Given all the events run by corporations, trade bodies, and professional event organizers; why should TADSummit exist in 2020? Especially given programmable telecoms / communications is no longer a hot topic.

Firstly, communications is fundamental to the human condition, it’s not going away. Secondly, now it is programmable, we are only beginning to scratch the surface of what is possible.

Third and most importantly the marketing in the enterprise communications / telecommunications industry is dominated by a few large organizations, and it’s mostly corporate BS. TADSummit delivers original insight with an explicitly stated no BS policy. Just look at this intro, questioning why we even exist.

Today’s landscape is ephemeral, increasingly so:

• Avaya reselling RingCentral? You ain’t seen nothing yet!
• Will Twilio still exist in 2030? Not in its current form. And definitely the vogue of pretending to engage ‘developers’ will have subsided into a more realistic ecosystem-based approach.
• How is the enterprise communications market growing when prices are falling? It isn’t.
• Open source doesn’t scale or deliver on ‘mature / busy’ enterprise needs. That’s BS! But you may need a service provider / technology partner that can help.
• Privacy, security, authentication, authorization, identity remain the elephant troupe in the room, but it’s getting solved by programmable communications.
• We’re entering a global recession brought on by COVID-19, how will programmable communications/telecoms fair? Where to focus to keep revenue flowing?
• TADSummit recognizes that the world is different in 2020. Both TADSummit events (Asia and EMEA/Americas) are online. Simply, I do not want to risk anyone’s health, or more importantly their relatives’ health.

The only place you’ll meet (virtually) the people understanding and creating the future of programmable communications is TADSummit. In 2020 we will be entering our 8th year. Your time spent at TADSummit pays back year over year.

Programmable Telecoms / Communications (CXTech) is a $200B-1200B industry, depending on how you measure it, with no dedicated events. TADSummit and TADHack are the longest-running series of global events focused on programmable telecoms.

Programmable telecoms / communications covers a broad range of technologies / concepts: telecom APIs, CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service), UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service), CCaaS (Contact Center as a Service), Web3 / Ethereum / blockchain, 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, video communications, 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.

Below is our updated plan for TADSummit 2020.

TADSummit Asia, May 2020 (online event through the month of May). Check out the TADSummit Asia agenda.

The first TADSummit was in Bangkok in 2013, ever since we’ve had requests to run another event in Asia. In May 2019 we ran a virtual event as we could not meet the in-person attendance targets (80-100 people). The diversity of Asia, and the telco-centric nature of the communications market means Programmable Telecoms / Communications does not spark adequate interest in any one location.

However, some of the videos, for example of eCPaaS from hSenid Mobile, achieved 300 views, so there is interest in the topic, just the audience is too thin across Asia to have critical mass for an in-person event at present.

In 2019 we ran an Open Source Telecom Software Project survey. One of the results from that survey is clear interest in open source projects in Asia. But open source skills are in short supply, and there is a learning curve required in the market. Hence, we think there is a market for a virtual event with Asian-market focused content.

Given the above experiences we plan to run an online event, where an invited group of experts will give presentations / workshops and have an insightful and stimulating discussion on topics relevant to Asia in programmable telecoms / communications, for example on open source telecom software and CPaaS / eCPaaS.

We’ll provide network opportunities, and ensure ensure you can get in touch with the presenters and panelists. We want to be an example of how telecommunications enables events to continue regardless of the situation.

Given the COVID-19 situation and a vaccine will not be available and widely distributed until 2021. I simply can not  risk anyone’s health, or more importantly their relatives’ health, in having an in-person event in 2020. While TADHack generally has smaller groups and social distancing is easier; a focus of TADSummit is networking, reconnecting, and spending time together over several days. The larger group size and social focus makes the risk too high. So TADSummit EMEA / Americas will be combined and run online through November.

The largest market in programmable telecoms is North America. In 2019 we finally brought TADSummit to the Americas. You can see a summary of the event here. Within the first week some of the videos were viewed over 200 times.

Similarly TADSummit EMEA 2019 was an amazing event with world-class content in programmable telecoms, you can see a summary of the event here.

We plan to run an online event covering both regions, where an invited group of experts will give presentations / workshops and have an insightful and stimulating discussion on topics relevant to EMEA / Americas in programmable telecoms / communications.