30 experts from around the world (pictured above) have pledged to participate in the first ever live virtual conference for the telecoms risk and assurance profession, to be held online on Wednesday 13th and Thursday 14th May. Managed by the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG) and called ‘RAG Online’, the event will see leading representatives of telcos and vendors speaking by video link from their homes in Australia, Cyprus, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Kenya, Nigeria, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Each will engage in live question and answer sessions with the global audience who will be able to watch free of charge, without the need to register in advance.
The hastily-arranged event has taken the place of the London conference of the Risk & Assurance Group, which had to be postponed because of restrictions on movement. Most of the RAG Online speakers had previously agreed to contribute to RAG London, but it has been thrilling to see how readily they have agreed to make time to give presentations and join panel discussions via a series of carefully-scheduled video conference calls. Many telco managers have said that they expect their entire department to tune into the event, which would mean the total audience for RAG Online has the potential to greatly surpass any meeting that could be arranged for a single venue.
Starting at 7.30am London time on each day, the agenda for RAG Online will cover a wide range of risks relevant to the telecoms industry, including talks about tracking network assets, safeguarding handsets, optimizing revenues and preventing piracy of pay-TV services, authentication of CLIs, innovative use of test calls for revenue assurance, dealing with corruption, analyzing the value of a customer, automatically blocking calls, changes in the patterns of bypass fraud, and the extent to which telco risk managers have skills which can be transferred to other industries. The live sessions will be spread across the day, and are scheduled to engage telco professionals from the widest possible range of time zones.
I may not be Lady Gaga, who recently organized an eight-hour online charity concert involving many top musical acts, but I am fortunate to work in a profession that has shown it also embraces the potential to use the internet to connect people across the planet. Please join us by watching the live stream at the web portal for RAG Online, and be sure to reserve time in your diary for the agenda items of most relevance to you. By working together we can overcome some of the troubles caused by the lockdown in many countries, and proudly display the best our profession has to offer.
