Operational Difficulties, Restructuring Killed ITU Telecom
GENEVA -- Operational trouble with event managers and a restructuring of ITU Telecom events led to cancellation last week of ITU Telecom Europe 2007, officials told us. Charges of poor planning irk Bulgarian officials, who demand an official retraction.
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The recommendation to cancel the Dec. event in Sofia, Bulgaria (WID May 29 p8), came from the ITU Telecom board of high-level telecom executives. The kill call was made to reconfigure regional spin-offs of ITU Telecom World to developing regions and due to lack of plans, technical materials and services for preparation, officials said. ITU’s showcase Telecom World will cover Europe when it comes to Geneva Oct. 5-9, 2009, they said.
“The Bulgarian government is deeply disappointed by the ITU’s decision to cancel the event. However we respect the resolution of the new Board of Directors of the ITU Telecom to focus… on upcoming ITU Telecom events as well as a number of new initiatives,” said Biliana Zolkova, a State Expert with the European Integration & International Relations Directorate of Bulgaria’s newly formed State Agency for Information Technology & Communications (SAITC), in an e- mail.
But Bulgarian officials took issue with a May 25 AP story characterizing the event as poorly planned. “Unfortunately, we were greatly surprised and highly concerned by the fact that Mr. Fernando Lagrana, Executive Manager of ITU Telecom, was quoted saying that the cancellation of the event is due to problems with the Bulgarian partners and organizational difficulties with the Bulgarian organizations involved,” said Zolkova.
International and Bulgarian companies interested in participating wouldn’t have had the information they needed in time to prepare for the Sofia event, ITU Telecom Exec. Mgr. Fernando Lagrana told us. Combining that with inadequate services at the venue was a deal killer, he said.
SAITC officials want Lagrana’s statement retracted officially. “The Bulgarian government expresses its concern about these serious implications and their possible negative impact on the existing good cooperation between ITU and the Republic of Bulgaria. We consider the words of Mr. Lagrana to be his personal opinion on the matter which is not corresponding to the impartial reality. Therefore, we insist on official refutation by ITU of Mr. Lagrana’s allegations,” Zolkova said.
Another problem with Telecom Europe 2007 was that the Bulgarian administration was supposed to enlist participation by Bulgarian and regional companies, Lagrana said: “Nothing or very little had been done.” Organizers said companies in the region by their cultural nature decide very late, but international participants have a different outlook and planning procedure, so the board’s concluded the group of companies wouldn’t arrive in time to make the event really significant, Lagrana said: “It makes no sense to bring the international companies to Sofia if we don’t get also the Bulgarian and the regional companies, because most of our activities are based on… exchange of visions, of policies, of regulations and the debate about it.”
ITU members want to hold Telecom events regularly on every continent, Lagrana said. Telecom Africa and Telecom Asia occur every 2 years. Venues and exact dates for the 2008 African and Asian events will be announced in June. Telecom World happens in 2009; the quadrennial Telecom Latin America, in 2010, Lagrana said.
ITU Telecom World is the real moneymaker for the U.N. telecom agency, but ITU member nations asked that ITU at least break even on regional events like the Bulgaria conference, Lagrana said. Because the world and regional events serve different purposes, some Telecom World surplus may go toward costs in developing or emerging economies. International companies belonging to the ITU are interested in local and regional markets, he said. “Our immediate strategy is to concentrate on a regional basis starting with Africa and moving on to Latin America and the Caribbean, the Pacific islands, Asia and Europe,” said ITU Secy. Gen. Hamadoun Toure in a press release. The first and most recent Telecom Europe was in Budapest in 1992.
ITU plans to make announcements about Telecom events further in advance, officials said. The 2010-2012 schedule will be unveiled in 2008, Lagrana said: “I am very confident and I have no doubts about the events next year. We are much more advanced I would say, for Africa than we are for Europe, meaning that we are 6 months ahead at least in terms of preparation for the African event. Not only ITU, but service providers as well.”
“It’s important that it be a commercial success,” said an industry source who follows ITU issues: “My understanding is the Bulgarian administration was not able to reach the kind of economic deal that would make that happen.” The source added that ideally the conference should turn a profit, but it can’t sap the ITU budget: “As the discussions proceeded between ITU and the Bulgarians, the Bulgarians realized that it was more than they could do.”