DA & Operator Services '08
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.
The PELORUS Group: The State Of DA In 2008 - 2008 has chimed in with unprecedented competition and opportunities for the DA market. Numerous business models and competitive offerings from search mavens and online yellow page providers to navigational and social networks are encroaching into the traditional DA world of carriers. This is also creating new opportunities for partnerships and revenue sharing. The PELORUS Group will identify market and technology drivers that are reshaping the DA market. The session will also highlight the current state of the wireline and wireless DA markets, encompassing free and paid models
Al Fross, President, The PELORUS Group
Saroja Girishankar, Vice President, The PELORUS Group
9:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
Firing On All Engines: Transforming DA Into Interactive DIS For Mobile Users - Increasing voice and visual content in a broad-based attempt to turn DA calls into rich, interactive information services for mobile users is happening in a big way. An industry trailblazer will showcase its latest capabilities including mobile clients for phones, mobile and text search applications. These new functions transform the DA call into an interactive experience for getting a wide spectrum of information services, including visuals such as maps and coupons. The session will involve walking the audience through customer implementations of advanced mobile applications that facilitate DIS and advertiser-based services.
Mike McCue, Founder & General Manager, Tellme
10:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
New Frontier in Mobile Search: Find Any Information From Any Mobile Phone - Upping the ante on mobile search portfolios, a start-up has launched an innovative service that lets users receive information on any subject including DA, using live search agents in the background. The session will give the audience a flavor of the service, which can be accessed from any brand of mobile phone.
Scott Jones, CEO, ChaCha
10:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Refreshment Break & Exhibits
11:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
11:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
Free DA: Reality Check - While the latter half of 2007 saw a flurry of new free DA services from several telecom and search titans in the U.S., 2008 so far is proving to be a year of some growing pains, and reality checks in terms of user demand. A single market leader, continues to prevail at the head of the pack with majority market share. This session will showcase that leader and other free DA providers, providing an extraordinary view of the prevailing models and advertiser-based formula. Delegates will get a close look at what formula seems to work or what does not in the world of free, advertiser-based model.
George Garrick, President & CEO, Jingle Network
Tom Moran, Executive Director, Verizon LiveSource
Changing The Operator Services Business Model: System Upgrade and Hosted Choices - This session will highlight a variety of solutions and options from top platform providers aimed at broadening the business models available to operator services organizations across the board. The offerings encompass upgrades for legacy platforms to new solutions. Importantly, the session will elaborate on hosted solutions that shorten time to market with little upfront investment.
John Marshall, President & CEO, Intelis
Chris Whites, Project Manager, VoltDelta
11:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
11:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Who’s Minding The Ads: Demand For Volume And Quality - Advertiser-based models operate under very different dynamics then pay-per-call DA models, requiring substantive ad inventories and value chains. Deep repositories of pertinent, highly targeted quality audio and text ads are fundamental to matching caller needs and ads on the fly. This ad inventory is critical for merchants to draw leads – the bread and butter of the ad model. A year into ad-based services, it is still an asset in the making, with some small and large organizations in the play. Delegates will hear from existing ad aggregators, and potential new partners about the latest efforts hitting the marketing.
Matt Crowley, CMO, YELLOWPAGES.com
Robyn Rose, Vice President, Superpages.com
TBA
Workforce Management: Critical Call Center Fundamentals Of Profitability - The crucial role of efficient, real-time management of call center operations in the bottom line of small, medium, and large telcos cannot be overstated. Industries leaders will discuss well tested solutions that identify key demand and forecast metrics plus performance parameters and practical benchmarks essential to operational efficiencies and customer satisfaction in the operator services environment.
Bill Durr, Principal/Global Solutions, Verint/Witness Systems
Claudio Mendoza, CTO & Senior Partner, DATOS
12:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.
Luncheon & Exhibits Sponsored By:
1:45 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Alternative Models For Competitive Times: Wireless Carriers Chime In - Small and mid-sized wireless carriers across the U.S. are embracing mobile voice search, ad-based and subscription models as part of their DA offerings. This attempt to offer more value is part of a larger effort to stem subscriber attrition, making them pioneers of a possible future trend. A couple of carriers are even testing free DA offerings supported by advertisers. This session will present solutions providers and implementers of these biz models, and offer delegates a closer look at surprising benchmarks on emerging customer demands and priorities.
Jack Denenberg, Senior Director, AT&T Mobility
Craig Kirkland, Director, Alltel
2:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.
2:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.
