5G Techritory, Europe’s leading 5G-centered ecosystem forum, returns to Riga, Latvia, for the 6th year in a row on October 18-19, 2023. Once again, 5G Techritory will run its award-winning phygital format, blending virtual and in-person elements for an engaging and accessible experience for the 120+ speakers and thousands of participants from Europe and beyond.
Registration is now open – reserve your spot here.
This year’s central theme is 5G in action. The industry’s leading minds will gather in Riga to share insights, discuss trends, and join forces in making progress with some of the ecosystem’s most pressing challenges, including:
- Communications for defence
- Open RAN
- Metaverse
- And much, much more
Among the speakers discussing these and other topics will be some of the industry’s most esteemed experts in the research, development, and deployment of 5G, representing both the public and private sectors.
Join us for 5G Techritory 2023 and hear from:
1. Mr. Thierry Breton
Thierry Breton has been the European Commissioner for the Internal Market since 2019. He is responsible for industry, digital, defense, and space, as well as tourism, services, and audiovisual.
From 2009 to 2019, Mr. Breton was CEO of a major European digital technology company, chairing in parallel the French National Research and Technology Association.
Hear Mr. Thierry Breton:
- Day 2 opening ceremony on October 19, 09:00 (EEST), Policy & Strategy stage
2. Ms. Audrey Plonk
Ms. Plonk is Head of OECD’s Digital Economy Policy Division, responsible for implementing the work program of two committees – the Committee on Digital Economy Policy (CDEP) and the Committee for Consumer Policy (CCP) – and managing STI’s Digital Economy Division.
“Connectivity is the backbone of digital transformation, enabling people and businesses to reap the rewards of the digital economy. High-speed fibre subscriptions are now the dominant fixed broadband access technology in OECD countries according to our latest OECD broadband portal data. While there has been significant progress, there is still a long way to go. From teleworking to automated vehicles, coupled with emerging technologies such as AI, applications across all sectors of the economy are increasing the overall demand for high-speed connectivity.” says Audrey Plonk.
“Expanding high-quality connectivity at affordable prices is essential to bridging digital divides and requires a sound policy and regulatory framework. At the OECD, we support countries across the world in expanding high-quality connectivity to all. I look forward to discussing policies and tools to ensure that everyone, regardless of their location or circumstance, has access to the transformative power of a connected world.”
Hear Ms. Audrey Plonk:
- Digitalization through connectivity – outlook for 2024 panel discussion on October 18, 09:50 (EEST), Policy & Strategy stage
3. Dr. Rolf Werner
Dr. Rolf Werner is the Head of Europe at Nokia. Dr. Werner joined Nokia from Cognizant Technology Solutions, where he was the CEO of Germany, and brings more than 25 years of experience in the ICT industry to Nokia, having held various senior positions at T-Systems, Fujitsu, and GlobalLogic.
Hear Dr. Rolf Werner:
- Special session on ITU Focus Group on metaverse – “Shaping a European vision for openness, safety and respect” on October 18, 11:00 (EEST), Policy & Strategy stage
- Technology and Innovation for Boosting Economy and Connectivity in Rural Areas of Europe panel discussion on October 19, 10:00 (EEST), Policy & Strategy stage
4. Mr. Luukas Kristjan Ilves
Mr. Ilves is the Government Chief Information Officer of Estonia. He has spent the past decade advancing the Estonian vision for e-government, cybersecurity, and digital economy in the EU.
Before joining the Ministry of Economics and Communications of Estonia, Mr. Ilves was the Head of Strategy at Guardtime. He led digital policy during Estonia’s 2017 EU Presidency and served as a National Expert for European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes. Mr. Ilves has negotiated EU legislation on e-ID, digital government, data flows, cyber security, and telecommunications.
Hear Mr. Luukas Kristjan Ilves:
- Solving the lack of digitally skilled workforce with AI panel discussion on October 18, 14:00 (EEST), Policy & Strategy stage
5. Ms. Laura Štrovalde
Ms. Štrovalde is the Deputy Director in charge of investment and energy issues at the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA). Laura Štrovalde’s career has been dedicated to investment attraction, implementation of innovation strategy, and startup ecosystem acceleration in Latvia. With an absolute commitment to service excellence, she has a wealth of experience in strategic smart specialization approaches to foster reindustrialization, flagship project approach implementation, and new product development.
Hear Ms. Laura Štrovalde:
- Safe or sorry? Risk-taking in public sector digitalization projects panel discussion on October 18, 16:00 (EEST), Policy & Strategy stage
6. Mr. Timo Jokiaho
As Telco Technologist for Telco, Media & Entertainment, EMEA, at Red Hat, Mr. Jokiaho works with Network Equipment Providers (NEPs), Global System Integrators (GSIs), Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), and Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to advance open telco cloud initiatives with containers and virtual machines. His work encompasses enhancements to networking performance, real-time characteristics, availability/reliability, and strategic use cases, including virtualized/containerized radio access networks (vRAN) and 5G Core Networks.
Before joining Red Hat, Mr. Jokiaho led Huawei Technologies’ software planning function, focusing on the base platform domain (operating systems, virtualization, and telco cloud availability and performance) and terminal software platforms (e.g., Android).
