Kansas Conference: 17-18 Oct 2018

RAG's first conference in North America will address the risks and assurance challenges not covered by other events

 

Overview

Sprint will host RAG’s October 2018 conference at their campus in Overland Park, near Kansas City. The formal agenda will run from 9.20am to 5.30pm on Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th October. Attendees are encouraged to arrive early for pre-agenda networking and coffee, and they are welcome to remain in the evenings for social gatherings with complimentary food and soft drinks.

Anyone working for a telcos or a regulator is welcome to attend, free of charge. Free admission will also be granted to any academic pursuing a relevant field of study.

We regularly update this page with new information about the conference agenda and evening activities; keep coming back for the most accurate and complete picture of what will happen at RAG Kansas.

 

Agenda

Unlike other conferences, RAG avoids promising speakers until we are sure they will take part, so we use this website to provide an agenda which is updated as each new speaker is confirmed. The following schedule shows the latest version of the draft agenda, or click this link to open it in a new window. Keep reading below for more details about the panels and presentations.

 

Day One: Wednesday 17th October

  • The opening keynote session will be a panel discussion with three managers from Sprint’s Revenue Assurance and Billing functions, Robert Keyser, Jenny Schultz and Matt Reader. The panel will talk about Sprint’s approach to assurance and the challenges they foresee as the business and industry changes.

  • A panel of experts including Taruna Ranjan, Director of RA at T-Mobile, and Mohammad Sha’ad Hossenbaccus, Global RA Manager at Millicom Group, will debate the current priorities for revenue assurance teams in North America and around the world.

  • Industry veteran John Brooks of Subex will give a presentation about new technology.

  • Charles Aldis, VP of Revenue Operations at BullsEye Telecom, will be amongst the panellists focusing on the risks that are particular to local carriers.

  • WeDo’s resident fraud expert Jim Bolzenius will give a presentation about telecoms industry trends and the implications for fraud.

  • Adrian Harris, Director of New Products at Neural Technologies, has been working at the cutting edge of technology innovation since his time at AT&T Bell Labs in the 1980’s. He will give a presentation about practical examples of machine learning for fraud management.

  • TEOCO founder and CEO Atul Jain has entertained and stimulated RAG audiences in London, Sydney and Johannesburg with his talks about how to obtain breakthrough results by thinking differently. His contribution is bound to be remembered as one of the highlights of RAG Kansas.

  • The day will finish with a panel discussion on evolving security risks. Amongst the panellists will be Dana Adams, Director of Corporate Security Services at Canadian operator TELUS, and Simeon Coney, Chief Strategy Officer of network security firm AdaptiveMobile.

Day Two: Thursday 18th October

  • The second morning begins with a special presentation by Eric Burger, CTO of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The presentation will cover how the FCC makes its rules, its Multi-Line Telephone Systems (MLTS) work and the roadmap for dealing with the epidemic of robocalling.

  • Continuing the theme of the opening presentation, a high-powered panel will discuss how to tackle robocalling and the frauds associated with it. In addition to Eric Burger the panel will include: Linda Vanderloop, Assistant VP for External Affairs at AT&T; Clint Breithaupt, Fraud Manager Cyber Security & Corp. Rep for Sprint in Criminal Prosecutions and Federal Civil Handset Trafficking Cases; John Cunningham, Director Fraud Management Operations and Corporate Security at CenturyLink; Ethan Garr, Vice President of TelTech Systems; Paul Florack, a VP at Transaction Network Services (TNS); and Alex Quilici, CEO of robocall-blocking firm YouMail. This session will be moderated by Warren Dumanski, VP for the Americas region at TEOCO.

  • James Garvert and Jonjie Sena of Neustar will give a presentation about understanding the identity of callers.

  • Our panel discussion on trends in fraud will include Krista Saarinen, Director of Fraud Management at Rogers and Philip Cannis, Director of Global Sales at Oculeus.

  • Grant Merrill of CenturyLink will talk about how he uses advanced analytics to keep customers happy by avoiding errors and disputes.

  • Steffen Öftring, Director of Revenue Assurance and Head of Consulting Services at SIGOS, will talk about active network testing to secure revenues and ensure customer satisfaction.

  • Paul Davies of Symbox will draw upon his experience of working for UK telcos Vodafone, Virgin Media, Cable & Wireless, and Orange to explain how to measure leakage.

  • The event will close with our traditional ‘wise heads’ panel, featuring veterans who will ruminate upon the key learning points from the event and the state of our industry. The panel will be moderated by Eric Priezkalns of Commsrisk and RAG.

 

Location, Evening Entertainment and Hotels

The conference will be held at the headquarters of Sprint in Overland Park, in the Kansas City metro area. The address is:

6050 Sprint Parkway
Overland Park
Kansas 66251

A map of Sprint’s campus is shown below.

 

RAG attendees are responsible for arranging and paying for their travel and accommodation. These are some nearby hotels.

  • Hilton Doubletree Overland Park, 10100 College Boulevard, Overland Park, KS 66210-1462, +1 913 451 6100. Attendees of RAG Kansas are offered a discounted rate of USD156 for bookings made by September 22nd. The rate includes a double room, breakfast and wifi. Guests may also use the free shuttle bus to travel between the hotel and conference venue. To obtain the discounted rate quote code 6RA when booking over the phone or use this link to book online.

  • Aloft Leawood-Overland Park, 11620 Ash Street, Leawood, KS 66211, +1 913 345 9430. This chic 3-star hotel is approximately 1.5 miles from the conference venue.

  • Courtyard Overland Park/Metcalf, South of College Boulevard, 11301 Metcalf Ave, Overland Park, KS 66210, +1 913 339 9900. Situated 1 mile from Sprint’s campus, this 3-star hotel is one of the cheaper options in this area.

Complimentary lunch and refreshments are included in all RAG conferences, and we also intend to offer a free buffet and soft drinks at social events on both evenings. Further details will be given when they have been confirmed.

 

Brochure

The printable PDF conference brochure can be seen below, or download a copy by clicking here.

 

Free Registration for Telcos, Regulators and Academics

Managers and staff employed by telcos or telecom regulators can attend RAG Kansas for free by registering in advance using the official email address of their employer. Academics engaged in a relevant field of study may also register for free using the email address associated with their university or research institute. Registrations are managed via Eventbrite; click the button below to begin. Please complete all the fields to register.

Eventbrite - RAG Kansas - October 2018

 

Attendance Options for Sponsors and Invited Guests

The window for sponsoring RAG Kansas has now closed.

 

About Our Host and Sponsors

RAG is a not-for-profit enterprise, and telcos and regulators may attend our events for free, as do many specially invited experts. That means we rely on the generosity of the businesses that host our meetings and pay for everything from our web server to the coffee we serve attendees. We would like to thank the following businesses for the contributions that have made it possible to run RAG Kansas 2018.

The Hosts

Sprint

The Sponsors

Gold Sponsors

Neustar

Foundation Sponsors

Neural Technologies, SIGOS, Subex, Symbox, TEOCO, WeDo Technologies

Silver Sponsors

Araxxe, Cartesian

Bronze Sponsors
AdaptiveMobile, Amdocs, BluGem, GBSD Technologies, LATRO Services, Oculeus, TelTech Systems, Transaction Network Services

If you would like to host a future RAG event or if you want to learn about sponsorship opportunities then please get in touch. We will be glad to hear from you!

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