WISHING YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS & A PROSPEROUS 2012!

It has been a great year to work on emerging markets for telecoms, media and ICT - and if we've worked with you this year, then thank you for all your support in 2011! We wish you confort and joy this festive season, and hopefully a well earned break!

It's been a long and fruitful year for us with our annual must-attends AfricaCom and Telco World Summit Middle East (to name but a couple), as well as successful launch events like VAS Africa and Enterprise ICT Africa, and whilst here at the Com team we are enjoying mulled wine and turkey, we are also looking forward to the opportunities coming in 2012, and we’re going to seize them with both hands.

We will of course keep our legacy of focusing on quality, market leadership and delivering results – and on top of these we will bring more innovation and even greater representation from the wider digital ecosystem in emerging markets - our Cloud Africa event will be the perfect example of this for 2012!

We look forward to hopefully working with you towards these goals in the coming months. So here’s to a merry Christmas and a prosperous 2012!

With warm regards,

The Com Team

Michel Monzani, SVP at Orange, will speak at North Africa Com

Michel Monzani, Senior Vice President at Orange's Middle East & North Africa Operations, has confirmed his participation to the North Africa Com conference and exhibition to take place in Tunis in May. He will share his perspective on how operators are adapting their strategies to a new market environment.
Michel Monzani started his career at France Télécom in 1981 and has held various positions within the company. In 2008, he was appointed Senior Vice-President within France Telecom Group Africa, Middle East & Asia Division, leading the Development and Partnership department and the West Africa, Middle East & Asia geographic zone.
Michel Monzani has been a board member of several fixed-line, mobile and internet companies associated with France Telecom in various countries in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia.
As Orange group has a presence in several markets of the region, including the event's host country Tunisia, his expertise will add great value to the discussions.

Andile Ngcaba of Convergence Partners named South Africa's Newsmaker of the Year

TechCentral published today its top 5 'Newsmakers of the Year' in South Africa, dedicated to 'individuals who had the biggest impact on SA’s technology sector in the past 12 months'.
Top of the list is Andile Ngcaba, Chairman of investment company Convergence Partners, which includes interests in Dimension Data, FibreCo and launched a US$250m satellite with Intelsat. He is described as 'a former Umkhonto we Sizwe commander and later senior government bureaucrat, who has taken to the business world like a proverbial duck to water'.
Andile is also a regular keynote speaker at AfricaCom. His presentation at the event in November covered strategies for convergence across Africa, and his expertise was greatly appreciated by the audience of senior telecoms and ICT executives.
Also in the list are Karel Pienaar, MD of MTN South Africa, Telkom Group's CEO Nombulelo Moholi, forme minister of communications Roy Padayachie, and First National Bank CEO Michael Jordaan.

Mobile services & social media expert joins the programme of West & Central Africa Com

The 2012 West & Central Africa Com conference, taking place in Dakar, Senegal on 13-14 June, will include a strong focus on content and apps for the region. In particular, social media will feature strongly as a major trend for the region.
Sharing his expertise on the subject, Serigne Barro will be a keynote panellist at the event. Serigne is General Manager of People Input and a pioneer of web and mobile services in Africa's French speaking region.
Serigne started his career in France as a web strategy consultant before going back to Senegal to foud the country's first web agency. In 2005 he made a strategic shift to mobile services as a response to the new market trend of mobile phones as the most popular electronic tool in Africa. He recently conducted a study on trends in social media in the region and best practice for companies interested in benefiting from the opportunities they create.
At West & Central Africa com, Serigne will join representatives of operators, content providers, device manufacturers, vendors, regulators and more to discuss the trends and opportunities in the region's dynamic telecoms, media and ICT market.
For more information or to submit a speaking proposal, please contact Julie Rey on julie.rey@informa.com

Eurasia Com 2012 Agenda is now Confirmed – Download your copy & register for your FREE or discounted pass today!

Informa Telecoms & Media are proud to announce the final programme for the 8th Annual Eurasia Com in Turkey. With brand new stakeholders within the digital landscape including content brands, OTT service providers, media professionals and more, brand new agenda topics and new networking opportunities, this is an event you cannot afford to miss!

Be the first to see the Eurasia Com conference agenda - download the brochure for full speaker line up and full conference programme. Learn from the insights of 25+ Operator CxO speakers at the helm of Eurasian digital world, including:

• Ekrem Yener, Chief International Expansion Officer, Turkcell
• Dmitriy Kromsky, Head of the CIS business unit, VimpelCom Ltd, Russia
• Abduvali Vakhabov, CEO, Perfectum Mobile, Uzbekistan
• Jayhun Mollazade, CEO, AzQTel, Azerbaijan
• Yurij Komardin, CTO, KyivStar, Ukraine
• Alexander Provotorov, president, Rostelecom, Russia
• Dmitrij Shughliashvili, CIO, Caucasus Online, Georgia
• William Kanaan, Head of New Business Development - Middle East & North Africa, Google

Click here to download conference agenda to see full speaker list

The dynamic digital world brings you a whole new choice of fresh topics to learn from:

• Reinventing Communications – Strategies for a Changing Market – NEW
• Bringing Convergence to Life – NEW
• Broadband Strategies: Mobile Broadband, FTTx and NGA - NEW
• Enterprise & Cloud Services - NEW
• Special Focus Day: Leading VAS Innovation in Eurasia – NEW
• Content & Apps – Delivering Attractive Services – NEW
• Mobile Money - NEW
• Mobile Marketing
• Focus on the Consumer: Loyalty & Churn – NEW

Register today for your free or discounted pass!

For more information, please visit www.comworldseries.com/eurasia