Contracting barriers for connected cities

Brought to you by The Small Cell Group, The Smart & Intelligent Cities Group

At this event you can explore the optimal future deployment of wireless infrastructure in a city environment with a particular focus on small cells and sensors. Of particular interest will be the evolution of the lighting infrastructure and its multiple applications.

Registration for this event is now closed.

About the event

Now more than ever before, the provision of city services is dependent on a robust telecommunications infrastructure. The performance of the connected world is critical to delivering the services that cities want - increasingly in real-time - to ensure the safety, mobility, productivity, health and quality of life for their citizens and businesses. 

City infrastructures will see new applications, including autonomous vehicles, the ongoing digital transformation of city administration, drones for delivery or policing, and new business models around subscription-based services (CaaS). To ensure the best is made of these opportunities, the infrastructure must be fit for purpose. 

This joint event between CW’s Smart & Intelligent Cities SIG and Small Cell SIG will discuss how city infrastructures may be optimised with examples of possible funding models, and explore how they might adapt to the new landscape of both cellular (5G) and fixed broadband networks. We want to look at the delivery models, business cases and collaborations needed to make smart city connectivity a success. Speakers will address:

  • Where can small cells make a difference?
  • What examples are there of early applications?
  • What successful case studies are there to date?

This event will feature 4-5 speakers, to be announced shortly. The agenda will leave plenty of time for networking, and delegates are welcome to join the CW Founders Dinner drinks reception at the end (attendance at the dinner itself is by invitation only).

You can follow @cambwireless on Twitter and tweet about this event using #CWSmartCell.

Sponsored by Marks & Clerk

Marks & Clerk is a leading global intellectual property firm with over 125 years’ experience, providing award-winning advice to clients in protecting patent law, trademarks, designs and copyright.

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Agenda

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The information supplied below may be subject to change before the event.

13:30

Registration and networking

14:00

CW welcome and introduction to the Smart & Intelligent Cities and Small Cell SIG’s

14:10

Welcome from Richard Fish, Trainee Patent Attorney at event sponsor, Marks & Clerk

14:15

York’s Smart Transport evolution: Dave Atkinson, Head of Programmes and Smart Place at City of York Council

York is a City known for innovation and its social conscience. In the spirit of this we became the UK’s first Gigabit City and have a strong programme of Digital inclusion. York’s historic nature has presented challenges in terms of developing transport networks and we are meeting this challenge with technology over tarmac. A programme of work that will make the City more productive, inclusive, safer and ready for connected and autonomous vehicles.

14:35

Q & A

14:40

Accelerating 5G through Barrier-Busting: Rhys Enfield, Infrastructure Planning & Deployment Lead at West Midlands 5G (WM5G)

Rhys will give an overview and background to WM5G and the Urban Connected Communities project (UCC). His talk will cover how WM5G are intending to speed up the rollout of 5G and reduce costs. As well as their approach to barrier-busting with the Mobile Operators and the Local Authorities.

15:00

Q & A

15:05

Geoffrey Stevens, Urban Technology Lead, Connected Places Catapult

15:25

Q & A

15:30

Refreshments and networking

16:00

Speaker to be announced shortly

16:20

Q & A

16:25

Removing the barriers to collect, protect and apply city data: Julian Thompson, Principal Product Manager, Telensa

Julian Thompson will discuss building a city’s digital twin on cost-effective technology, best-practice data policies and citizen transparency

16:45

Q & A

16:50

Panel session with all speakers

17:20

Wrap-up

17:30

End of session followed by drinks reception at Emmanuel College

Speakers

Rhys Enfield - Director of Infrastructure Acceleration, West Midlands 5G (WM5G), Director of Infrastructure Acceleration, West Midlands Combined Authority

An expert in mobile network deployment, previously working for both Operators and vendors in the telco sector since the mid 90’s. Rhys is WM5G’s Director of Infrastructure Acceleration and has the primary role of accelerating 5G across the region by removing barriers, improving processes and facilitating relationships between the mobile operators and the local councils. A key focus for Rhys and the team is to always act as an ‘honest broker’, fostering a more collaborative and cooperative approach between both the operators and the councils, working to ensure citizens of the West Midlands are the first to benefit from the socioeconomic improvements that 5G will bring.

Andrew Entwistle - Principal, Independent

Andrew Entwistle is a founding Partner of New Street Research, the foremost provider of independent equity and debt research on the global telecoms and tech sectors.  New Street works with the world’s largest institutional and hedge fund investors on valuation issues for developed and emerging market telecoms and tech stocks.   The telecoms practice focuses on the interaction of demand, technology and regulation in wired and wireless networks, covering over 120 companies that are active in over 130 national markets.   Before co-founding New Street in 2003, Andrew led the Incumbent Operators Practice at Analysys Consulting for over a decade, working on a range of strategic, operational, regulatory and financial projects in Europe, the US and Asia.   Andrew was closely involved with the European liberalisation programme in the mid 1990’s and the rapid development of mobile communications in Eastern Europe.  Prior to joining Analysys Andrew worked at Booz Allen & Hamilton, Arthur D Little / Cambridge Consultants and Rolls Royce plc.  He has an MBA from INSEAD and is a European Chartered Engineer.

