IN THE MEDIA
ST. MAARTEN LIKELY HOST FOR 2010 TELECOM CONFERENCE
MAHO--February 12, 2009-- St. Maarten is the likely host of next year’s Capacity Caribbean telecommunications conference after the two-day networking session held here this week drew the largest crowd in three years, organizers said on Wednesday.
Local information and communications technology (ICT) professionals exchanged opinions and contact information with counterparts from the region, U.S. and Europe at Capacity Caribbean 2009, a conference intended to bring wholesale phone and Internet providers together for cross-regional and international cooperation.
More than 160 representatives of telecom providers and government agencies of 20 islands and countries around the world spent Tuesday and Wednesday discussing developments in the telecom field.
There was something for everyone in the local voice and data transmissions market. The ICT professionals talked about customer service and technical needs in mobile operations, telecom regulations and policy, and the implications of the fast-changing telecom market.
UK-based Capacity Media leads Capacity Caribbean, one of 12 conferences meant to bring wholesale data providers together. The company also publishes a self-titled, monthly ICT professionals’ magazine that is distributed globally.
Capacity Media Managing Director Rachel Jones told The Daily Herald Capacity Caribbean 2009 had seen better attendance here than in Barbados the past two years. She said the company wanted to bring the conference to St. Maarten again.
“We’re principally targeting those who run the wholesale telecom (business),” said Jones about the buyers and sellers of bandwidth and infrastructure use, at the wrap of the session at Sonesta Maho’s conference room. “We’re defi nitely coming back (in 2010).”
St. Maarten Telephone TelEm Group, led by Alice Peterson and Angel Lacroes, coordinated the conference locally in advance of the gathering. The company’s current Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Brian Mingo believes similar conferences have the potential to expand St. Maarten’s tourism product and market.
“The outcome was more and that means to say St. Maarten is still a wanted destination,” Mingo told this newspaper, adding that local providers were best able to extend their reach into other markets through such meet-and-greet and networking gatherings. “We have to diversify (the tourism product).”
Antillean Telecommunications Minister Maurice Adriaens applauded the conference and its attendees from the Netherlands Antilles, saying such session’s broadened providers’ outlooks and underscored the need for development in telecom and ICT.
“The conferences are always good, because you get to hear of new developments,” Adriaens said during day three of his week-long visit to the island. “Every six months, it’s a whole new ballgame.”
Source: The Daily Herald VOL 18 NO. 227
