We’ve launched the TADSummit 2017 website, and registration is now open! TADSummit remains, since its inception in 2013, the place for practitioners across multiple industries to come together and share their experience-based thought leadership in telecom app development (Programmable Telecoms). Telecoms is now programmable; whether its over public / private / enterprise networks or the internet; almost every aspect of Telecoms can be considered an app, just like the Web; programmed into your apps, services or business.

Programmable Telecoms covers a broad range of technologies / concepts: contextual communications, conversational CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and BOTs (roBOTs, automated agents), machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT), telecom APIs and WebRTC, internal innovation in non-telecom industries, decentralized web / telecoms, application-to-person (A2P) comms / applications, network app stores, enterprise telecom apps, open source software, open networks, and much much more.

Telecoms is fundamental to communications between people AND things, and its now programmable, hence democratized for everyone to build upon. Its an exciting time in telecoms, with many new businesses and services being created and shown at TADSummit. We proudly use the ‘T-word’ as Telecoms is cool and immensely powerful.

What sets TADSummit apart are the innovation showcases and dangerous demos of world-firsts with all the above technologies that can be deployed today. The time from idea to commercial implementation is now months (even hours for hacks) not years. You will see world-first commercial demonstrations that can be deployed and making / saving money today, as well as new ideas that will shape your industry’s future. Most of these demos go into MWC, so avoid that awful event, and see in a much more pleasant and informal setting at TADSummit 😉

I’ve talked previously about how the TADSummit sponsors keep getting bought, e.g. Genband, Forge by Acision, Tropo, Nexmo, Solaiemes, OpenCloud, and Apex Communications. The people involved in TADSummit are also moving onto really interesting challenges. As an example, Maarten Ectors, a sponsor of TADSummit since the beginning, has recently joined Legal and General as their CDO (Chief Digital Office) from Canonical. The insurance industry has been a core theme of TADSummit for several years. Last year at TADSummit Philipe Vaysacc’s, CIO Groupama, gave two important presentations. They’re a big insurance company using programmable telecoms based innovation in simple, practical ways for segments of their customers:

• Process for successful internal innovation; and
• Example of it in practice with Grand Village.

We have a great history in highlighting the latest innovations using programmable telecoms including: Voxist, RogerVoice, NakaMobile, Fonolo, Fone.do, Greenbot, Voxist, Ottspott, Lime Microsystems, Locatrix, Immmr, IPFS, and many many more. This year we have lots more new service providers sharing their experiences. This leadership is made possible because TADSummit is created by the ecosystem for the ecosystem to present the freshest and most inspiring presenters / ideas.

I would also like to thank DataArt, Telestax, Temasys, and Matrix for being the initial sponsors of TADSummit 2017. Temasys and DataArt are new sponsors for 2017, while Matrix and Telestax are founding sponsors. We have lots more to announce in the coming months. Below I review what TADSummit 2017 is all about in more detail, and give a few highlights from TADSummit 2016.

Contact us if you want to get involved as a sponsor or presenter.

I know corporate budgets are ridiculously restrictive to attend events like TADSummit. However, TADSummit will be 2 days that will enhance your business, career and life! So much so, some people pay from their own pocket to attend as TADSummit, its that good! Make the investment in your future, and fill in those corporate travel requests now. Its a great group of people you’ll meet who are changing what telecoms means to the world. Registration is now open.

What is TADSummit 2017?

• Programmable Telecoms: Covering contextual communications, conversational CRM and BOTs, M2M and IoT, telecom APIs and WebRTC, decentralized web, application-to-person (A2P) comms, network app stores, telecom enabled business processes, open source telecoms, open networks, and much more. If its programmable / software-defined and telecoms related, its covered.
• Practice-Based: TADSummit is for practitioners across multiple industries to share their experience-based thought leadership in telecom app development. Telecoms is now programmable, almost every aspect of telecoms can be considered an app and integrated with any other software or service.
• Trusted Guide: TADSummit delivers your most accurate guide for the coming two years with world–first demonstrations of what is made possible in the shift to programmable telecoms; from the guts of telecom networks though to its cutting-edge application in industries like retail, farming and insurance.
• Live Demonstrations: We show live new businesses created on telecom APIs across all stages of growth, enterprises using chatbots and open source telecom software to gain competitive advantage, software defined base-stations at a small fraction of today’s network costs, spectrum as a service / multi operator neutral host small cells enabling any business to ‘run’ its own mobile operation.
• Ecosystem Focused: What makes TADSummit unique from all other conferences is its made possible by the ecosystem for the ecosystem, its all about world-class insights and experiences being shared. As testament to this fact, the TADSummit sponsors keep getting acquired through the world-class showcase TADSummit provides.
• TADHack’s Sister: TADSummit is the sister event of TADHack. While TADSummit focuses on the business made possible by programmable telecoms, TADHack focuses on developers, technology, and creativity in programmable telecoms.

