15,000+ expected to converge at I.T. show

More than 15,000 people are expected to converge on Los Angeles as CTIA kicks off its Wireless I.T. & Entertainment show next week.

The show takes place Sept. 12-14 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. CTIA said it expects about 300 exhibitors to participate in the show this year, covering more than 60,000 square feet of exhibit space.

“We’re expecting huge things from the show this year. We’re trending really well in terms of year-over-year advancements,” said Rob Mesirow, vice president and show director of the wireless trade association. The show has become so popular, Mesirow said, that at last year’s event in San Francisco, convention center officials were nervous the show had exceeded maximum capacity limits. Indeed, CTIA’s fall show recently was named one of Trade Show Week’s Fastest50, honoring the nation’s fastest-growing trade shows.

The show addresses two very different industries that are tied together through wireless data. The fall show originated as an endeavor to showcase wireless data applications in the enterprise. CTIA wanted first to push the different verticals, like government, transportation and healthcare, before moving onto horizontal applications, Mesirow explained. “And entertainment just kind of met us head on and became a force within the show.”

On the entertainment side, the future of advertising on wireless devices “is something we’re going to be talking about in a big, big way for the next several years,” he noted. “There’s a million different ways to slice this pie.”

Wireless video and TV is also getting a lot of attention, Mesirow said. “TV has been around for 70 years and is going to be turned on its ear … That’s the undercurrent running through part of this show and you’ll see it bubble up to the surface in March” at CTIA’s spring show.

Today about 60 percent of the fall show addresses the enterprise and about 40 percent focuses on entertainment, Mesirow said.

This year’s show will feature three keynote sessions focusing on enterprise and entertainment aspects of the wireless industry.

Tuesday’s keynote session features a chief information officer roundtable focused on mobile enterprise issues. Scheduled panelists include Donald Goldstein, CIO of Trammell Crow; Nelson T. Lin, vice president of information technology services and CIO of Konica Minolta Business USA Inc.; and Don Rippert, chief technology officer of Accenture.

On Wednesday, the keynote panel switches its focus to wireless entertainment. Scheduled speakers include Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of News Corp.; Thomas Hesse, president of Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s Global Digital Business; Mitch Lasky, senior vice president of EA Mobile; Michael Lynton, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment; and Lowell C. McAdam, executive vice president and COO of Verizon Wireless.

The final keynote panel on Sept. 14 hones in on the emerging mobile social networking space. Scheduled speakers include Sky Dayton, CEO of mobile virtual network operator Helio L.L.C., Trip Hawkins, chairman and CEO of Digital Chocolate; and Daniel H. Schulman, CEO of MVNO Virgin Mobile USA L.L.C.

RCR Wireless News is teaming with its sister publication, Television Week, to host “Hollywood in the Mobile World” at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 13. Chuck Ross, vice president and publisher of Television Week, will moderate the panel. Scheduled panelists include Howard Gordon, executive producer of the hit show “24,” and Rob Silverstein, executive producer of “Access Hollywood.”

The panel will address topics such as made-for-mobile programming vs. repurposed programming, mobile content marketing and mobile program promotion strategies.

Register to attend the panel at www.tvweek.com/ctia. The event is free, but seating is limited. The panel will be held in room 408B at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Pre-conference activities begin Monday, with special interest seminars including MECCA 2006, EnterpriseNOW, NAVTEQ LBS Developer Conference, Smart Phone Summit 2006 and Wireless Data University.

The exhibit floor is open from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday; from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday: and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday. The show offers a variety of educational sessions Tuesday and Wednesday on topics ranging from wireless e-mail to E-911 to mobile games.

In addition, the show offers a variety of special interest pavilions, including a developers’ pavilion, an enterprise mobility pavilion, a machine-to-machine technology pavilion, an entertainment pavilion, and an Ontario, Canada, pavilion.