North Africa Com Agenda Now Confirmed | Visit our website to download your exclusive copy

North Africa Com 2012
15-16 May 2012, Sheraton Tunis, Tunisia
www.comworldseries.com/nafrica

THE ONLY NORTH AFRICAN EVENT DEDICATED TO THE ENTIRE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM

We have pleasure in attaching the newly released final agenda for the 6th Annual North Africa Com.

North Africa's premier dedicated digital conference and exhibition this year presents an unparalleled opportunity to network with those shaping the future of the digital landscape in North Africa.

With 35+ C-level speakers confirmed from major players such as Tunisie Telecom, Orange, Tunisiana, Vodafone Eqypt, Google and V-Net TV the event promises a fascinating insight into how businesses are poised to capitalise on the next set of opportunities within the regional market.

This year’s North Africa Com caters for all layers within the Digital ecosystem and includes keynotes and sessions dedicated to content & applications, mobile broadband & LTE innovation, networks and devices, regulation, enterprises, customer experience management and much, much more...

* Click here http://bit.ly/xccIDu to Download the brochure *

WHY SHOULD YOU ATTEND?

- Network with 550+ Decision Makers from across the whole of North Africa and share best practice to grow your business.

- Be inspired by the biggest names in the digital world, hear from 35+ visionary speakers including 20+ operators & 7+ media & alternative players

- Enjoy enhanced networking time over two days, including extended breaks and one-to-one speed networking sessions.

- Explore new ways of working with other players in the digital ecosystem to improve your business’ performance

- Meet first-hand leading international vendors showcasing their latest technologies in the co-located exhibition

- Bi-lingual event the agenda is simultaneously translated into French and English

* Click here http://bit.ly/xccIDu to Download the brochure *

Learn from 35+ Industry Leading Speakers From the North African Digital Ecosystem

Operators
- Fadhel Kraiem, Director General, Tunisie Telecom
- Michel Monzani, Senior VP, Middle East and North Africa Operations, Orange
-Ken Campbell, CEO, Tunisiana

Regulators
- Moez Chakchouk, CEO, Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI), Tunisia
- Dr Nani Ould Chrougha, President, ARE, Mauritania

Media & Alternative Players
- Nader Gohar, Chairman, CNC Cairo News Company,
and Chairman, ARABUEM, the Arab Union of Electronic Media Journalists
- William Kanaan, Head of New Business Development, Middle East & North Africa, Google
- Chafika Chamas, Founder and CEO, V-Net TV, Tunisia

REGISTER TODAY for your *FREE or discounted pass!

*Regional operators and regulators can attend for *FREE. Click here http://bit.ly/zFXYG2 *apply. *Conditions apply*

Early booking discounts apply to all others so register today and save up to $300. Click here http://bit.ly/w0iX9U to register!

Register here: http://bit.ly/w0iX9U

We look forward to meeting you at North Africa Com, 15-16 May, Tunis, Tunisia

Kind Regards

The North Africa Com Team
www.comworldseries.com/nafrica

TECHNOLOGY PARTNER:
Tunisie Telecom

ASSOCIATE SPONSORS:
Corning
BICS

News channel Africa24 will be present at West & Central Africa Com

Constant Nemale, President & Founder of broadcaster of Africa24, will give a keynote presentation at West & Central Africa Com, the region's event for the telecoms, media and ICT industry taking place in Dakar, Senegal in June.
Constant's career started as a journalist and deputy editor-in-chief of the no. 1 selling basketball magazine in Europe Mondial Basket before being involved in the launch of several projects in the world of communications. He created the first Afro-European and Pan-African television channel, 3A TELESUD, a generalist channel, which has been broadcasting in Europe and Africa for ten years. He also founded ETNIUM, the first ethnic marketing & communication agency in France in 2001.
In 2008, Constant created the first African News channel: AFRICA24 TV. AFRICA24 TV broadcasts its news programs throughout Africa, Europe and the US. As of today, less than 3 years after its foundation, the channel studios have 90 employees from 23 different nationalities. Infrastructures are located in Saint-Cloud, a West Parisian suburb. With its large correspondents network in a score of countries across Africa, AFRICA24 is positioned as the First Francophone News Channel with 12,8% of market share by the EMS Africa charts and the company aimed at profitability in 2012. Constant also initiated the launch of AFRICA24 MAG, a luxury quarterly printed magazine of 200 pages focusing on the African continent strengths, challenges, and major actors.
Constant's presentation will cover how to deliver compelling TV services for Africa and will look at the issues of producing local content, delivering it on multiple formats, screens and platforms, and business models and partnerships to ensure sustainable revenues.
In addition, Africa24's presence at West & Central Africa Com will include TV coverage from the channel's journalists with daily broadcasts on the event.

