geospatial revenue potential prediction, automated TCO simulation and modern ‘what-if’ analysis technologies. In combination with its business KPI forecasting capabilities, this accelerates time-to-revenue and optimizes ROI in ways not possible through traditional, manually intensive approaches to network planning. Based on Infovista’s cloud-native application portfolio, the solution enables accelerated roll-outs from one region or market to the next in a consistent, systematic way by applying common models, algorithms and analysis tools from a centrally managed and hosted application. This avoids the need to manually deploy and configure planning tools in each market individually, and provides a single point from which all planning and optimization projects can be visualized by senior stakeholders.

When supporting the expansion and densification of live networks, Infovista Smart CAPEX uses powerful AI/ML forecasting capabilities to combine live ‘operational’ network and traffic performance data with external data to provide accurate insights into the impact of network performance on business outcomes both current and future. Operational and traffic performance data provides intelligence into coverage, quality of service (QoS), quality of experience (QoE) and churn. Business metrics from external data include TCO models, ARPU, crowdsourced data, social media usage and customer lifetime value (CLTV).

The Smart CAPEX solution allows CSPs to undertake ROI-based site prioritization based on an accurate analysis and understanding of revenue potential, the total cost of ownership (TCO), and time to market (TTM) constraints for both greenfield 5G deployments and mobile network expansions. This includes automated calculations of both the TCO, such as radio hardware and fibre length, and TTM, such as site acquisition and site construction time, as well as backhaul cost considerations for both. The Smart CAPEX dashboard provides valuable insights in the form of heatmaps with rich geospatial views. They provide ‘at-a-glance’ information about the current and predicted business performance of network investments in specific areas.

“The telecommunications industry today faces exponential growth in traffic; mobile operators, systems integrators, tower companies, equipment providers and ecosystem vendors are investing heavily in 5G to enable the delivery of new 5G-enabled services. Linking the evolution of radio infrastructure with key business objectives around revenue growth is a must. Each participant in the value chain shares a common interest in ensuring they can capture the revenue opportunities while controlling their cost,” said Franco Messori, Chief Product Strategy and Transformation Officer, Infovista. “Smart CAPEX allows business and technology teams to effectively and efficiently plan, optimize and model different network evolution scenarios to deliver next generation networks with the maximum return on investment.”

“Designed for enabling both greenfield and brownfield operators to quickly deploy high-performance mobile networks that fully exploit the potential of 5G, Infovista’s Smart CAPEX helps them to make intelligent, data-driven RF investment decisions based on the priorities they set to deliver against key business objectives. Smart CAPEX is a significant step towards giving 5G operators the insight and intelligence they need to make informed network investment decisions that maximize their ROI and make 5G work smarter,” added Messori.

The main functionalities and deliverables in the Smart CAPEX solution include:

– Geospatial heatmaps: visualizations of current and predicted business KPIs in the form of heatmaps that users can view at various levels of granularity, from the national level down to the cell-site and ‘pixel’ level. The KPIs include: QoE, Churn risk, Revenue, TCO and ROI

– Digital twin modeling: A model that replicates the live physical network alongside population density and traffic demand

– Nationwide network planning & optimization: Smart CAPEX allows you to dynamically scale 4G and 5G network models to the size of whole countries

– Focus area detection: The identification of both current and predicted geographic areas with problems resulting from insufficient capacity, including insufficient capacity and coverage; insufficient or rapidly declining QoE; rapid capacity demand growth; and low spectral efficiency

– TCO and ROI modeling: The configuration of equipment and associated costs, alongside maintenance overhead data to accurately estimate the overall TCO implication of different planning decisions, to support the identification of the most cost-efficient cell layouts

– ROI Optimization: Leveraging its revenue heatmap and TCO modeling capabilities, Smart CAPEX solution identifies the areas with healthy ROI and visualize that in various formats including ROI heatmaps and network upgrade schedule priorities by ROI

Smart CAPEX is part of Infovista’s Network Lifecycle Automation suite, that enables automation of processes spanning multiple network lifecycle phases, accelerating digital transformation for CSPs and enterprises.

To find out more about the Smart CAPEX solution, and how operators can use its AI/ML-based network planning, optimization, and modelling to deliver a mobile network with the highest revenue potential, please download our whitepaper: https://www.infovista.com/solutions/5g-investment-smart-capex.

