Conference News: What I learned this week – April 1

New Smart Experiences: In keeping with the Super Mobility 2016 theme of “Everything Wireless,” CTIA announced a new, interactive, Smart Experiences area on its show floor. This area will allow attendees to tour a smart home filled with consumer electronics, energy controls and appliances. Attendees may also experience virtual reality in the AR/VR Arcade.  And they can even visit a state-of-the-art mobile health clinic that will help them visualize the future of health and wellness. More on these new experiences can be found here.

Fine China: Strata + Hadoop World has announced that it will be creating its first event in China this year.  From 4 – 6 August business decision makers, strategists, architects, developers, and analysts will gather in Beijing to discuss the opportunity that big data presents for their business.  Note that the call for speakers will be open until 11 April but the conference will be presented entirely in Mandarin.

Event Cancellation: 44CON Cyber Security Conference, which had been scheduled for 26 April in London, has been cancelled. The organizers did not have enough time or volunteers to put on the event they hoped for.  There is a silver lining, however. The flagship conference in this series, 44CON London, will again feature both an Infosec and a technical track when it takes place later this year (14 – 16 September).

Speaking Opportunity:  Since 2012, GMIC has been convening mobile executives, entrepreneurs, developers, and investors from around the globe and across platforms to “build partnerships, to learn from industry thought leaders, to better understand mobile technology trends, and to shed light on how mobile is positively changing the world.”  Their Silicon Valley Conference, taking place from 26 – 28 in San Francisco, is now accepting speaker proposals.  Topics of interest include mobile engagement and growth, marketing analytics, IoT, autonomous vehicles, enterprise mobile, design, and both VR and AR.  Submit speakers and topics here before the 15 May deadline.

Lunchtime Learning: 2017 will mark the 5th annual WORLDWEBFORUM, the Swiss B2B conference that has grown to more than 650 attendees. The event focuses on “the implications for companies amid rapid technological progress” specifically the opportunities and challenges of digital transformation. While you may not have heard of this event previously, you certainly will recognize the speakers: John Sculley, Former CEO of Apple & Pepsi; Duncan Logan, CEO & Founder of RocketSpace; Dirk Ahlborn, CEO of Hyperloop TT and Kristy Nathoo, CFO and Partner of Y Combinator (to name a few).  Spend your lunch with this impressive group.

Coming Up Next: Next week FUSE conference, focused on brand design, will be held in Miami. Tina Brown’s Women in The World Summit returns to New York on 6 April.  And NEST 2016 (the New Economy Summit), organized by the Japan Association of New Economy will showcase cutting edge innovations in Tokyo.