UK @ ITU Telecom World 2003 - Geneva, Switzerland
The Media Vault at ITU Telecom World 2003

This event sees the global info-communications community come together in a combined exhibition and forum in which governments and the telecomms industry exchange ideas, knowledge and technological progress for the benefit of all – particularly in the developing world.

The 2003 event underlined why ITU Telecom World is the most important meeting place for the policy makers, industry leaders and innovators. The global communications Industry is only just showing signs of recovery from the ‘burst bubble’ of 1990/91, nevertheless 911 exhibitors from 51 countries attended and over 375 of the Industry's CEOs were present. In addition148 government ministers and regulators attended and over 1,500 journalists (300 from broadcast media) and 120 industry analysts were also accredited.

Organising body – the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – is the specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for telecommunications. Its membership comprises both government and private organisations.
The ITU Telecom is the only telecoms event organiser with a truly global mandate.

	The Exhibition - featured a comprehensive range of telecommunications related products and services, the latest technologies, products and services, These included: -broadband- fixed wireless networks – internet - mobile solutions – PSTM- Satellite- Value-Added Services – broadcast– consumer telecom networks – industry telecom networks - computer hardware and software, components and accessories.
	The Forum- enabled CEO’s from key Industry players, visionaries and other top-level representatives from regulators, development agencies and governments around the globe to discuss and debate Industry trends

Sven presenting

The large UK stand comprised a central presentation platform surrounded by smaller stands from the UK regions. Advantage West Midlands funded the West Midlands Stand which featured: Sven Rudolph from UCE’s tic-Media Vault project, in particular demonstrating the Digital Asset Management (DAM) System (seen left) Mark Cooper from Aston University demonstrated e-learning and streaming broadband. All UK regional groupings gave a half an hour presentation daily on the presentation platform at the centre of the stand. This gave Sven the opportunity to present The Media Vault (inclusive of its content creation, DAM and broadband components).

UK Government Minister for e-Commerce and Telecommunications, Stephen Timms MP visited ITU Telecom World and met the companies exhibiting on the UK stand (seen right). He also spoke at the British Day Reception at the Hotel des Bergues:

Sven talking to Mr Timms

An extract from his speech:
“Britain is a great place for innovators. We produce world-class science - with 1% of the world's population, we fund 4.5% of the world's science, produce 8% of the world's scientific papers, and 72 Britons have received Nobel prizes for science.
Increasingly, we are turning that excellence into business opportunity. We have increased funding for knowledge transfer. We are seeing a dramatic growth in the number of companies that universities are spinning off to develop their research - at the rate of about 200 a year.”

Through Media Vault, the tic is playing a key role in the field of screen-based media.