MEF once again brought two days of insightful, thought-provoking content within its Global Forum. It was a conference comprised of analyst presentations, keynotes, fireside interviews, panel discussions, and Q&A sessions. The event kicked off on Sunday with exclusive Guided Private Tours of the palatial and historic Casa Llotja building. Sunday’s agenda covered a diverse range of topics including Content, Authentication, Payments, and Advertising. On Monday, the discussions delved into Messaging, Fraud, IoT, Roaming, Wholesale, AI, Innovation, and RCS.
Day One
MEF’S Annual Consumer Trust Survey & MEF Data: The Road to One Million Datapoints
In this session you will learn about all the latest developments to our 10th Annual Consumer Trust Survey and the roadmap for MEF Data in 2024. Our Annual Consumer Trust Survey has now been expanded to 15 markets, and early findings will be revealed. Meanwhile, MEF Data is being ramped up with new resources available across our membership-ecosystems with the aim of providing approximately one million datapoints by end-year!
- Dario Betti, CEO – MEF
- Gavin Patterson, Director of Data – MEF
Identity, Data, Authentication
- Andrew Bud CBE FREng FIET – Founder & CEO – iProov, Global Chairman – MEF
Telco Innovation at the Edge: NaaS/MEC/APIs
Mobile operators are transforming their networks into open, standardized Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platforms, enabling new applications and further accelerating digital transformation. Exposing network services externally to enterprises and app developers enables new services and also improves user experience and security for existing applications.
- Doug Makishima, Advisor – MEF
- Mohit Gupta, Head of Product – Amazon Web Services (AWS), Edge Compute
- Ken Wee, SVP – Bridge Alliance
- Sylvain Morel, Network API Governance – Orange
- Hanen Garcia, Global Telco Solutions Manager – Red Hat
- Abhir Sur, Senior Director – Product Management, Communications Industry – Sales Force
Game Changers: Unlocking Revenue Streams with Value Added Services for Mobile Games
No ecosystem has quite so many payment models as mobile gaming. From traditional one-time purchases of games to subscription models to freemium models, there is a truly a payment model to suit everyone. Is your business leveraging the right one?
- Ross Flynn, Programme Manager – MEF
- Patricia Peiró Hergueta, Chief Strategy Officer – Telecoming
- Gaby Bosch, CEO & Owner – Content for Mobile
How AI can help build a more inclusive future
Chris Lewis, Monica Paolini, and their industry guests invite you to join a captivating panel discussion on AI & Inclusivity
- Chris Lewis, Founding Director – Lewis Insight
- Marina Petrova, Head of GenAI Business – GMS
- Monica Paolini, Principal – Senza Fill
- Yaiza Rubio Viñuela, Chief Metaverse Officer – Telefónica
- Vinod Samarawickrama, Manager Network Infrastructure and Ecosystem – Meta
Unveiling the Unknown: Enhancing Customer Control to Build Confident
- Nick Rossman, Director of Products – MEF
- Bradley Greer, VP, Data Solutions & Product Marketing – netnumber
In this session, hear from Bradley Greer, Vice President, Data Solutions & Product Marketing for netnumber, a global leader in phone number intelligence data, as he explores the current gaps and opportunities in mobile feedback strategies.
Day Two
RBM channel evolution
RCS for business messaging hit the headlines last year with more regions, more users and more cases studies. We discuss the challenges and how operators, Google and messaging providers are working together to overcome them. Verification, commercial model standardisation, A2P bypass, RBM aggregation and questions from the audience.
- Michael Power, RCS Advisor – MEF
- Deshbandhu Bansal, Chief Operating Officer – Comviva
- Inderpal Mumick, CEO – Dotgo
- Kerstin Trikalitis, CEO – Out There Media
- Jeevithan Muttu, VP Product – Tomia
Trusted Messaging: Know Your Sender, Know Your Receiver, Building Trust Through Verified Identifiers
This panel explores the key building blocks of an anti-fraud solution, focusing on how identity validation at various levels can combat smishing, phishing, and spam. The focus will be on the individual components that collectively form a comprehensive identity validation solution.
- Nick Rossman, Director of Products – MEF
- Ira Cohen, VP Business Development & Marketing – MMD Smart
- Eli Katz, Founder & CEO
- Pushpendra Singh, Global Head – Mobile Authentication & Business Messaging at Telcos – Meta
Use Cases: The Good, Bad and Ugly – Learnings from Messaging Leaders for 2024
- Nick Millward, Advisor – MEF
- Caitlin Long, Director of Product Management – Bandwidth
- Stephanie Lashley, Sr. Director, Product Management – Bandwidth
The business messaging landscape continues to expand, the messaging strategies businesses employ must mature to keep it a viable, open, and accessible channel for consumers. At the heart of this maturation are business messaging use cases. During this talk, we’ll unpack the most and least successful use cases in the messaging landscape today and explore new and developing use cases to rally behind in 2024.