GPS Navigators/Voice-Activated Directions: The New Kids On The Block - An unconventional category of information services providers is quietly, but definitively making early inroads into the DA market. Voice-activated direction service, piggy-backing on free/paid DA, is a newcomer making the rounds. Emerging GPS navigational devices are offering drivers on the move a lot more than directions and maps. Latest models are sporting typical DIS features, from locating the nearest local businesses to movie listings, traffic, and weather conditions to news, for a small monthly subscription fee. This session will feature insights into these offerings plus emerging partnership opportunity with leading DA platform and directory providers
Amit Desai, Co-Founder & President, Dial Directions
Brad Schorer, Senior Vice President, VoltDelta
Interactive Operator Services Panel - This panel will provide the stage for operator services organizations to voice their particular needs and business goals. This interactive process between providers and clients should create new answers to changing times. If operator services and call center operations are important to your organization, Don't Miss This Session!
Robin Collins, Vice
President, ILD Telecommunications
TBA
3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.
Refreshment Break & Exhibits
3:45 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.
Mobile Voice Search & Voice Recognition: The Ultimate 411 Moneymakers - AD-based free and paid DA/DIS models of 2008 ride on the rails of sophisticated speech technologies. Mobile callers overwhelmingly continue to prefer voice search to get to 411 services. Ongoing success depends on advanced interactive, intuitive, automated and user-friendly speech technologies that mimic the real life ease of voice communications. This session will give attendees a close look at leading speech solutions, including voice widgets, that promise to make mobile search and associated ad models a highly attractive business proposition.
Gilad Odinak, CEO & CTO, Spoken Communications
Jim Sonnick, Executive Vice President, Soleo Communications
TBA, Nuance Communications
4:45 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Business Category Search + Ad Management + DIS Platform: One Stop Solution? - 2007 saw the roll out of highly intuitive business category search as a unique mechanism to tap into advertiser-based revenues. Local businesses were willing to pay for premium listings to attract callers requesting general categories of businesses. Kicking it up a notch, in 2008 a leader in business category search, through strategic acquisitions, has come up with an integrated solution that provides real time ad management and the DIS platform with advanced mobile search. This session will give delegates a detailed peek at these new solutions and implementations.
Mike Durance, CEO, Call Genie
Kevin Keith, Director, RH Donnelley
5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Networking Reception & Exhibits Sponsored By:
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.
Special Keynote Presentation
Joanne Beaton, VP of Operator Services, TELUS Communications
9:30 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.
The Global DA Landscape: Market Growth And Opportunities - Even as DA providers in the U.S. have forged ahead with their DIS and mobile search services for free and paid models, so have leaders across Canada, Europe, and Asia… This panel offers clear perspective of a broad set of services from DA providers in select countries. While geo-physical locations are different, it is interesting to note that the fundamentals of multi-lateral revenue models for mobile and landline scenarios are similar across the board. This session will drill down into service offerings, demand, and opportunities.
Katharina Doberl, Head of Business Development, Eniro 118118
Jason Smith, Head of Advertiser Development, Yell Group
10:15 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
Refreshment Break & Exhibits
10:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
DA Ad Ecosystem: Biz Models A La Carte - The confluence of mobile voice/text search, free DA and directory information services has opened up new avenues for online and voice service providers to tap into advertiser-based models. Success demands a vibrant, dynamic ecosystem that gives access to rich customer info, a wealth of advertisers and to popular social network sites. This panel will explore ad business models that are tapping into new opportunities at popular social networking and online sites that promise DA providers wider demographic reach.
Reese Jones, Chairman, SpeakSoft
Marketta Silvera, CEO, Apptera
Emerick Woods, CEO, V-ENABLE
11:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
All-In-One Mobile Phones: Empowering Monetization? - Mobile handset makers are turning to web-based services that range from directions and maps, to music, games, and social networking. Now, DA/DIS providers could find themselves competing head-to-head with these very same handset manufactures. Then again, new phone features are providing 411 users a single button access to web-based search services besides a gamut of ad-based DIS offerings. No matter how one cuts it, the latest models are bringing in new competitors who indeed could become partners in a broader, deeper value chain. This session will probe the impact of feature-laden mobile phones on DA/DIS players.
Venue Vasudevan, PhD, Sr. Director, Motorola
TBA
12:30 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Refreshment Break & Exhibits
1:00 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.
The Future Of DA: Stakeholders’ Panel - This quintessential panel will provide a platform for an open exchange of ideas and issues facing the DA industry at a time of intense competition and opportunity. In keeping with tradition, this special panel will feature thought leaders that will provide lively discussions pertaining to of models that work as well as those that don’t. It is the experience of The PELORUS Group that such a transparent and free exchange of ideas amongst competitors and partners alike typically opens the way for alliances and intra-industry strategies, Don't Miss This Session!
Alex Algard, Founder & CEO, WhitePages.com
Randy Eppy, Director Our Customer, TELUS Communications
Mike Loftus, CEO, Broadcaster Media
Saroja Girishankar, Vice President, The PELORUS Group
