Content

The themes for Wireless Influencers 2006 were:

• The growth drivers and challenges for mass adoption of mobile content globally, including topics of consumer interests, partnership models and compensation, content availability, and IP rights.
• The convergence of services, devices, and networks, and resultant opportunities and implications to communications service providers, media and entertainment companies, and enterprise information technology organizations.
• The growth and unique requirements for service providers and enterprises in emerging global economies.
• The industry trends and conflicts in globalization, industry consolidation, voice commoditization, technology standardization, carrier disintermediation, and device fragmentation.
• The next set of mobile enterprise and consumer opportunities, such as remote access and control, user-generated content, personal finance, and personal assistance.

Importantly, these themes were addressed in the context of overall communications, rather than through the lens of wireless only. As such, conversations focused on strategic, C-level objectives and issues, as opposed to silos of specific services or technologies.

Keynote and Boardroom Sessions

Similar to Wireless Influencers 2005, the keynote sessions at Wireless Influencers 2006 were structured as fireside chats and panel discussions with globally renowned C-level executives.

The boardroom meetings at Wireless Influencers 2006 were structured as small group discussions (20-40 participants) and focused on central questions that are top-of-mind for C-level executives. The boardroom meetings emphasized two principles: (1) open-ended, multi-disciplinary questions with potentially fundamental implications; and (2) interactivity among speakers and audience members around the boardroom table.

From a process perspective, each boardroom meeting consisted of a facilitator and three to four hosts. The hosts, who were topic experts, industry leaders, or other relevant influencers, began the discussions, for example, by posing initial viewpoints or framing underlying issues. The facilitator guided the group discussion-involving the audience members for ideas or thoughts; utilizing the hosts for additional perspectives or reactions; and driving toward a meaningful understanding and new insights on the topic. Importantly, the role of the hosts in this structure was not necessarily to "have the answers," but rather to start, frame, and react to potential answers or alternatives. The outcome of the boardroom meetings was the collaborative efforts of the hosts and the audience members, with facilitators guiding and summarizing the discussions.

Town Hall Meetings

Several other program innovations were implemented at Wireless Influencers 2006 to further interactivity amongst conference delegates. This year's conference included two new sessions, called Town Hall Meetings, which were structured without the use of speakers or hosts. Rather, a facilitator, in a room set with sofa chairs and coffee tables, moderated an open floor audience discussion on topics and thoughts raised at the conference. The intent of these sessions was to bring the discussions among conference participants to the forefront of the conference agenda and to foster participant-based content creation. This further instilled a collaborative, roll-up-your-sleeves environment.