The Samena Telecommunications Council will host the chairmen and chief executives of telecom operators and broadcasting companies worldwide to participate in a leaders’ gathering in Venice.

Samena (South Asia – Middle East – North Africa) is holding its fourth annual CEO & Chairmen Leadership Dinner on May 24, which will be hosted by Telecom Italia, with strategic partnership support extended by the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO).

The Samena Council’s CEO & Chairmen Leadership Dinner will build on the Council’s past successes as a premier executive platform for the telecoms industry’s chairmen and chief executives, and will create close collaboration with one of Europe’s  most prominent industry associations- ETNO and Telecom Italia.

The Leadership Dinner will also comprise of discussion sessions, particularly in the areas of exploring prospects of cooperation and collaboration among telecoms networks, broadcasters, and over-the-top providers.

As the core of the discussion of the Samena Council’s Leadership Dinner has been designed to focus on the creation and convergence of new ecosystems, the participating leaders will have an opportunity to discuss digitization, transformational way forward for telecoms operators and broadcasting companies, new partnership needs and challenges for stakeholders of the telecom and content value-chains, and new sustainable business and economic models.

Furthermore, a collaboratively organized CEO workshop by ETNO and the Samena Council titled Telecommunications and broadcasters in the Middle East: convergence of challenges and opportunities in the global digital market, to be organized at Telecom Italia’s Future Center, will engage the highest representatives of the main broadcasters and telecommunications operators active in the Samena and European regions.

The aim of the workshop is to understand various dimensions of the digital revolution underway and to both create and discover new insights into the emergence of new business models; the new structure of competition among players, with focus given to emerging spectrum needs and spectrum allocation strategies, access to content and its consumption via new technologies, policy considerations for telecom and broadcasting networks, financing, media freedom and human rights protection, among other issues.

Bocar A BA, CEO of the Samena Council said: “The legacy of the Samena Council’s Leadership Dinner in 2013 is relationship and business development as well as discussion of high-priority telecommunications issues, conducted in a world-class ambience. Participation in the Samena Council’s Leadership Dinner has truly increased since its inaugural launch in 2010.”

“We attribute the continual success of this executive initiative by the Samena Council to the depth of knowledge that is exchanged among our participating leaders and to the support provided by our gracious hosts and strategic partners.

“This year, we are indeed thankful to Franco Bernabè, president and CEO of Telecom Italia and to Luigi Gambardella, Chairman of the ETNO Executive Board, for facilitating our Leadership Dinner’s planning process, which we believe will contribute to the global dialogue on industry issues, which have a direct bearing on the success of the business in this converged world,” he added.

Luigi Gambardella, chairman of the ETNO Executive Board and Telecom Italia Group Vice President for Relations with International institutions and Organizations said: “We are very honoured to host this year’s Samena Council annual gathering in Venice. Both Telecom Italia and ETNO believe that common reflections between players in different geographic areas of the world will help develop a shared vision on the challenges that the telecom sector is facing and the possible synergies that the convergent scenario may offer to telcos, fixed and mobile, and broadcasters.

“The borderless nature of on-line services requires more debate on future business models and investment challenges at a global level. We therefore hope that both the workshop and the Samena Council’s CEO & Chairmen Leadership Dinner will provide a useful platform for a successful exchange of ideas on how to best respond to market evolution for the benefit of citizens both in the EU and in the Samena region.” – TradeArabia News Service