CTIA takes the big show back to Sin City: CTIA Wireless 2008 set for Las Vegas

CTIA is taking its big show back west this year as the CTIA Wireless 2008 event is set to take place April 1-3 in Las Vegas (and if you haven’t made your plans to attend yet, you might want to stop reading this and get on it . then come back and finish reading).
CTIA VP of Operations Rob Mesirow noted that as of last week it had sold out all 400,000 square feet set aside for exhibitors at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The show is set to take place in both the North and Central halls.
In addition to the strong response by exhibitors, Mesirow noted that 20% of attendees were from international markets and that more than 1,000 qualified press were registered for the three-day event. The strong international presence is impressive considering the event comes just over a month after the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain.
While CTIA typically has strong keynoters for the big show, this year’s edition seems especially well stocked. Kicking off the proceedings on April 1 will be Robert Bach, president of Microsoft Corp.’s Entertainment & Devices division; Sir Richard Branson, founder and chairman of Virgin Group and more locally Virgin Mobile USA Inc.; Sprint Nextel Corp.’s newly installed President and CEO Dan Hesse; and Lowell McAdam, who not only serves as president and CEO of Verizon Wireless, but is also currently serving as chairman of CTIA. Somehow CTIA expects to jam all four heavyweight execs into the two hours set aside for the keynote. Good luck.
The second-day keynotes provide a bit of a mix as CTIA has scheduled Marco Boerries, president of Yahoo Inc.’s Mobile division; Vodafone Group plc CEO Arun Sarin; and an infrastructure roundtable that will include Ericsson President and CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg, Nokia-Siemens Networks CEO Simon Beresford-Wylie, Alcatel-Lucent CEO Patricia Russo, and Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski. The panel will be moderated by McAdam.
As has typically been the case, CTIA has a special guest(s) for the day-three keynote, but as of RCR Wireless News press time that guest(s) had not been named. Previous guests have included former Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and Russell Simmons, co-founder and chairman of Def Jam Records.
Beyond the keynotes, CTIA has a full slate of education sessions planned for April 1 and 2 centered on four tracks: Mobile Blueprint; Mobile Lifestyle; Mobile Customerizaton; and Public Policy. Those sessions are scheduled for the afternoons.
CTIA also has its annual Wireless Gala planned for the evening of April 2, with this year’s entertainment courtesy of “Monty Python’s Spamalot,” at the Wynn.
For those getting into town early, CTIA is having its usual pre-conference events on March 31. This year’s lineup includes Mobile Entertainment Live; Andrew Seybold University; the Converged Services Summit; Marketing – The Mobile Channel; and Smartphone Summit 2008. CTIA is also hosting a golf championship on March 31 at the Bali Hai Gold Club adjacent to the Las Vegas Strip.
Oh, and in case you somehow don’t have enough time to fit in any Las Vegas sightseeing while attending CTIA Wireless 2008 this year, don’t fret as the event is set for Sin City through 2010.