The awareness of cloud in Kenya is rapidly growing : Tom Juma, Head of IT Service Delivery at Old Mutual Kenya

Tom Juma is Head of IT Service Delivery at Old Mutual Kenya. His responsibilities include the charge of operations and ICT (strategic and operational management) for a group of companies that includes investment services, life assurance, asset management and stock brokerage. Cloud Africa organisers, the Com World Series chatted with Tom about his vision of cloud in Africa – ahead of his participation at the event (Cloud Africa, Sandton Sun Hotel, Johannesburg) on the 23-24 May.

CWS: How would you describe existing ‘’cloud services’’ in Africa?

TJ: For Africa, I see cloud computing as the convergence of three worlds: consumers, business and technology. The rise of mobility, social networking and mobile devices has created a new norm for interaction with customers and employees. At the same time, businesses are experiencing speed-to-market and cost containment pressures as never before. Technologies for virtualization, open-source software, automation, bandwidth availability and more continue to evolve. However apart from South Africa, cloud computing is relatively new in other parts of Africa. Safaricom’s recent launch of a cloud computing service that it says will be the largest on the continent, reflects the cloud's emerging importance to economic growth in Kenya and other parts of Africa.

CWS: What would you say is the level of awareness about cloud in your country’s ICT market?

TJ: For Kenya, the awareness of cloud, while still very low, is rapidly growing as more and more companies are now beginning to utilize cloud services and recently one of the largest telecommunications company in Kenya launched its cloud computing services for both local and international companies. The overall demand is really huge. This is so because Kenya is geared towards establishing itself as the ICT hub of Africa.

CWS: Which ‘type’ of cloud would be your choice – public or private?

TJ: IT doesn’t matter, both will work depending on the service that is sought after. Also the cost, convenient and reliability will be some of the determinants in deciding the type of cloud.

CWS: How rapidly do you think the adoption of cloud will reducing capital and operational expenditure for enterprises in Africa?

TJ: Many businesses are experiencing speed-to-market and cost containment pressures as never before. Technologies for virtualization, open-source software, automation, bandwidth availability and more continue to evolve. Lowered costs, enhanced flexibility and the ability to create new revenue streams are making cloud a technology of choice for high performance. But, cloud can do more. Cloud can:

- Connect customers and citizens anytime, anywhere.

- Enhance insight through advanced analytics.

- Eliminate organizational boundaries.

- Spur new products and services.

- Broaden global footprint at lowered cost.

Benefits in many industries include

- Software as a service resulting in low capital expenditure on software including maintenance and support costs.

- On Demand services, meaning you only take what you require at the moment and grow as your needs arises.

- Worldwide information availability i.e. Diseases records can be available to any Doctor in the world hence rapid development and access to healthcare. But this must be securely stored.

- Applications such as product barcode scanners have brought instantaneous, online comparison shopping to the retail industry.

- Global peer-to-peer lending services allow consumers to sidestep banks with hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions.

- Applications such as Pandora and Genius for iTunes aggregate and analyze user feedback in real time.

CWS: Have you seen an increase in IT spend (in your business/country/region), and if yes, has it included investment in cloud?

TJ: Yes, from a country, many organizations have started rolling out Cloud based. From Old Mutual’s perspective, we are recently rolling put a cloud based services in all our emerging market operations including Africa.

CWS: What do you think is preventing enterprises in Africa from implementing cloud?

TJ: 1) Fear of the unknown i.e. misnomer about security issues in the cloud, 2) Inadequate IT skills and knowledge in reference to Cloud computing, 3) Most companies have already heavily of traditional IT solutions yet are not willing to change. 4) Lack of cloud-based computing companies aggregately marketing their solutions and services to companies. 5) Cost of bandwidth and lack of reliable and secure internet connections is some parts of Africa. 6) Low IT usage in some part of Africa.

CWS: What do you think is needed to drive improved and cheaper bandwidth in Africa for cloud?

TJ: 1) Use of appropriate technologies like Fibre optic like Eassy, Teams, SAT-3/WASC/SAFE to connect to the global network, 2) PPP between investors, and governments and 3) the availability of Cloud based solutions in Africa which will spar more usage hence reduction to unit costs.

