30 Speakers Lined Up for RAG Conference

They say a picture paints a thousand words. So look at the faces above: they are the 30 experts who have confirmed they will be giving a presentation or joining a panel discussion at the Summer Conference of the Risk & Assurance Group, to be held in London on July 7th and 8th.

The agenda is going to showcase some of the best brains in the industry. There is Nixon Wampamba, who has managed RAFM teams on three continents and done consulting work on two more. And Pedro Bravo, who manages RA and Credit Scoring for NOS, the innovative Portuguese quad-play operator. And Marcus Bryant, who will talk about the RAFM education program he developed for MTN’s 21 operating companies. And our host and keynote speaker is Bernice DeMarco, Director of Revenue Assurance for BT Group, who will explain how they are taking assurance to places it has never been before.

Do you want some representatives of other industry associations? We have them too! Jason Lane-Sellers of the Communications Fraud Control Association will sit with Rene Felber of the TM Forum to discuss what they have learned from the global fraud and assurance surveys they each run. Do you want to hear the opinions of people who have shaped the telecoms landscape? We have David Smith, who organized the first ever RA benchmarks, and Jack Wraith, who oversaw the Telecommunications UK Fraud Forum for 16 years, and Tony Poulos, who was listed by Billing and OSS World as one of the 25 most influential people in the telecom software industry.

Perhaps you want to learn about controls to stop roaming fraud? That is on the agenda. Are you worried about OTT bypass? We will be covering that too. Maybe you want advice on how to start an Enterprise Risk Management program? We have two current ERM Directors and a couple of former ones. Do you want an update on the latest anti-fraud technology? Or advice about analytics? Or case studies involving law enforcement? They are all on the agenda.

Or maybe you want to hear how the risk and assurance skills developed inside telcos can be transferred to other industries? Then we have a special panel composed of practitioners who have crossed over into retail, utilities and finance.

Published authors? Check. Award winners? Check. Thought leaders? Check, check, check. And if you want to know about something that is not on the agenda, you can stick your hand up and ask (or use your smartphone to go online and ask, because we also love technology that boosts interaction). If none of the 30 confirmed speakers knows the answer to your query, then probably one of the 100 other registered attendees will.

I can hardly believe I am going to type the next sentence. There are even more speakers still to be announced. A sane organizing committee would say they have a strong enough line-up already. Our crazy RAG committee keeps adding more and more to the agenda. My worry is how we will fit all the content into the time available, and still have a few minutes for the lunch and coffees provided, plus the networking we always encourage. But so far the draft schedule looks surprisingly plausible. That document gets updated every time a speaker is added, so keep checking the link to see how we will cram even more presentations into just two days!

And nobody can say the RAG does not give good value for money, because this event is free. Now I feel like one of those guys in a cheesy advert for your local sofa/carpet/car dealership. You just need to register online and you could be spending two days in the company of some of the most knowledgeable people working in telco RAFM and risk management. And thanks to our generous sponsors your attendance will cost you nada, zilch, nothing. You read that correctly: over 30 top speakers can be yours for the low, low price of a zero downpayment with absolutely nothing to pay afterwards. How crazy is that? We give away priceless advice; you just need to show up to hear it!

Oh, and the 30 speakers did not include RAG Chairman Rob Chapman, who will be overseeing proceedings with his usual aplomb. And I did not count me either, because I will be there to make a nuisance of myself moderate some of the panels. So come meet me, Rob, the speakers, and the 30+ telcos already registered to attend. But do not delay booking your place. Whilst the conference is still 6 weeks away, the number of seats is strictly limited, and fewer than 50 remain on either day!

Or you could go to a conference that looks like the following. This is a genuine group photo taken by the organizers of a recent RAFM conference that cost people lots of money. I could pretend the faces were obscured to avoid litigation, but really it was because they looked so miserable that I worried their frowns could be contagious.

miserable-RAFM-conference

What they say about pictures is true. Look back toward the top of the screen to see the many confirmed speakers who are committed to the success of the RAG Summer Conference. Then look below to see the top-notch auditorium of BT, our hosts for the event. We are all coming together with the intention of running a landmark education and networking event for telecoms risk and assurance professionals. And it will also be free! Now ask yourself this question: can you afford to miss it?

auditorium

Eric Priezkalns
Eric Priezkalnshttp://revenueprotect.com

Eric is the Editor of Commsrisk. Look here for more about the history of Commsrisk and the role played by Eric.

