The Convergence Partners stand was a hive of activity for the duration of the event (especially when our gorgeous ladies served up some great cocktails at the end of day 1). Companies in the Convergence Partners stand that were formally exhibiting at AfricaCom included Seacom, Convergence Wireless Networks (comprising WiA and Intra), Intelsat New Dawn Satellite Project, Plessey, Comsol, Integrat, Skillpod Media, Bloodhound, Inala, Convergence Border Management Solutions, as well as the Convergence Partners Foundation.

AfircaCom also coincided with the media launch of Convergence Partners’ latest project, FibreCo (see below blog).

The main themes discussed at the conference this year centred around:

• infrastructure sharing and managed services – in light of declining ARPUs, operators are seeking significant cost reduction models;
• rural connectivity – the next major untapped market, although sustainable, scalable models remain challenging; and
• the continuing shift from voice services (still the majority of the industry revenue base) to data and VAS, driven by the proliferation of broadband hungry smartphones.

Skillpod Media CEO Mark van Diggelen said: “AfricaCom was SkillPod Media’s first exposure to a mobile / telco trade event, we used it to showcase our new online and mobile platforms and experienced resoundingly positive feedback from the industry, resulting in a number of key contacts been met, with whom discussions have started. Further to this the professionalism of the Convergence stand drew in a plethora of delegates, all interested in better understanding the services on offer by SkillPod, again resulting in a lot of contacts being made with industry players, wishing to provide services to our overall offering and make use of a number of our services for their solutions. Overall the event was a resounding success, in that our new solutions were warmly received, we managed to network with key contacts, either at the stand or at the various networking events and more so we interacted with a number of key industry players that highlighted a number of opportunities, that we’d previously never considered.

According to Darren Morgan, Head of Sales at Comsol, “AfricaCom was a wonderful experience this year, it’s always great to be under one roof with all the peers of your industry. It’s rare to have all vendors, suppliers, integrators and customers from a certain industry in the same place at the same time and this certainly makes the event a memorable one. This year we were lucky enough to share a stand with fellow companies involved with the Convergence Partners family and that certainly added to the event for us.  A fantastic experience all round”.

Integrat Director, Leonard Cremer said: “The Convergence stand was a great initiative and Integrat will definitely be joining again next year. Integrat not only benefited by exhibiting at the show but also believes it extracted real value from the networking between the Convergence companies”.

We look forward to seeing everyone again in 2011!

See attached pics

Bloodhound, Convergence Partners’ most recent investment, has been profiled in Brainstorm magazine for its innovative approach to RFID solutions.

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