Goodbye to the concrete Acropolis (left) in Nice, opened in 1984 and now being
refurbished. Hello to CCD, the newly built Dublin centre, which will host the TM
Forum's Management World conference and exhibition in 2011 and 2012 
                             
                             
The TM Forum is committed to keeping its major conference and exhibition in Dublin only this year and next. In 2013, it expects to move on to another venue — either back to Nice or, more likely, somewhere else in Europe.
The event, Management World, has been in Nice in the south of France for as long as anyone can remember. But last September the TM Forum, which represents 788 companies in the industry, many but not all in the OSS/BSS business, cancelled its booking with the Acropolis centre in the city and announced that in May 2011 the event would be at the newly built Convention Centre in Dublin.
“Last year we had 3,000 people in Nice and this year we’re aiming at 3,500 in Dublin, says Nik Willetts, the trade association’s senior vice-president of communications. If that rate of growth continues the organisation will be hoping for 4,000 in 2012 — and that is the capacity of CCD for an event of the style of Management World.
Last year’s figure was back up at the level last achieved in 2008, after 2009 showed the effects of the recession. But in 2005 the organisation was celebrating a then-record attendance of around 2,400 — and a couple of years before it was pleased with about 2,000.
So the event has grown 50% in eight years, which compares well with many other events in the industry: most have declined, some — such as SuperComm in the US — have disappeared entirely.
Why move in the first place? “The main motivation is to have a more accessible location,” says Willetts. Nice’s airport just doesn’t have enough connections, seems to be the main complaint of people who have attended Management World over the past few years. “Dublin is much more accessible, from Europe and the rest of the world as well,” says Willetts. 
                             
                             
Arrivals board 
                             
A glance at the Nice arrivals board seems to confirm this. It’s very much a regional airport: lots of flights from France, the UK, Germany and other parts of western Europe, but precious little from elsewhere. On the day Global Telecoms Business looked, there was one flight from outside Europe — from Doha — but apart from that the furthest arrivals were from Moscow and Istanbul. Nothing from Asia apart from Doha, and nothing from the Americas.
Dublin’s arrivals board on the same day was very different. Asia is still under-represented: just one arrival from Abu Dhabi. But there were also direct flights from Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York, Newark, Orlando and Philadelphia — making the city much more accessible to the many US executives who come to Management World.
And Dublin’s European coverage appears much more widespread than Nice’s. Around 50-60% of delegates come from Europe, but the proportion from outside has increased in recent years — as has the number of senior executives who are less inclined to accept multi-hop flights.
This is important because, says Willetts, “people want to be able to get in and out easily”. A few years ago, there were many low-cost flights to Nice, but these appear to have reduced — and, in any case, they were European.
“This wasn’t fitting the current climate,” says Willetts. Executives from the US do not want to have to waste time changing planes in Heathrow or Paris to get to Nice.
There’s something else about Nice. Many of the annual visitors like the fact that it’s on the Mediterranean coast, with sunshine and palm trees — but that doesn’t necessarily go down well with the executives’ colleagues back home. “Some locations are seen as vacations.”
On the positive side, it’s a small city, so a conference such as Management World “takes over the city for a week”, says Willetts. It’s true: go anywhere in the Nice during the event in Nice over the past few years and you cannot fail to see little groups of people with Management World badges.
But the Acropolis centre is old. “It is desperately in need of a refit, which it’s now getting,” he says. The TM Forum had been lobbying for that for the past few years.
The centre was opened in 1984 — though, frankly, anyone who’s spent any time there would be astonished at that recent date and would be more likely to suggest some time between 1965 and 1975. The Apollon auditorium, where the TM Forum held its plenary session each year, wasn’t finished until 1985. 
                             
                             
Candidate cities 
                             
The organisation reviewed five potential cities and venues across Europe while making its decision, consulting with delegates, sponsors and exhibitors.
Ease of access always came to the top of the list. “Lyon has a very nice conference centre and it’s a lovely city, but it isn’t a major hub airport,” says Willetts. Executives want to limit their time out of the office “so they need to fly in and out when they want”.
So now the TM Forum has a shiny new venue to go to. CCD was opened in September 2010, just as Global Telecoms Business leaked the news that the event was to move. “It’s had 290 events since it started, and it’s already booking events through to 2015,” says Willetts.
The new building “is very high-end spec” and has been built to be carbon-neutral, “something that is in line with TM Forum policy and that of many of our members”, according to Willetts.
The venue can hold 8,000, but not for the sort of event that is Management World, which has to be capped at 4,000. On the other hand, the exhibition space is much bigger that that at the Acropolis. “Companies can have double-decker stands. We’ve already sold the show floor out. There’s a resurgence of investment from the industry.”
There are more meeting rooms — another requirement highlighted by the TM Forum’s survey of previous delegates. “People want to have a place to meet, so there is a maximum amount of networking space.”
For the new venue, the TM Forum has reshaped the conference. There are keynotes from the CEOs of two of the industry’s leading equipment makers, Rajeev Suri of Nokia Siemens Networks and Ben Verwaayen of Alcatel-Lucent.
Operators are represented by KPN NetCo’s CEO, Eric Hoving, Deutsche Telekom’s CTO Olivier Baujard and its CIO Steffen Roehn, AT&T’s chief marketing officer Kevin Peters and Telefónica O2’s CEO of its Irish operation, Stephen Shurrock — as wells as David Gurlé, Skype’s general manager and vice president of business. 
                             
                             
Innovation focus 
                             
“We want to put the focus on innovation in the industry,” says Willetts. “We’re looking at how the professionals are focusing on business growth.”
Like other telecoms organisations, the TM Forum is concerned that its members are facing competition from online companies, and it wants to encourage them to be as innovative as those newcomers, sometimes by partnering with them. “Some do it successfully, but others struggle.”
The conference will help companies decide on “what kind of partnership” to develop — and then offer information on implementation and development.
“There will be a whole breadth of topics,” he adds, “including through to the IT and how you manage all of that — and compete with companies that have grown up to be purely innovative.”
Some of these topics will be discussed in executive forums, essentially roundtables with people such as Michael Lawrey, Telstra’s head of architecture, online and media, Alpna Doshi, the CIO at Reliance Communications, Fari Ebrahimi, Verizon’s CIO, and Ronald Reddick, CTO of Cell C.
According to Willetts, this formula is proving attractive in terms of attracting visitors. “We’re running well ahead of last year’s bookings. We’re certainly on track with good attendance.”
If he’s right, and Management World hits 3,500 in May, and if he’s also right about it nearing 4,000 in May 2012, then around the middle of next year Willetts will be leading teams on their hunt for another venue. Where will he be looking? “It’s too early to say. That’s something we have to share with the sponsors. It will certainly stay within Europe.”
Management World is very different from its big brother in the telecoms events world, the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress, which is also contemplating a move to a new venue. “Mobile World Congress is a large exhibition and a small conference,” says Willetts. “But 80% of our delegates come to the conference, and we also have a very successful expo.”
The GSMA event, which this year attracted 60,000 people, has been in Barcelona for the past five years under a contract that expires after the 2012 show. Barcelona, Milan, Munich and Paris are on the shortlist for a five-event contract starting from 2013, Amsterdam and Cologne having been excluded earlier on in the process.
“With Management World the focus is very much on the content and quality,” says Willetts. “That rules out certain venues that are vast.”
The Acropolis in Nice may be on their itinerary — though Willetts would then have to eat his words about the airport connections and the vacation-like atmosphere. So, if you know of a well equipped conference venue, able to take 5,000 or so delegates plus a decent exhibition, in a smallish European city with a well connected airport, drop him an email. GTB