“Open RAN is yet another disaggregation exercise in telecom industry and represents the most complex industry challenge, since the introduction of Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV) late 2012. Open RAN follows similar paths as NFV, but is a longer journey because of the criticality and complexity. Open RAN will definitely be for 6G but industry needs to work on it every day to have early, even large scale deployment earlier. A lot of collaboration and making technology more mature are needed,” says Timo Jokiaho.
Hear Mr. Timo Jokiaho:
- Open RAN – is it actually a 6G product? panel discussion on October 19, 10:00 (EEST), Innovation & Technology stage
7. Mr. Egons Bušs
Mr. Bušs has been Security Director at LMT since 2016, where his responsibilities include mastering information security, cybersecurity, and physical security. Egons Bušs has over 30 years of experience in information security, cyber security, and information technology, and one of his ongoing professional challenges is driving the digital transformation of physical security.
“Pressing issues like climate change are pushing us to adopt a more intelligent approach to urban living. Telecommunication companies – along with other infrastructure stakeholders – will play an important role in establishing a framework that ensures the secure implementation of innovative technologies in smart cities,” says Egons Bušs.
“Modern smart city architecture will rely on cloud computing, edge computing, and virtualization and containerization technologies. While these technologies offer improved scalability and flexibility, they also introduce new security threats that will demand adequate security measures at each layer of the architecture. It’s important to incorporate security measures at the very foundation of the smart city design phase. By adopting a “secure by design” approach, we can lay a solid foundation for a resilient smart city ecosystem.”
Hear Mr. Egons Bušs:
- Cyber security in IoT panel discussion on October 18, 15:00 (EEST), Innovation & Technology stage
8. Ms. Nina Cummins
Ms. Cummins is the Head of Connectivity Strategy Policy (Global) at Meta. She supports internal teams on issues concerning the treatment of online communications services providers, accessibility and affordability of internet services, infrastructure development, spectrum, and net neutrality. She worked in Facebook’s legal team as an Associate General Counsel for Telecoms Regulatory & Antitrust issues before taking on external policy-facing roles.
Ms. Cummins has also held a position as a senior legal and policy advisor in the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority Bahrain and as a Partner at International Law Firm Osborne Clarke LLP.
Hear Ms. Nina Cummins:
- Achieving technology excellence in smaller countries – how the Baltics can take the lead in Europe’s innovation agenda panel discussion on October 19, 11:00 (EEST), Policy & Strategy stage
9. Mr. Stanislav Prybytko
Mr. Prybytko is the Head of the Mobile Broadband Department of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine. The Department is responsible for ensuring access to high-speed Internet and mobile services for all Ukrainians. One of the Department’s goals is to provide 95% of citizens with access to 4G.
From 2019 to 2022, with the assistance of the Department, access to 4G from at least two mobile operators in Ukraine increased from 65% to 91%, and 2.7 million Ukrainians in 8,300 cities got access to 4G for the first time. Stanislav Prybytkoʼs goals are to help to rebuild destroyed mobile networks in the liberated areas during and after the war, create non-bureaucratic procedures to faster decrease the digital divide, and launch 5G.
Hear Mr. Stanislav Prybytko:
- Technology and Innovation for Boosting Economy and Connectivity in Rural Areas of Europe panel discussion on October 19, 10:00 (EEST), Policy & Strategy stage
10. Mr. Alexander Pabst
As the Vice President of the Market Segment of Wireless Communications, Alexander Pabst is responsible for driving the strategic direction of the wireless technology product range at Rohde & Schwarz.
Mr. Pabst has more than 25 years of experience in the wireless industry. After spending some years in sales, he joined Rohde & Schwarz to work in various product management and business development positions. Before his current role, he was Vice President of the systems group within the test & measurement division, launching a full range of 5G over-the-air test solutions.
He also represents global test & measurement vendors on the Global Certification Forum, GCF board.
“Wireless Technology has become a basic requirement for today’s society and continuously expands into more verticals. Ubiquitous connectivity, XR/AR and the fixed/mobile convergence driven by network disaggregation enable new innovation. Rohde & Schwarz test solutions act not only as a development tool but also as an independent reference to ensure interoperability between network elements, devices and applications at reasonable effort,” says Alexander Pabst.
Hear Mr. Alexander Pabst:
- Open RAN – is it actually a 6G product? panel discussion on October 19, 10:00 (EEST), Innovation & Technology stage
11. Gatis Ozols
Mr. Ozols is an Undersecretary for Digital Transformation at the Latvian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development. As a Government CIO, Gatis Ozols is responsible for national and government digital transformation policy & strategy, focusing on service digital transformation, government ICT governance, and advancing the digital economy.
“While using AI to address the shortage of digitally skilled workers can be a good short-term solution, we must acknowledge that technology will become a significant factor in creating new job opportunities in the future. So, it is essential not to view AI as a replacement tool but as an assistant and remedy for the increasingly growing skill gap driven by the rapid advancement of technology, particularly AI,” says Mr. Ozols.
Hear Mr. Gatis Ozols:
- Solving the lack of digitally skilled workforce with AI – powered by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of Latvia panel discussion on October 18, 14:00 (EEST), Policy & Strategy stage
And so much more
You can meet all the esteemed 5G Techritory 2023 speakers here. With a line-up like this, 5G Techritory 2023 promises to be an exciting event that will move the 5G dial. So, mark your calendars for October 18-19 and register here to secure your spot.
