Light Reading's Big Communications Event, formerly the Big Telecom Event, will take place in Austin, TX, on May 23-25.

April 19, 2016

7 Min Read

NEW YORK, April 19, 2016 - Light Reading's (www.lightreading.com), Big Communications Event (www.bigcommunicationsevent.com), formerly Light Reading’s Big Telecom Event, will take place in Austin, TX, on May 23-25. Light Reading’s Big Communications Event (BCE) is the ONE event that unites next-gen communications providers for real-world discussions of the issues critical to their future, including virtualization, cloud, next-gen wireless and back office transformation. p>

The Big Communications Event brings together the industry's top network operators with its most dynamic technologists to discuss and debate the issues both driving and challenging the ultimate move to an NFV-enabled cloud running profitable applications and services over an underlying New IP network. BCE will also feature a demo floor including live demos from the world’s leading vendors as well as a Live Interoperability Demo from the New IP Agency.

BCE will feature hundreds of speakers who are the leading minds in the next-gen communications ecosystem.

Keynote and featured speakers, confirmed to date, include:

  • David Amzallag, Head, Network Virtualization - SDN & NFV, Vodafone

  • Margaret Chiosi, Distinguished Network Architect, AT&T

  • Axel Clauberg, VP, Aggregation, Transport, IP & Fixed Access, Deutsche Telekom

  • Hans-Juergen Schmidtke, Director, Engineering, Infrastructure Foundation, Facebook

  • Bill Owens, Executive Chairman, Red Bison

  • Pankaj Patel, EVP and Chief Development Officer, Cisco

  • Dave Wolter, AVP - Radio Technology and Strategy, AT&T Labs

  • Don MacNeil, Chief Technology Officer, EdgeConneX

  • Gagan Puranik, Director, SDN Architecture Planning, Verizon

  • Douglas Nassaur, Lead Principal Technical Architect, Domain 2.0 Architecture and Engineering, Cloud Architecture, AT&T

  • Randy Nicklas, EVP, Engineering & CTO, Windstream

  • Jim Ganthier, VP/GM, Engineered Solutions and Cloud, Dell

  • Dave Ostertag, Global Investigation Manager, Verizon

  • Elad Nafshi, Senior VP NGAN, Comcast

  • James Feger, Vice President Infrastructure Support, CenturyLink

  • Chris MacFarland, Chairman and CEO, Masergy

  • Don Clarke, Principal Analyst, Network Technologies, CableLabs

  • Christos Kolias, Senior Research Scientist, Orange Silicon Valley

  • Derek Peterson, Chief Technology Officer, Boingo

  • Chris Emmons. Director, SDN Planning & Implementation, Verizon

  • Todd McWhirter, Director, Wavelength Architecture and Engineering, Zayo

  • Mike Renshaw, Senior Director, Security Evangelists, Level 3

  • Robert Thompson, Director of Network Architecture, Comcast Cable

  • Tim Naramore, Chief Technology Officer, Masergy

  • Lynn Comp, Senior Director, Market Development Organization, Network Platforms Group, Intel

  • Ray Watson, Vice President, Global Technology, Masergy

  • Kelly Herrell, SVP and General Manager, Software Networking, Brocade

  • Michael Kotelec, Global Practice Leader, Verizon Enterprise Solution’s Manufacturing

  • Doug Junkins, Chief Technology Officer, NTT Innovation Institute Inc.

  • Joe Jensen, President, Parallax Communications Limited

  • Jeffrey Binder, Chief Executive Officer at Layer3 TV, Inc

  • John Childress, Vice President, Product Strategy and Management, NCTC

  • Chris Bastian, Senior Vice President and CTO, SCTE

  • Jeff Brown, Director of Marketing & Product Management, Windstream

  • Heather Kirksey, Director, OPNFV

"We are once again bringing the top thought leaders together to share real-world experiences in transforming today's networks into tomorrow's cloud services platforms, able to scale to meet the expected tsunami of bandwidth demand," says Carol Wilson, BCE conference chair and Light Reading editor-at-large. "Communications service providers are facing extraordinary challenges in creating on-demand network capacity, but they also see the amazing opportunities that lie ahead for those who get this right. BCE is the one industry-wide event at which every aspect of this dynamic market is up for discussion."

The Big Communications Event will feature a Women in Comms networking lunch and job fair on May 23, which will explore the challenges and opportunities for women in the next-gen comms industry and provide direct access to jobs and new skills. The lunch is open to all men and women in the communications field and related industries, as well as college students, recent graduates and those interested in science, technology, engineering, math (STEM), telecom, information and communications technologies (ICT), computer science and next-gen communications. For additional information visit: www.lightreading.com/WICatBCE.

The Women in Comms lunch will feature a host of speakers including:

  • Lynn Comp, Director, Market Development Organization, Network Platforms Group, Intel

  • Monique Hayward, Director, Outbound Marketing, Network Platforms Group, Intel

  • Kaitki Agarwal, Co-Founder & VP, Development, Parallel Wireless

  • Tracy Nolan, Senior Vice President, Sales, Office of the CEO, Sprint

  • Joyce Mullen, VP & General Manager, Global OEM & IoT Solutions, Dell

  • Margaret Chiosi, Distinguished Network Architect, AT&T

  • Derek Peterson, CTO, Boingo

  • Caroline Dowling, President, Communications Infrastructure & Enterprise Computing, Flex

  • Sandy Motley, Market Solutions, NAM, Nokia

  • James Feger, Vice President, Infrastructure Support, CenturyLink

BCE will offer a two-day, four-track conference covering key topics in the industry, including the Internet of Things, network security, next-gen data networking and virtualization. Additionally, the event will offer dedicated breakfast events and two dedicated tracks – the Video Track and Components Track.

