Over 30 Expert Speakers Commit to RAG London

100 professionals have registered to attend RAG London on September 29 and 30, for what will be the first in-person conference run by the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG) in the 19 months that have elapsed since RAG Delhi in February 2020. I had no doubt that there would be a good audience based on an online poll run earlier this year, which showed 70 percent of respondents in the UK and almost half of respondents from other countries would choose to attend a RAG conference held in Britain’s capital city. The greater risk was in assembling an agenda worthy of the audience. That responsibility falls to me, and I was apprehensive about the challenge, especially as uncertainty about travel restrictions were bound to reduce the number of overseas speakers who could guarantee their participation well enough in advance. I need not have worried, as RAG London 2021 boasts one of the strongest agendas of any RAG event.

  • Debdatta Mallick, Assistant Vice President of Revenue Assurance and Business Control at PCCW Global, Ben Hooper, Head of Business Assurance at giffgaff, and Kathryn Garland, Fraud & Revenue Assurance Manager at JT Group, will be joined by experienced XINTEC consultant Adrian Harris for a panel debate about the priorities for revenue assurance following this period of upheaval.
  • Morgan Ramsey, Group Fraud Manager at Vodafone, Xavier Lesage, President of Araxxe, and Dario Betti, CEO of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum, will discuss the enormous surge in SMS fraud and how the industry should tackle it.
  • James Edwards of Japanese blockchain technology developers SORAMITSU will help us to understand the potential for businesses to use distributed ledger technology to intelligently automate the exchange of information relating to crime.
  • Jeremy Paynter of Inmarsat will discuss risk in the context of disruptive business models with Vernon Kitay of Blackfoot UK.
  • The impact of robocalls, spoofing, the US imposition of its anti-fraud rules on international telcos and the response of regulators in the UK and Australia will all feature in a keenly anticipated panel featuring Greg Tack of Telstra, Mike Chalmers-Hunt of Vodafone, Anthony James of BT, Jeffrey Ross of 1Route and Vasily Birulin of AB Handshake.
  • RAG TV presenter Lee Scargall will moderate a panel that will discuss cybersecurity including the new telecoms security laws proposed in the UK. The confirmed panelists include Richard Peachey of mobile operator Telefónica UK and Dawood Ghalaieny of IoT network providers Zariot.
  • Recent trends in international fraud management will be the subject of discussion for Ray Green of Focus Data and Michaël Houis of FraudBuster.
  • Glen Winn of Virgin Media will talk about risk management for digital TV services with Pietro Saia of Mobileum.
  • There will be expert presentations featuring new technology and recent case studies from Will Richards of Subex, Arnd Baranowski of Oculeus, George Bolt of Neural Technologies, Bill Leahy of Symmetry Solutions and Stephen Ornadel of Mobileum.
  • Veteran RAG participant Andreas Manolis of BT and Timo Vainionpää, owner of Canadian carrier AurorA International Telecommunications, will lend their considerable experience to the conference’s closing Wise Heads panel.

The conference compères will be Rachel Goodin, Head of Technology Audit at Ocado, and Tony Sani, who was formerly the Executive for RAFM at MTN Group. Rachel and Tony will facilitate audience interaction throughout the conference. This interaction will also be encouraged by four special sessions designed to foster cooperation and highlight the best work being done in the industry.

  • RAG COO Rob Chapman will help us celebrate the contribution to our professional community made by new Hall of Fame inductees Nixon Wampamba of MTN Nigeria and Geoff Ibbett of Symmetry Solutions.
  • Geoff Ibbett will then showcase his latest crowdsourced initiative: a comprehensive inventory of telecoms frauds.
  • Current and prospective users of the RAG Wangiri Blockchain be given a preview of the advanced new features currently in development.
  • Near the end of the conference we will give the first preview of results from the RAG Digital Trust Survey for Revenue Assurance, Fraud Management and Cyber Security Professionals. The survey begins soon and we hope to exceed the 175 responses obtained by last year’s survey with the help of Subex, the survey’s new sponsors.

Perhaps you know of a stronger agenda or a bigger audience that will attend a different conference dedicated to risk professionals working in the communications sector. But please tell me if you do, because I have not heard of it!

RAG’s strength has always come from the people who actively participate. If you work for a telco and have not registered for a free seat on either September 29 or 30 (or both) then you are still welcome as we have ample space at the venue, the Sheraton Skyline Hotel alongside London Heathrow. Employees of comms providers can register here and you will find more information about the conference here.

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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