Eric is also the Chief Executive of the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG), an association of professionals working in risk management and business assurance for communications providers. RAG was founded in 2003 and Eric was appointed CEO in 2016.

Previously Eric was Director of Risk Management for Qatar Telecom and he has worked with Cable & Wireless, T‑Mobile, Sky, Worldcom and other telcos. He was lead author of Revenue Assurance: Expert Opinions for Communications Providers, published by CRC Press.

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13 COMMENTS

  1. Although biased as I am part of the committee, I have had the privilege (over too many years to count… ) of being part of many global industry forums and conferences. Unlike some events, Risk and Assurance Group is in its 12th year and has been led by the industry, for the industry.
    This is an important statement, ‘by the industry’ the membership of RAG comprises of leading telecom and utilities operators, who, over the years, all contribute to the success of RAG.
    ‘For the industry’ if you think about the times you’ve sat and listened to irrelevant presentations with no substance. RAG excel at sourcing pioneers and visionaries to deliver meaningful content.

    See you there.

  2. Mr. Mohammad Ali of Falcon Business Research, hosts of the event photographed above, let me begin by thanking you for the abusive emails you sent today. They will be published on Commsrisk soon enough. I see you are less willing to share your opinions on a public forum. Would you care to explain to everyone why you have removed the other comment you left earlier today?

  3. You offered me a paid advert on commsrisk and I have put down your paid offer. And I would be more than happy to see what kind of abusive mails I have sent you. Please post it asap.

  4. This shows how big business you are running by mentioning in the email that no one would have noticed our logo because we are so small and not well known.

    • You are truly a madman, doing a great job of destroying what little reputation your business has. Let’s review the facts:

      1) You contacted me first.

      2) You wanted Commsrisk to be your “media partner” which means you wanted free advertising. I offered you paid advertising instead. You said you would pay but never did. Luckily I don’t run adverts until payment is received, because I protect myself from crappy businesses like yours.

      3) The supposed benefit of being your “media partner” is that Commsrisk flyers would be handed out at your events. Why would I want Commsrisk flyers to be handed out at an event when I know you will struggle to get even 10 telco people to attend?

      4) You asked me to do FBR-branded risk training, or to tell you the names of other people who could do it. What kind of due diligence do you do before you recruit a trainer? What makes you competent to judge the quality of the people you engage? Do you have any idea who you subcontract, or do you just engage the cheapest chump who is willing to work for you?

      5) I have a track record of rubbishing charlatans like you, though your business is much smaller than the ones I usually tackle. One reason I do it is because it alerts everybody to the scum who wander around LinkedIn trying to make easy money by cheating telcos. The other reason is that it generates tremendous amounts of traffic for Commsrisk, because people really enjoy reading about people like you. That’s why this amusing exchange is taking place on my website and not on yours. That’s why I’m not ripping down your comments, even though you have removed some because you were scared of the consequences of leaving them up. So few people visit your website that I wanted to show everybody a screenshot of what visitors find when they visit your homepage. Your business is so badly run that the homepage of your own website has not been working for weeks, but no customers have visited so nobody told you.

      I guess you are upset today because one of your former sponsors contacted you and demanded that you remove their logo from your website. You had been using their logo to mislead people into thinking they were sponsoring a forthcoming event. I see lots of logos have suddenly been removed from your website. Care to comment on that, big mouth?

        • Don’t fool yourself by thinking commsrisk is so big and has tremendous traffic like Black Swan Telecom Journal, DisruptiveViews or Vanilla plus. Very few people know about commsrisk.

          • Thanks for the lecture about the popularity of Black Swan and DisruptiveViews. You must know so much because you’ve written for those sites and the editors agreed to speak at events you organized. Oh no, wait… that was me. I wrote for those sites, and the editors agreed to speak at RAG events because I asked them to.

Comments are closed.

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