CWS: What do you think are the 3 key advantages gained by companies using cloud as part of their IT services?

TJ: There are lots of advantages to using cloud computing for international companies as follows:

1) One of the major ones is the flexibility that it offers. Cloud computing means that staff can access the files and data that they need even when they're working remotely and/or outside office hours. As long as they can get on the Internet, staff can access information from home, on the road, from clients' offices or even from a smartphone such as a BlackBerry or iPhone. Staff can also work collaboratively on files and documents, even when they're not physically together. Documents can simultaneously be viewed and edited from multiple locations.

2) Cloud computing can be very quick and easy to get up and running. Consider, for example, how quickly you can set up a Gmail or Hotmail account and start emailing - it takes minutes and all you need is a computer and the Internet. Downloading and installing software, on the other hand, takes much longer.

3) Cloud computing is often cheaper and less labor-intensive for companies too. There is no need to buy and install expensive software because it's already installed online remotely and you run it from there, not to mention the fact that many cloud computing applications are offered free of charge. The need to pay for extensive disk space is also removed. With cloud computing, you subscribe to the software, rather than buying it outright. This means that you only need to pay for it when you need it, and it also offers flexibility, in that it can be quickly and easily scaled up and down according to demand. This can be particularly advantageous when there are temporary peaks in demand, such as at Christmas or in summer, for example.

4) A major advantage of using cloud computing for many companies is that because it's online, it offers virtually unlimited storage compared to server and hard drive limits. Needing more storage space does not cause issues with server upgrades and equipment - usually all you need to do is increase your monthly fee slightly for more data storage.

Gilles Nembe of Viadeo will speak at West & Central Africa Com

Professional social network Viadeo will be present at the West & Central Africa Com conference and exhibition in Dakar, Senegal in June. The site has 40 million+ members including business owners, entrepreneurs and managers from a diverse range of enterprises; it is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Founded by 2 French businessmen and headquartered in Paris, Viadeo has a particularly strong presence in French-speaking countries, making it an ideal network for the Francophone communities in West & Central Africa.
Gilles Nembe is Chief Officer, Emerging Markets and Global Partnerships. As such he is in charge of general management, sales and organization build up for the Emerging Markets, and is responsible for the establishment and the maintenance of world wide partnerships.
He will give a presentation in the Service Innovation session at the conference in Dakar, and share his comapny's perspective on new business models and services for communications users.

Tunisie Telecom Technology Partner of North Africa Com 2012

Tunisia's incumbent operator Tunisie Telecom has confirmed its participation as Technology Partner at the North Africa Com conference and exhibition taking place in Tunis on 15th and 16th May.
Director General Fadhel Kraiem will participate in the Leadership Summit in the opening keynote session at the conference. He will share his expertise and Tunisie Telecom's strategy on how telcos can adapt to a new market environment, both in terms of economic and socio-political changes and of technology evolution and convergence. In this session he will be joined by other leaders of the region's telecoms operator to share experiences and best practice from different markets.
As leader in the Tunisian telecommunications market, Tunisie Telecom offers a full range of fixed, mobile, Internet and data transmission services to address the needs of residential customers, small businesses and large corporations, as well as third party operators. The company has invested heavily in a modern infrastructure, leading-edge high-speed broadband technologies (FO, IP MPLS, 3G..) and a high-capacity global connectivity to achieve better quality of both its network and its customer relationships.
The North Africa Com team is pleased to welcome Tunisie Telecom as Technology Partner and to provide a window on the innovation and dynamism in the region's communications market. The 2-day event will include presentations, discussions and networking opportunities for all representatives of the region's telecoms, media and ICT sector.

iCow's Su Kahumbu gets ready to talk about the winning app at East Africa Com 2012

Su Kahumbu is Creative Director of Green Dreams, a social enterprise in East Africa. It produced the iCow app – a unique farming tool that won the Apps4africa initiative in 2010. Green Dreams focuses on 2 key areas in sustainable organic agriculture, Information dissemination and markets. Working with partners we are enabling farmers access information over print media, the internet, radio, via on ground extension officers as well as mobile phone. Su is speaking at East Africa Com, taking place in Nairobi on the 17-18 April.

CWS: How would you sum up the characteristic of the East African telecoms, media and ICT industry this year?

SK: The industry is booming, innovative products are becoming increasingly available to consumers. We are at the start of an interesting revolution.

