The time when service providers were mere operators of network infrastructure providing basic voice or bandwidth connectivity is gone. Personalized services and content, accessible at home and on the move, is the new frontier. The consumer devices will be a key element of the future digital living and entertainment ecosystem. More than ever before, effective management of this ecosystem and content will be a determining factor of service provider success.

Evidence from existing interactive TV services suggests that good interactive TV content, whether based around reality TV, gaming, or music, increases viewer ratings and can provide additional revenues from platform operators. The way to differentiate IPTV service providers is to put individual viewers at the heart of their own content universe.

The main focus is to acquire the content, store the content, back up and restore the content, and, above all, share the content across devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, IPTV, PCs, printers, and camcorders.

Carl Rijsbrack Head of Solution Marketing, Convergence Activities Alcatel-Lucent

Mr. Rijsbrack has more than 10 years of experience in the telecommunications sector. Prior to his current role, he was the vice president of marketing for the fixed solutions division of Alcatel. Starting as a project engineer, he spent his first years operating and deploying telecom sectors (SDH, ATM, IP) with a number of operators around the world at Alcatel. During that period a focus on managing networks drove him to network and service management solution design and implementation.

Sang Li Hua China Netcom

Robin Mersh Chief Operating Officer DSL Forum

In his current role since in July 2006, Mr. Mersh is the senior full-time executive. With more than 14 years of telecommunications experience, he started in sales and sales management for Cable and Wireless and moved on to work at BT before moving to the United States in 1999. Most recently, Mr. Mersh worked in business development and alliance management for various OSS software companies in the United States. Working in network and service provisioning and activation for companies such as Astracon, TTI Telecom, and Evolving Systems, he negotiated and managed several large OEM agreements.

Susan Wang Vice President, Multimedia and Payment Business Division Alcatel Shanghai Bell Co. Ltd.

Ms. Wang joined Alcatel China in 1998, working in marketing sales, business development, and product division. She was the leader of the Triple Play Solution Center in Alcatel Shanghai Bell from 2005 to 2006. Ms. Wang was appointed to her current position in 2007. In this role, she has full responsibility for multimedia product strategy and business development of Alcatel-Lucent China. Ms. Wang previously was a system designer for the broadcasting center in the SARFT Design Institute, participated in the CCTV Center Design.

Chunlei Wu Chief Executive Officer Shanghai Dragon New Media Co.

Mr. Wu has more than 12 years of work experience in domestic and North American telecommunications, data communications, cable networking, and the new media industry. He was director of strategic accounts of the connected home solution at Motorola (China), Inc., before joining Dragon New Media. Mr. Wu once served China Hewlett-Packard, Inc., AsiaInfo Technologies (China), Inc., and Nortel Networks, Inc., holding important positions in the areas of management, sales, marketing, and project management.

Jeffrey Yan Director, Policy and Standards, Entertainment and Devices, Greater China and Asia Pacific Microsoft

Mr. Yan joined Microsoft in 2006. He is responsible for telecom, media, and entertainment related regulatory policies and technology standards issues. Prior to joining Microsoft, Mr. Yan had a 13-year career with Nortel Networks in Asia and North America in various management and technology positions. He was most recently Director of Next Generation Networks (NGN) for Nortel China, responsible for all pre-sales operations of Nortel's NGN business in China. Mr. Yan also led Nortel China's technology standards management across next-generation switching, transmission, broadband multimedia, and 3G wireless segments.