Sold Out CENGN Summit Explores the Potential of Open Infrastructure for All

Published: December 14th, 2017

In the heart of Canada’s technology capital, the Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN) hosted the second annual CENGN Summit on Thursday, December 7, 2017, attracting a sellout crowd of 300 delegates to explore Canada’s global leadership in advanced networks.  This one-day event builds on CENGN’s mandate as a leader in the rapid commercialization of Next Generation Networks (NGN) products, applications and services, by stimulating multi-sector networking, new ideas and opportunities in the communications technology sector.

Founded on the compelling theme Open Infrastructure Powering the Digital Economy, and emphasizing Canada’s need for future forward and accessible infrastructure for all, the Summit convened leaders from industry, academia, government and the investment community to:

• Promote strengths in Information and Communications Technologies (ICT), NGN and related technologies such as Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV);
• Discuss new market technology development and adoption opportunities and challenges, as well as the development of future NGN talent; and
• Explore how next generation networks are revolutionizing our economy, and how we live, work and play by creating more interconnected, collaborative and productive communities.

Launching with a video greeting from the Honourable Reza Moridi, Ontario Minister of Research, Innovation and Science, the Summit roster included 18 speakers, including keynote presentations from Alvin Francis, Program Director, Analytics, IBM; and Bill Mantel, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Programs Development and Delivery Office, Ontario Ministry of Economic, Development, Trade, and Employment and Ontario Ministry of Research, Science and Innovation.  The program also featured dynamic panels that addressed NGN imperatives including:

• The transformation path to 5G and large-scale IoT (Internet of Things)
• Opportunities to drive open cloud innovation in Canada; and
• How to help scale-up companies break through the $100 million revenue barrier

To help delegates better understand the role and value of CENGN, and advanced networking innovation more broadly, the event also included a Next Generation Network Showcase. This enabled multinationals, SMEs and students to promote outcomes from CENGN-supported projects, conduct proof-of-concept demonstrations, and reinforce how CENGN catalyzes NGN commercialization and talent development.

“Our future prosperity depends on the development of new technologies that require advanced digital infrastructure,” said the Honourable Reza Moridi, Ontario Minister of Research, Innovation and Science. “The CENGN Summit creates an excellent opportunity to hear about all the breakthroughs in this field – many right here in Ontario.  Our government is committed to supporting the next gen networks our companies need to expand their business, and investing in the transformative technologies they must adopt to succeed in the new economy.”

“CENGN is committed to stimulating technology commercialization, talent development, and global opportunities that further strengthen our local, provincial and national leadership in advanced networks,” said Robert Fitts, Interim CEO of CENGN.  “The Summit directly supports these objectives by promoting key strengths that underpin our advanced networking industry, and Canadian innovations that differentiate our contribution to the global communications technology market.  Building on results achieved to date, we look forward to pursuing new initiatives and increasing our impact on this community in the year ahead.”

“Ottawa is the ideal location for CENGN and the Summit as our region is an internationally recognized centre of excellence in communications technology that continues to shape the wireless industry worldwide”, said Blair Patacairk, Vice President of Global Expansion, Invest Ottawa.  “Home to the top five mobile backhaul equipment market vendors, the top ten optical network hardware vendors, and 90 percent of industrial telecom research, Ottawa is a global leader developing the future of communication networks.  These capabilities directly support the attraction of new investment, companies and talent to our region.”

“Carleton University has cultivated world-class research expertise in communications technology,” said Sandra Crocker, Associate Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and Operations, Carleton University, and Director on the CENGN Board. “This is attributed to relevant curricula, strong research collaboration with NGN world leaders in our region, and CENGN which creates valuable hands-on training opportunities for students on industry-led projects. The CENGN Summit brings these strengths to bear on our community, and promotes the robust pipeline of talent we are collectively developing for Canada’s NGN sector.”

The CENGN Summit was made possible by the generous support of nine event sponsors including: Algonquin College; Bell Canada; CANARIE; Carleton University; Juniper Networks; Huawei, TELUS; University of Ottawa; and Wind River.

About CENGN – Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks

Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks (CENGN), is a consortium of industry, academic and research leaders dedicated to accelerating the commercialization of next generation communications solutions. CENGN’s internationally recognized testing centre employs interoperability between multiple software and hardware products. Our state of the art physical and virtual multi-vendor, test, certification and validation platform provides a unique environment to commercialize advanced products, applications and services.  Members include: Cisco, EXFO, Genband/Ribbon Communications, Mitel, Invest Ottawa, Bell Canada, Juniper Networks, Nokia, Rogers, TELUS, Huawei and Intel / Wind River. For more information, visit www.cengn.ca, and follow us @CENGNCanada

CENGN Media Contact

Sonya Shorey

Communications Strategist

sonyashorey@rogers.com

Cell: +1 613.851.9416

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About the Author

CENGN, Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks, drives technology innovation and industry growth through our testbed, technical expertise, talent development, and partner ecosystem. Through our projects, CENGN enables small and medium Canadian Enterprises to test and validate promising technologies, removing barriers to product commercialization and accelerating market growth.

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