7.30 am         Registration Opens, Breakfast & Networking     

 

8:00 am         Breakfast Briefing    - Brad Grady, Senior Analyst, NSR

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8:50 am         Welcome & Opening of Thought Leadership Forum  - David Hartshorn, CEO, Geeks Without Frontiers

 

9:00 am – 9:30 am        Fireside Chat – “Strategies for Closing the Global Digital Divide” with FCC Chairman

                                       VIP Speaker:  Ajit Pai, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

                                       Moderator:  David Hartshorn, CEO, Geeks Without Frontiers

 

9:30 – 10:30 am    Executive Roundtable: “Profitability at the Bleeding Edge: Fact or Fiction?”

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Delivering digital access into unserved communities is nothing new; doing it profitably is the trick. This session will draw upon a panel of seasoned executives who have survived to share the latest lessons learned from the “School of Hard Knocks”... and implications for the future of financially sustainable broadband.

 

Moderators:

John Morris, Co-Founder & Director, Geeks Without Frontiers

Michael Potter, Co-Founder & Director, Geeks Without Frontiers

 

Speakers:

Andrew Beard, CEO & Co-Founder, Vanu Inc

Troy Etulain, Project Director, FHI360

Jean-Philippe Gillet, Vice President and General Manager, Broadband, Intelsat

Darrell Owen, President, Owen & Owen

 

 

10.30-10:45 am    Refreshments & Networking Break

 

 

10:45-11:45 am    Shark Tank: “Show Me Your Business Case (and I’ll Show You Mine)”

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Connectivity business cases that will stand up in a low-ARPU environment -- and that will remain standing -- have traditionally been the exception, not the rule. As industry and government intensify efforts to bridge the Digital Divide, innovative approaches increasingly are being pitched to potential investors. Here’s two.

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Moderators:

Brad Grady, Senior Analyst, NSR

Travis Mooney, Managing Director, Dilettantism Limited

 

Speakers:

Evan Buck, Strategic Business Development, Community WiFi, Viasat

Sergio Murillo, Co-Founder & CEO, Red52

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11:45 am -12:45 pm   Roundtable: “No Bucks, No Buck Rogers… Bottoming Out the Bottom Line From the Bottom Up”

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Zillions of dollars worth of investment are being poured into the development of exotic connectivity solutions that promise to bring billions of would-be customers within reach. But... do the numbers really add up when the spreadsheet is based on, say, crowdsourcing? Crypto and blockchain? Digital marketplaces? This session’s experts have sharpened their pencils.

Moderator:

John Morris, Co-Founder & Director, Geeks Without Frontiers

 

Speakers:

Ferdinand van Ingen, Senior Industry Specialist TMT, International Finance Corp.

Niall Murphy, Co-Founder & CEO, EVRYTHNG

Jehan Tremback,  Co-Founder, Althea Mesh 

Niels Zibrandsten, Founder, Zibra

 

12:45 – 1:45 pm     Lunch

 

1:15 – 1:45 pm       Lunch Presentation  “Secure Digital Wallet for a Billion People”

 

Speaker:

Steven Sprague, CEO, Rivetz

 

1:45 – 2:00 pm        Keynote: “A Call to Action for the Connectivity Industry”

 

Speaker:

Mike Cook, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, North America, Hughes

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2:00 – 3:15 pm       “Doing Well by Doing Good: Are Forcibly Displaced Communities a Market?”

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Or a charity? Having recently launched the HumanityConnect! Initiative -- a collaboration of stakeholders with an interest in reconnecting refugees and disaster-affected communities -- Geeks Without Frontiers is inviting a “Coalition of the Willing” to provide answers. Seventy-five minutes of no-holds-barred brainstorming will draw upon insights from session and audience thought leaders alike.

 

Moderator:

David Hartshorn, CEO, Geeks Without Frontiers

John Morris, Co-Founder & Director, Geeks Without Frontiers

 

Speakers:

Simon Gray, SVP Humanitarian Affairs, Eutelsat

Jose-Luis Rodriguez, President, Campo Rico Group

Richard Thanki, Co-Founder, Jangala

Forrest Wilhoit, Senior Program Manager, NetHope/USAID GBI Alliance

 

 

3:15 – 3:45 pm       Refreshments & Networking Break

 

 

3:45 – 5:00 pm      The Game Plan – Rewriting the Rules

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Geeks’ Thought Leadership Forum will conclude with a roundup of key conclusions drawn from the day’s proceedings and will go several steps further: Objectives will be defined. Actions will be identified. And timelines will be set. Attend the final session to explore your role as a provider of revolutionary connectivity solutions.

 

Moderator:

David Hartshorn, CEO, Geeks Without Frontiers

 

 

5:00 pm        Close of Thought Leadership Forum  David Hartshorn, CEO, Geeks Without Frontiers