Richard Fish - Trainee Patent Attorney, Independent

Richard Fish joined the Cambridge Office electronics team of Marks and Clerk as a trainee patent attorney in 2016. He graduated from Imperial College, London with an MSci degree in physics, including plasmonics and metamaterials, nanotechnology in consumer electronics, and solid state physics. As a final year computational astrophysics project Richard used image processing techniques to analyse magnetic features on the solar surface. Richard is also a competent programmer and has written, from scratch, financial software which has been successful.

Geoffrey Stevens - Urban Technology Lead, Independent

Urban Technology Lead at the Connected Places Catapult. Geoffrey works to deploy innovative products and services that demonstrate how IoT and other technologies can address urban challenges. Working between infrastructure, innovation and new technology he specialises in sustainability, integrated systems, buildings, smart grids and sensing. Before joining the Future Cities, Catapult Geoffrey worked for the Energy Saving Trust leading on smart grids, digital product development and new energy technologies.

SIG Champions

Simon Fletcher - CEO, Real Wireless

Simon joined Real Wireless in January 2016 as Chief Technology Officer, taking overall technical and innovation strategy responsibility across the company. He is a member of the UK5G AB, co-chair of the International WG, and member of the Climate WG. His long-standing association with the UK innovation eco-system through roles such as Director of mVCE and the Innovate-UK ICT-KTN brings a wealth of practical knowledge on open innovation to accelerate product and services delivery. Simon spent his formative years in telecoms infrastructure systems and product development. In NEC Corporation he played a key role in the formation of Joint Ventures for development of 3G and 4G products and established a core team that developed the first-generation of technology for 4G systems culminating in a Steering Board position in the LTE SAE Trials Initiative (LSTI). In recent times he has directed projects on future cities, the application 5G and IoT in industry verticals with an event horizon towards 2030. His long participation in Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) and then directing Real Wireless engagement in H2020 and the 2016 NIC study on Future Comms infrastructure brings great foresight on a range of architectural evolutions underway in 5G architectures, in particular for Open RAN and Diversification. He is a CW Small Cell SIG Champion, and in February 2022 the Small Cell Forum (SCF) appointed Simon as their Chief Strategy Officer, drawing on 25 years direct industry experience and work as an advisor to governments, regulators and big business.

Caroline Gabriel - Research Director, Analysys Mason, Co-founder and Research Director, Rethink Technology Research

Caroline has been engaged in technology analysis, research and consulting for 30 years and since 2002, has been focused entirely on mobile and wireless. As co-founder and research director of Rethink Technology Research, Caroline has developed a significant research base and forecast methodology, based around deep contacts with mobile and converged operators round the world. This addresses critical issues and trends in mobile and wireless infrastructure, and particularly operator deployment intentions for 4G, 5G, small cells, Cloud-RAN and other technologies. She is also a senior contributor to Analysys Mason’s Next Generation Wireless research programme. She has led research and consulting projects with a wide range of clients, including mobile infrastructure vendors, large and start-up operators, regulators, trade bodies, government agencies and financial institutions. Her advice and forecasts have helped inform strategic decisions at a wide range of vendors, operators, start-ups and finance houses. Prior to setting up Rethink, Caroline held various executive positions at VNU Business Publishing BV, then Europe’s largest producer of technology related B2B reports and publications. She was the European content and research director, and was a member of the leadership team for VNU’s online business. She holds an MA from the University of Oxford.

Vicky Messer - VP Product Management, Picocom

Vicky Messer is VP of Product Management at Picocom with over 25 years of experience in the wireless industry. Vicky joined Picocom over 4 years ago and leads Product Management, Technical Marketing and partnership activities. Vicky also leads the Picocom Small Cell Forum (SCF) activities and joined the board member at Small Cell Forum (SCF). In recognition leading in multiple work items and a published papers, Vicky was awarded the SCF ‘Outstanding Individual Contribution to SCF award’ in 2020.

Vicky is a certified IET registration mentor, and currently mentors a local young female engineer. In May 2023 Vicky joined Industrial Advisory Board Bath University Electronics and Electrical Engineering and also won a SCF Industry Award 2023 for Women in Wireless.

Neil Piercy - Founder, Independent

Neil has been developing base stations for various communications systems for over 30 years, during which time he has performed roles throughout the whole development lifecycle, as well as management roles. Neil joined the small cell specialist company, ip.access, when it was formed as a spin-off from TTP Com back in 2000, and stayed with the company for 23 years, during which time his roles varied from System Architect through to Head of Engineering. As a Systems Engineer covering software, hardware, and RF, he includes specialist areas such as security and networking, as well as a focus on all aspects of protocol design and implementation. He has analysed system performance and performed simulations across GSM, UMTS, LTE and NR small cell RAN equipment and systems. He is now a freelance telecoms Systems Engineering consultant.