CWS: What would you say is Green Dream’s priority for 2012?

SK: Scaling

CWS: Which type of services do you think consumers are going to be calling for in 2012?

SK: Services that deliver tangible value resulting in economic empowerment.

CWS: How important do you think cost-efficiency/reduction is for service providers in East Africa this year?

SK: Extremely important. The market is extremely price sensitive.

CWS: What do you think is needed to improve connectivity for the underserved in Africa?

SK: The usual hardware coupled with education and awareness. Plus innovative products that deliver real, tangible value to the underserved, and lower connectivity costs.

CWS: What do you think are the 3 key attributes needed to succeed in East Africa’s telecoms, media and ICT industry going forward?

SK: Value, simplicity and affordability

CWS: Which key message do you want to highlight to the audience during your participation at East Africa Com in Nairobi this April?

SK: Information is power. I am beginning to see farmers organizing themselves and searching for more information as opposed to waiting for it to be delivered on their door step. In so doing they are changing the norm and becoming active participants in our drive towards sustainable food production thus national security. It is exciting to be see that technology is driving these changes.

For more information about Green Dreams click here.

For more information about East Africa Com click here.

Vodacom Business' Richard Vester Chats with Cloud Africa Event Organisers in the Lead up to Africa's Most Exciting Cloud Event

The Com World Series - organisers of Cloud Africa - caught up with speaker Richard Vester to understand a bit more about his experience, and what his thoughts are in the lead up to Cloud Africa (23-24 May, Sandton Sun Hotel, Jo'burg).

Richard has been in the ICT industry since 1997, and has been intimately involved in the service provider and communications industry across the board (sales, product development, operations and product marketing roles). He joined Vodacom Business Services as Executive Head of Hosted Service in 2007, and is now Executive Head. It can definitely be said that Richard has a detailed knowledge and understanding of Cloud Computing, and that he has developed one of the leading cloud businesses in Africa.

CWS: How would you describe existing ‘’cloud services’’ in Africa?

RV: Cloud Services in Africa can be broken down into a few different areas. Firstly lets look at private cloud, which is fairly mature in South Africa, but a lot less developed in the rest of Africa. We are seeing a lot more focus from global software vendors in extending their virtualization technologies into African markets. Several corporate companies have adopted at least virtualization in their own data centres. Most of the virtualization services are aimed at the infrastructure consolidation layer and not in the software space.

Public cloud is fairly immature in Africa. There are one or two players which have been able to build a true elastic cloud service, but this has traditionally been focused on the South Africa market with future African expansion the next logical step.

CWS: What would you say is the level of awareness about cloud in your country/region’s ICT market?

RV: There is a lot of awareness and talk in the market about cloud services. The challenge is not so much in awareness but more in the adoption. Many companies love the idea of cloud and they can confidently say that they need to adopt it in some form or fashion, however the starting point for moving to the cloud is the biggest challenge. Change seems to be the biggest stumbling block.

CWS: Which ‘type’ of cloud would be your choice – public or private?

RV: My first choice would actually be a hybrid approach specifically in the corporate / enterprise segment. The reason for this is that there are many companies that have adopted virtualization in their own data centres and are content not to move their information into the public cloud, yet the biggest challenge they have would be the need for rapid scale of infrastructure for growth. This could have a large capex burden on the company. The converse of that is many companies don’t wish to move all their confidential data into the public cloud, but wish to enjoy an opex based service with less capacity issues. The hybrid approach allows for companies to manage their own infrastructure and the public cloud infrastructure through a single pane of glass. When they need to scale quickly then leverage off the public cloud for rapid deployment and when you have greater timelines for internal projects, plan and implement your own private cloud.

Smaller companies without their own data centres should look to move to public cloud as the benefits are exponential.

CWS: How rapidly do you think the adoption of cloud will reducing capital and operational expenditure for enterprises in Africa?

RV: Adoption of cloud would see the immediate reduction in capital costs with a slightly smaller operational expenditure. There is a perception that cloud will replace the requirement for IT staff. Operational work will still be required, however the time to deploy and the tools available to make the IT department more efficient would result in more time to focus on other parts of the business.

CWS: What do you think is needed to drive improved and cheaper bandwidth in Africa for cloud?