Themes of TADSummit 2017

• MVNO Service Success. Programmable telecoms enables xVNOs to own their services, to win new revenues by service differentiation, to meet local market and vertical market needs unlike another service provider has done in history. We will share case studies and exciting innovations accelerating xVNO services around the world.
• Application to Person Showcase. IP messaging platforms (WeChat and Line) are leading the commercialization of A2P IP messaging. With bots, IoT, official accounts, alerting, conversational CRM, and more. A2P is much more than SMS, see where new value is being created.
• Programmable Telecoms in the Enterprise. Enterprises seek solutions to business problems, not fancy technologies. This session cuts through the technology marketing hype and shows how businesses are solving real problems with programmable telecoms.
• Network Services Built for the Cloud. Reviewing the unique challenges in virtualizing networks across: business and operational support system mediation / migration, securing virtualized environments, and virtual network function certification. Bringing together leaders in cloudification / virtualization across multiple industries for frank practical implementation guidance.
• Decentralized Web / Telecoms. Explaining and demonstrating the impact of the decentralized web / telecoms, edge computing, and neutral hosting across many industries. The web is evolving, the centralization of the web by Facebook and Google over the passed decade is not an invariant, just like telecoms, the web is democratizing creating exciting new opportunities.
• Innovation Showcase, led by DataArt. World-first demonstrations of all the above technologies that can be deployed today. The gap from idea to commercial implementation is now months not years. You will see world-first commercial demonstrations that can be deployed and making money today.
• Dangerous Demo, led by James Body. TADSummit brings a unique blend of innovators from around telecoms. Idea to demonstration is now a few hours to days. We have hacks created over night as the brightest people in telecoms mix and share ideas. This session is dangerous, the risks are high, the ideas are raw, and this session leads the thinking in programmable telecoms.
• TADHack service successes. From hack to deployment, the success cases continue to grow across bots, IoT, messaging, enterprise, and social impact. We’ll review case studies of commercial successes from previous TADHacks as well as some of the hot-hacks created at TADHack Global 2017 that are looking for support in commercialization.
• Accelerating Programmable Telecoms. The people who take part in TADHack are inspiring, they come from many industries. I common refrain is “I wasn’t sure about TADHack, as its about Telecoms*, but I now realize this is core to my business.” (* said in a tone like its a bit of a dirty / unfashionable word). We’re going to shake things up and accelerate programmable telecoms education.

For this year, we have a $50 registration fee for those attending in person (previous year’s it was free), this does not fully cover the costs of the event. Its there to ensure those who register to attend in person turn up. Every year we’re worried there will not be enough room. Then on the day it all works out OK; but the poor hotel staff are biting their finger nails up until morning coffee, as the event could break the hotel. We also continue to offer a way for those who can not get their organization to sponsor TADSummit or TADHack, to still contribute to building the TADS ecosystem with Full Price Attendee.

We will be streaming the event live and recording everything as normal, so the content is there for perpetuity.

I’m working on the TADSummit 2017 agenda at the moment, its going to be special, lots of new presenters and impressive developments from returning presenters.

Highights from TADSummit 2016

You can review the whole of TADSummit 2016 through this summary weblog. The TADSummit YouTube channel is at 130,000 minutes from 23,000 views. Yes, small numbers compared to popular YouTube channels, but for this geeky niche of programmable telecoms, we’re proud of that interest in spreading the insights, ideas, and best practices. The whole TADSummit agenda is my list of great presenters. However, I would just like to highlight a few that I greatly enjoyed from 2016:

• A little French Recipe for Successful Internal Innovation in the Large Enterprise by Telecoms Philippe Vayssac, CIO Groupama. If you’re a large established business you must listen to Philippe, he has realized a formula that works for innovation using telecom app development.
• IdeaMart: Case Study in Service Innovation Success, from Shafraz Rahim, Developer Relations and Platform Evangelist at Dialog Axiata. I remain shocked at the lack of adoption of what Dialog Axiata has achieved, even across the Axiata group. I lay some of the blame on the big vendors of telcos, and the technology bias of that relationship. They claim they can do this with their API Management / SDP. They can not, have not, and will continue to fail in creating a localized version of what Dialog Axiata has achieved. Technology is 20% of the solution, its the 80% they are missing.
• Together John Zannos of Canonical and Vish Nandlall (who’s starting a new venture) showed the future of telecoms beyond the NFV hype.
• The most entertaining presentation for me was Here Come the Bots by Adam Kalsey of Cisco, not because he was funny, which he is (btw he was a professional clown). Rather his past experience of messaging bots from over a decade ago is directly relevant to the silly hype we’re seeing today, which made for many humorous insights. History really can teach us so much, if only we’d listen.
• Liveperson brought 3 people to TADSummit, their presentations are can not miss for anyone interested in CRM, Telecom API, RTC, and bots. They bring vast practical experience and a refreshingly frank style that educates and provides great insights: Building realtime APIs at Liveperson, Eitan Yarden, Architect; Real Time Communication APIs workshop: agent bot. Elyran Kogan, Technical Leader; Best Practices in Building Websockets APIs, Elad Wertzberger, Technical Leader; and the LivePerson Dangerous Demo.
• We had a great line up of innovators including: RogerVoice, Fonolo, Fone.do, Greenbot, Voxist, Ottspott, Lime Microsystems, Locatrix, and many more. I feel guilty for not listing everyone in the agenda.
• And last but not least the Dangerous Demo. It shows to the industry what is actually possible at scale using a range of off-the shelf, open source, and new technologies. If you want to see the latest in network and service infrastructure 6-24 months before any other event, this stream delivers.

Here are some of the pictures from TADSummit 2016.