  • Accenture Breakfast: “Reinventing Operations for a Virtual, Software-Defined World” (http://www.bigcommunicationsevent.com/events/big-communications-event/custom-115-24782ac3c3fe481896c5a3b999cbc007.aspx) will address topics such as a new operating model leveraging the principles of service orientation to support NFV and SDN, leveraging agile and DevOps to accelerate the delivery of new products and services to customers, and a real-time OSS to bridge between old and new. The breakfast takes place on Wednesday, May 25 from 7 a.m. to 8:20 a.m. and is open to all service provider and cable operator/MSO attendees.

    • The Video Track (http://www.bigcommunicationsevent.com/events/big-communications-event/custom-35-24782ac3c3fe481896c5a3b999cbc007.aspx) will take an in-depth look at the compelling issues in the world of video content delivery, where massive changes are taking place. In a series of panel discussions, Light Reading's Cable/Video Practice Leader Alan Breznick and leaders from the cable and satellite TV industries, the OTT world and elsewhere in the video realm will offer a lively discussion of the critical factors influencing the future of the video content market. The video track will take place on Wednesday, May 25. Harmonic is the Platinum sponsor and Kontron and Verimatrix are Gold sponsors.

    • The Components Track (http://www.bigcommunicationsevent.com/events/big-communications-event/custom-123-24782ac3c3fe481896c5a3b999cbc007.aspx) will explore compelling issues in the world of optical, semiconductor and software components for today’s wireless, wireline and virtual networks. In a series of panel discussions, Light Reading’s Components Analyst Simon Stanley and leaders from the optical module, semiconductor and COTS platform industries and elsewhere in the telecom world will host a discussion of the critical factors influencing the future of networking and the latest components. The components track will take place on Tuesday, May 24. Xilinx is the Platinum sponsor and Accelink, Artesyn and MoSys are the Gold sponsors.

      The Big Communications Event will also offer a variety of pre-event opportunities featuring partner workshops on May 23 including: Upskill U LIVE, SDN Essentials Introduction to SDN & Certification, ATIS 5G Symposium: Building the Future, and Open Compute Project’s Telco Engineering Workshop.

      Cisco is the diamond sponsor; Brocade, Intel, and Dell are the super platinum sponsors; Accedian, ADVA Optical Networking, Fujitsu, Huawei, Juniper, Masegy, RAD, and VeEX are platinum sponsors; A10 Networks, Arbor Networks, Arista, Canoga Perkins, Canonical, Ciena, Comptel, Corero, Ekinops, Fortinet, Genband, InfoVista, MRV, Netcracker, NetNumber, Netronome, Procera, and Tata Communications are gold sponsors; Affirmed Networks, Allot Communications, ECI, Mellanox, Infinera, Infoblox, Mitel, Nominum, OpenStack, Persistent, Radware, Transition Networks, Viavi are silver sponsors; 3-GIS, Aptilo, Centec Networks, Creanord, Deepfield, EXFO, Ineo, Omintron Systems, Parallel Wireless, Raisecom, RioRey, Sole Source Technology, Telco Systems, Web NMS and XDK are demo sponsors. Speaking, sponsorship, workshop and partner opportunities are available. For more information, contact [email protected]. Follow Light Reading on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube for all the latest news.

      To view the complete agenda, click here. To register to attend, click here.

      Cisco is the diamond sponsor; Brocade, Intel, and Dell are the super platinum sponsors; Accedian, ADVA Optical Networking, Fujitsu, Huawei, Juniper, Masegy, RAD, and VeEX are platinum sponsors; A10 Networks, Arbor Networks, Arista, Canoga Perkins, Canonical, Ciena, Comptel, Corero, Ekinops, Fortinet, Genband, InfoVista, MRV, Netcracker, NetNumber, Netronome, Procera, and Tata Communications are gold sponsors; Affirmed Networks, Allot Communications, ECI, Mellanox, Infinera, Infoblox, Mitel, Nominum, OpenStack, Persistent, Radware, Transition Networks, Viavi are silver sponsors; 3-GIS, Aptilo, Centec Networks, Creanord, Deepfield, EXFO, Ineo, Omintron Systems, Parallel Wireless, Raisecom, RioRey, Sole Source Technology, Telco Systems, Web NMS and XDK are demo sponsors. Speaking, sponsorship, workshop and partner opportunities are available. For more information, contact [email protected]. Follow Light Reading on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube for all the latest news.

      About Light Reading
      Light Reading (www.lightreading.com) combines its research-led online communities and targeted events portfolio to help those in the global communications industry make informed decisions. Lightreading.com is the ultimate source for telecom analysis for more than 400,000 subscribers each month, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content and reputation. Light Reading produces targeted communications events and focused one-day conferences each year for cable, mobile and wireline executives across five continents.

      Media Contact:
      Julie Muroff
      SVP, Operations & Events
      [email protected]

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