RV: Bandwidth costs and availability will improve over the next few years. A lot of large Telco’s are on a drive to deliver fibre to the door. This will increase the capacity and force the market to drop its pricing for services. Other important factors are things such as the additional cable systems from Europe and Asia. The more capacity we can land in the country the more affordable it becomes. Satellite is also an important factor as infrastructure can be a problem throughout Africa.

CWS: Have you seen an increase in IT spend (in your business/country/region), and if yes, has it included investment in cloud?

RV: I have seen an increase in companies' spending money on cloud based services however, this has actually decreased the total revenue spend. Cloud services are proving to be a great vehicle for companies looking to increase service levels, increase productivity and decrease costs to service providers. All though service providers make less revenue on the service itself, they also save in space and utilities and therefore improve on their profit.

CWS: What do you think is preventing enterprises in Africa from implementing cloud?

RV: Knowledge, the ability to experience it and the correct exposure to case studies. So often companies want to get to know more about how cloud can benefit their business but unfortunately a lot of providers talk about cloud and don’t deliver on its promise. More providers need to invest in infrastructure through Africa to help companies on their journey to the cloud.

CWS: What do you think are the 3 key advantages gained by companies using cloud as part of their IT services?

RV: Improved productivity, cost reductions, the ability to scale up or down as their business requirements change.

CWS: Which key message do you want to highlight during your participation at Cloud Africa in Johannesburg later this year?

RV: The message that I would like to deliver is that cloud services are really there to benefit companies, whether in a private, public or hybrid state. It doesn’t matter what size your business is, there is always an advantage to you as an organisation to adopt cloud Infrastructure, software or security. Although the service delivery may be lacking across Africa for true cloud services, the capability is available and companies don’t have to always leverage off cloud in their own country it could be at the end of a rainbow.

About Vodacom Group Limited

Vodacom is an African mobile communications company providing voice, messaging, data and converged services to around 40 million customers. From its roots in South Africa, Vodacom has grown its operations to include networks in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, and Lesotho and provides carrier and business services to customers in over 40 African countries. Vodacom is majority owned by Vodafone, one of the world’s largest mobile communications companies by revenue, and is listed on the JSE Limited under the symbol VOD.

About Cloud Africa

Africa's only Cloud Event for the African Telecom Operators and the ICT Industry

Cloud Africa is a new launch event from the Com World Series – organisers of AfricaCom, the continent’s leading telecoms, media & ICT conference & exhibition. This conference-led event, with co-located exhibition, is the premier meeting place for those looking to join the Cloud movement in Africa. The 2 day programme is led by the industry, for the industry – and the exhibition will attract global players displaying world-class solutions. No other event can be relied upon to attract the diverse Cloud ecosystem with such quality learning & networking, a one-stop shop for seeing the future of cloud in Africa and forming all important business partnerships. Request a brochure today

Lion's Den - What it Takes to be an Entrepreneur in East Africa

So what does it take to succeed with your own start-up in East Africa?

This is a question that will be answered in the Lion's Den: Entrepreneurs' Shoot Out - taking place at East Africa Com in Nairobi on the 17-18 April.

The exciting new session will be led by ihub Kenya's Erik Hersman, a veteran in the world of innovative start-ups and entrepreneurs. And the participants themselves will have a wealth of experience between them - already confirmed are Eric Kamau, CEO of True African and Benjamin Lyon, VP at Kopo Kopo.

The theme for the Lion’s Den session will be ‘What it takes to be an Entrepreneur’ – each participant will have 1 minute to describe how their business came about and what it does. Then they will have 3 minutes to talk about why the idea works – i.e. the challenges that were faced, and what they think meant it could succeed in East Africa.

There will be three or four participants overall, each with 4 minutes in turn and then there will be 5 minutes for questions from the audience. Erik Hersman from ihub will moderate the whole thing.

The idea behind this session is to really get innovative company’s stories out there. It will bring a great energy to the conference, and hopefully it will inspire the audience of senior representatives from operators, regulators, and global vendors.

The session will take place just before the coffee break, so the audience gets the chance to interact with participants on a 1-2-1 basis as well.

About East Africa Com:

Endorsed by those at the top of regional telecoms, East Africa Com delivers the most heavy-weight speaker-line up that features established giants, new, smaller entrants and everything in between.

You’ll gain a comprehensive overview of all the latest “need to know” topics in the multi-streamed conference while meeting potential new suppliers and partners in the 25 stand networking exhibition which is packed with some of the world’s foremost technology and solution providers.

If you do telecoms business in East Africa, this is an event you cannot afford to miss! Click here to download the brochure