Overview
6th Infocom Albania – Telecom Forum
Time for business!
Albania as a strong developing country, must change the structure of its economy, in order to become more open and competitive, creating a convergence path with the EU. To achieve this convergence, citizens need to have full access to the interconnection that internet offers and become part of the European Information society. Apart from access to information community for people, Information and Communication technologies are the highway that leads businesses to an outward orientation, providing access into the European market. Because eventually, every business is Digital Business.
For sure the digital business transformation, should be achieved not by steps, but with jumps. And for this reason, fundamental changes in both regulatory and institutional level are needed. Communication technologies, have a major role to play in this transformation process, and in order to meet the demand, available resources, such as radio spectrum, should be reallocated according the near future exponential need.
It’s all about connectivity
A key problem, but also an opportunity for the Telecommunications business, is to develop infrastructures to bridge the digital divide between citizens and reach every corner of the country, opening up communication routes.
At this point, a discussion starts about the structure that access networks should have.
Should they be based on wireless / satellite access -where the cost for installation of physical infrastructure is not a big problem-or wired (copper or fiber optic) which offer significantly higher bandwidth and speed but with significantly higher installation cost?
Of course, hybrid or cooperative proposals, are gaining ground, indicating that wireless and fixed access could deployed complementary and not competitive.
The participants at this session will develop the possibilities for the evolution of the available infrastructure and the conjunction with new modules that can multiply their capabilities.
What are the new technologies which attract CTO’s attention and what operating models can be applied?
Do they expect collaborative models for providing voice, internet and TV content under common platforms?
In cloud we trust
Of course the need for connection, resulting from the fact that current developments in IT enable companies to gain access to a huge variety of software tools that, until now, was absolutely unprofitable to host them in their own premises, and also too difficult and costly to develop from scratch.
Nowadays, a huge toolbox of virtual infrastructure allows increasing enterprise productivity and exponential awareness of products and services, freeing business from local installation restrictions, maintenance and development costs.
All these, are not limited to a local product level, but open new markets and customer needs, by creating new ecosystems with their own development models. M2M, Smart Grids, Fleet Management, Education and Health, most of the definition Everything as a Service. Anything that can be transformed to information is a potential service.
In this section participants will present the available solutions and suggestions for business cloud operation model and the advantages that enterprises can obtain by adopting it.
Leaders Summit
The round table with the participation of the Leaders of the Albanian ICT market, is to find the right balance between investment and profits, liberalization and regulation.
The investment, the need for transparent and stable institutional arrangements, the initiatives on regulatory issues, the introduction of modern connectivity framework, the next steps in mobile broadband towards 4G, are the main concerns of the CEO’s.
This is also opens the debate about digital television, releasing new spectral regions and natural synergies as multipliers, in order to enable providers to offer a variety of services to consumers.
Program
Main Event (Illyria 1+2)
09:00 – 09:30 – Registrations & Coffee
09:30 – 10:00 – Opening
Costas Nostis – George Blekas, Organizing CommitteeEdi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania
Milena Harito, Minister of Innovation & Public Administration Leonidas Rokanas, Ambassador, Embassy of Greece in Albania
Clive Rumbold, Head of Political Section, EU Delegation
Anke Holstein, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Germany in Albania
Luan Bregasi, President, Business Albania
10:00 – 12:00 – Session 1: It’ s all about connectivity




Iacob Petrescu, Public Safety Expert, Nec


Round table
Lorenc Bako, Advisor of the ICT to the Minister of Innovation & Public Administration (MoIPA)
Irena Malolli, Director of Electronic and Postal Communications and Integration, AKSHI
Genci Hamzaraj, CTO, Vodafone
Ilir Duka, Radio & Transmission Engineering Department Manager, AMC
Franz Scherz, Enterprise Group Lead for CDG, HP
Ivan Zaklanovic, Technical Director, SP South East Europe, Cisco
Athanassios Karanassis, Area Manager, Adtran
12:00 – 12:30 Coffee Break
12:30 – 14:30 – Session 2: In Cloud we trust

Marcus Johnson, Representative, USAID


Munir Ismet, EMEA Cloud – Public Sector, HP



Round table
Vilma Tomco, Director of the Department for European Digital Agenda of ICT for Albania, MoIPA Dritan Mezini, Board Chairman, Albanian Information and Technology Association (AITA)Kushtrim Shala, Marketing Product Manager, Vodafone
Igor Bimbiloski, Head of Strategy and Busines Development, AMC
Bora Feri, COO, M-Pay
Armand Sharra, General Director, Infosoft
Agim Bekaj, General Dirtector, Microsoft Moderator: Christos Charopoulos, Former Director of “Digital Convergence” Operational Program, Digital Greece
14:30 – 15:30 Lunch Break
15:30 – 17:30 – Session 3: Leaders Summit
Alban Karapici, Board Member, AKEP
Irena Malolli, Director of Electronic and Postal Communications and Integration, MoIPA

Round table
Milena Harito, Minister of Innovation & Public Administration
Piro Xhixho, Chairman, AKEP, AL
Christian Canacaris, CEO, Raiffeisen Bank
Dietlof Mare, CEO, Vodafone Albania
Henri Vandre, CMO, AMC
Erkan Tabak, CEO, ALBtelecom & Eagle Mobile*
Artan Dulaku, Tring Telecommunications and Tring TV
Genti Daci, CEO, Abcom
Gentian Bajraktari, CEO, AbissNet
17:30 – InfoCom Albania Awards
18:00 – Closing
SE Europe Regulatory Summit (Illyria 3)
12:30 – 14:30 – Telecommunications and ICT: Drivers of Innovation
Regulators
Piro Xhixho, Chairman, AKEPDražen Lučić, President of the Council, HAKOM
Veselin Bozhkov Bozhkov, Chairman, CRC
Robert Ordanoski, Director, AEC
Milan Jankovic, Director, RATEL
Minas Karatzoglou, Senior Regulatory Expert, EETT
Tayfun Acarer, Chairman of the Board, ICTA*
Zoran Sekulić, Executive Director, EKIP*
Magdalena Gaj, President, UKE*
Ekrem Hoxha, Chairman, ARKEP*
Franc Dolenc, Director, APEK*Moderator: Rudolf Papa, Head of Cabinet, AKEP