Simon Saunders - Visiting Professor, King's College London

Prof. Simon Saunders is an independent advisor and researcher with deep industry and academic background in communication systems technology and a burgeoning interest in the intersection between real and artificial neural systems, communication systems and music. He is a Visiting Professor at King’s College London, telecoms advisor to DCMS and Trustee of the charity Music for All.

Simon is a specialist in the technology of wireless communications, with a technical and commercial background derived from senior appointments in both industry (including Google, Motorola and Philips), academia (University of Surrey, Trinity College Dublin) and regulation (Ofcom).

He founded the Small Cell Forum and chaired this industry association from 2007-12, growing membership to 150 companies and working with 3GPP to create the first standards for small cells. He acted as Director of Emerging & Online Technology for Ofcom, leading Ofcom’s Emerging Technology programme and creating their Online Tech team. At Google (2015-20), he worked with operators globally to enhance wireless connectivity via a range of advanced technology initiatives, combining wireless networks, artificial intelligence and network virtualisation. As co-founder and Director of Technology for independent wireless strategy advisory firm Real Wireless (2006-15), he was responsible for overall technical capability and direction, providing independent wireless expertise and advice to operators, regulators, technology and law firms and wireless users. In 2019 Simon organised the world’s first 5G music lesson on behalf of charity Music for All, led by famous musician Jamie Cullum.

He is an author of over 150 articles, books and book chapters, including a popular textbook on antennas and propagation. He has invented over 15 patented wireless technologies and served on technical advisory boards of several companies and universities.

Dejan Bojic - Head of Technical Advisory, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), Director, High Summits Consulting

Dejan is a senior consultant who has advised a range of clients across both public and private sectors. His particular focus is development of open and shared connectivity and data infrastructure to support product development and service transformation within complex innovation ecosystems.

Dejan’s currently employed by the UK government's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) where he leads the technology advisory team within Future Networks Programme. Prior to this role he has successfully delivered Digital Connectivity Infrastructure Accelerator (DCIA) programme for DSIT/DCMS.

A firm believer in creating value through collaboration between public and private sectors and across technology layers, Dejan’s aspiration as a SIG Champion is to shine a spotlight on market innovation opportunities through CW’s uniquely rich network of experts and influencers.

David Brown - Founding Director, Futurehand Ltd

David has spent the past 15 years helping start-up/scale-up companies in the UK build successful Customer Service, Customer Success, and Professional Services teams. He has done this mainly as a player/coach; initially working with customers himself and only building teams once he’s gained a clear understanding of what's needed to support the company's unique customer base.

In 2015, he used the knowledge gained from years of working in web analytics to found Adavow, an ad suppression platform that enables advertisers and ad networks to stop serving digital ads to consumers who have recently purchased a similar item, which increases digital budget efficiency by 10% or more.

David is a keen believer that the best way to become successful is to help others become successful and "What comes around, goes around."

Mary-Ann Claridge - Founder, Mandrel Systems

Mary-Ann is the Lead data scientist at Mandrel Systems. She started her career with research into sonar (think Hunt for Red October without Sean Connery). She is now embracing application and technical domains including education (all the analysis, modelling and visualisation for BestCourse4Me), smart city, retail, voice and speech recognition, and financial and logistical optimisation.

Daniel Clarke - Head of Technology and Innovation, Greater Cambridge Partnership

Dan leads the Smart Cambridge Programme which was set up to explore how data, innovative technology and better connectivity can be used to transform the way people live, work and travel in the Greater Cambridge area and beyond. Local councils, technology businesses, university researchers and partner organisations are working together to find smart ways to tackle city challenges, such as transport and air quality.

John Davies - International Trade Adviser – Technology, Department for Business and Trade, Director, Strategy 4 Technology Ltd, Thematic Group Co-Leader, United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC)

John has carried out a unique mix of strategic and operational roles with placements in the USA and Europe and partnerships in Asia. Over recent years much of his private sector and Government activities has been in the area of mobile and wireless communications, digital media, Smart Cities, Cloud and Big Data and M2M/IoT as well as emerging and disruptive technologies. Helping technology start ups in the UK and internationally sourcing technology and partners as well as provide due diligence in areas of M&A and stock listings. Operating as a UK Government Advisor John has briefed both UK and International Government Ministers and Departments on Smart Cities and respective technologies and applications. This has included providing international workshops, mentoring and consulting at senior levels. John has designed and ran awareness and implementation workshops for international companies and led international delegations to overseas markets, the most recent to Singapore and Malaysia in partnership with InnovateUK. John is an active member of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Smart Cities. John will be engaging with potential new international companies and organisations, and supporting CW member companies.

Event Location

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Emmanuel College, St Andrew's St, Cambridge CB2 3AP

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