Analyst Presentation: Has WhatsApp got its business messaging pricing wrong?
- Nick Lane, Chief Messaging Officer – Mobilesquared
- Look at the price elasticity of international SMS and how this is impacting traffic
- Look at where SMS pricing (international vs domestic for SMS) is right now, how these rates compare to WhatsApp Business use cases, and what this will mean for RCS adoption.
- Explore how engagement is charged for on non-messaging channels, to see how conversation should be charged on WhatsApp and RCS, etc.
- which channel will come out on top
Enhancing User Experience: The Role of DCB in Seamless Transactions
We have entered the Golden Age of seamless transactions with the shining example being the one click payment but how is DCB evolving along side the myriad of other payment options? And how seamless can payments be feasibly be taken?
- Ross Flynn, Programme Manager – MEF
- Christopher Henseler, Co-Owner – Mesh Ads
- Simon Best, CEO – Basekit
- Mahmoud Hanadi, Senior Sales Manager – Sam Media
Fraudsters use live numbers of real people. What?
We see a growing presence of assigned, allocated numbers in fraud cases. Consequently, some databases of fraudulent numbers may include these numbers, impacting innocent legal traffic. In our session, we will further explore what to look for and how to manage the risk of accidentally blocking legal numbers.
- Igor Skutsenya, Senior Business Development Manager – LANCK Telecom
- Nick Rossman, Director of Products – MEF
Is SMS A2P as “unsinkable” as the Titanic? – a panel exploring the harm of AIT & pricing on the industry
2024 will be a volatile year for A2P SMS. Brands are looking to alternative channels as trust continues to be eroded by AIT and rising prices. Join our panel to hear about what lies in store for the industry and what can be done to pull it back from the brink.
- Simeon Coney, Chief Strategy Officer – ENEA
- Uku Tomikas, CEO – Messente
IoT 2024: Navigating the New Reality – Progress, Challenges, and Brand Evolution
The MEF “IoT 2024: Navigating the New Reality”, a high-impact panel focusing on the latest in IoT. We’ll dive into the current advancements and challenges in the IoT landscape, exploring how they shape business strategies and customer interactions. In this session industry experts will share practical solutions and innovative approaches for thriving in with IoT in 2024 and beyond.
- Nassia Skoulikariti, IoT Programme Director – MEF
- Jimmy Jones, Head of Security – Zariot
- Roberta Castle, CSO – Stacuity
- Nick Earle, CEO – Eseye
- Gabriel Salvate, Head of Customer Solutions & Pre-Sales Enterprise – BICS
- Sri Ramachandran, SVP & CTO – SOMOS
Is 2024 a turning point for VoLTE roaming?
Join this session to gain insights from Kaleido Intelligence and our panelists on the latest developments trends and dynamics related to VoLTE roaming: this will include a look into changing patterns noticed in 2023, their impact on the business, what can be expected in 2024 and how wholesale players are reacting to stay ahead of the curve!
- Suzy Menneret, Wholesale Advisor – MEF
- Nitin Bhas, Chief of Strategy & Insights – Kaleido Intelligence
- Eugene Pradas, Senior Vice President – Global Strategic Development – BTS
- Guillaume Klein, Vice President Product Management – iBasis
- Kenneth Hardat, Senior Product Manager – BICS
- Alberto Carro Melero, Head of Market Intelligence & B2B – Telefónica Global Roaming
Enhance Routing, Reduce Risk: Proving Number Validity in Mobile Communications
In this session, join industry experts as they discuss how routing and fraud prevention can be optimized with the help of real-time, granular and normalized phone number intelligence data. The audience will gain a deeper understanding of the must-haves for today’s vetting and validation practices and learn what tools in the market are highly advanced to serve this purpose.
• Dario Betti, CEO – MEF
• Catalin Badea, VP Product Management, netnumber
• Tõnis Kirsipuu, Head of Global Connectivity – Messente
• Scott Warner , Director of Emerging Services (CPaaS) – S and BTS
• Katia Gonzalez, Head of Global Transactional Security – BICS
The recipe for business messaging adoption
Those of you from the business messaging industry know just how powerful mobile digital channels can be. Many organisations however are far from taking advantage of their full potential to delight their customers. What do we as an industry need to do to ensure that business messaging in all its glory takes its rightful place in the customer engagement firmament?
- Robert Gerstmann, Chief Evangelist and Co-Founder – Sinch