News

UK economist delivers positive outlook for city businesses at free event

City centre businesses were given an update on the UK economy as part of a new networking group created by the city’s Business Improvement District, Chester BID.

The Professionals in Partnership group includes law firm Aaron and Partners as well as companies such as HSBC, Ellis & Co, Carting Minds Collective and JK Events and is aiming to bring the city’s business community closer together in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The event was the third since the group was formed, with Liz Martins, UK Economist at HSBC, delivering a positive outlook on the UK economy for attendees.

Individuals and businesses based across the city centre have been influential in setting the group up, including Emma McGlinchey, who sits on the Chester BID board and is a commercial property lawyer with a focus on the retail sector for Aaron & Partners.

She said: “Through this group we have hosted a series of informative online events and workshops with key themes focused on helping businesses work through many of the problems presented by COVID-19.

“This latest event followed a similar theme with a fantastic speaker offering all those in attendance valuable information on the health of the economy and what the future might hold for businesses.

“Aaron & Partners has been based in Chester city centre for 37 years and so this city is very much rooted in our heritage.

“We want to see it thrive and that’s why we’re supporting the Professionals in Practice group, helping to ensure professional services firms throughout the city can connect and learn from one another, and to create a stronger local network of like-minded professionals.”

The group has more free events planned for the future and is open to anyone with a vested interest in the growth and development of Chester’s business district.

Nick Hodson, Deputy Chair of Chester BID said: “Chester’s Business Improvement District comprises about 450 businesses and, although many are retail and hospitality, a significant number are professional services companies and we have been working hard to provide support tailored to their needs.

“Chester BID is keen that Chester is seen as a centre of excellence for professional services within the North West and North Wales, and the creation of high-quality events with great speakers with national profiles has been key element of our strategy.

“We’re keen to see as much cooperation and referral within the city as possible and believe the better we know each other and the stronger the relationships are, the more likely that will be.”

To find out more about the Professionals in Partnership group, visit https://chesterbid.co.uk.

News

MEF CONNECTS Cyber Security conference, online on 14th June 2021

Too often cyber-security is an after-thought, or worse, not really taken seriously until something goes wrong.

However, in our digital world, all forms of communication networks are based upon the need to understand identity. Trusting the identity of the person you are communicating with digitally is at the very heart of protecting ourselves. We need to protect our own identity and we need to be sure others have protected theirs.

Mobile is relied upon by most people, companies and industries on the planet – but take security out of mobile communications and the world would eventually stop.

The 7th MEF (Mobile Ecosystem Forum) global survey on Consumer Trust showed that 49% of smartphone users are already concerned about fraud via their phone, the highest recorded.

And things are getting worse. During the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a 2000% increase in the number of cyber threats on telecoms networks, according to a report by an alliance of several telecommunications companies. The industry needs to coalesce to defend the mobile experience.

On Monday 14th June the Mobile Ecosystem Forum will be hosting ‘MEF CONNECTS Cyber Security’. This is a one-day event dedicated to the key cyber-security issues being tackled today and the challenges for the future.

With the participation of leading industry experts, analysts, technology vendors and service providers, MEF CONNECTS Cyber Security will be covering all critical areas including a deep dive into the key attack vectors: signalling; virtualisation; network management; and the supply chain. There will be specific sessions focused on: IoT; Cloud and Network Security; Cryptography; Identity; Authentication; Payments; and Omnichannel communications.

Speakers include experts from Telefonica, Orange, Tata Communications, Adaptive Mobile, Palo Alto Networks, Nokia, HPE, IPification, WMC Global, NokNok Labs, IMImobile, Neustar, Cellusys, Global Message Services, Mobileum, Zariot, Pelion, POD Group, Apiro Data, GSMA, ATIS and many more.

For more information and to sign-up visit: https://mobileecosystemforum.com/events_/mef-connects-cyber-security/

ABOUT MEF

MEF (Mobile Ecosystem Forum) is a global trade body established in 2000 and headquartered in the UK with members across the world. As the voice of the mobile ecosystem, it focuses on cross-industry best practices, anti-fraud and monetisation. The Forum provides its members with global and cross-sector platforms for networking, collaboration and advancing industry solutions.

Web: https://mobileecosystemforum.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mef

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mobile-ecosystem-forum

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MobileEcosystemForum/