The IOWN Global Forum’s Member Meeting Advances Mission for Photonics Revolution
May 15 2024 - 4:00AM
Business Wire
Industry players from across the globe came together in
Canada to connect, collaborate, and innovate
The Innovative Optical and Wireless Network Global Forum (IOWN
Global Forum) has concluded its 4th Annual Member Meeting in
Vancouver, celebrating its largest event in North America. Over 200
delegates from leading global companies gathered in the jewel of
Canada’s west coast to participate in thought-provoking keynotes,
discussions and workshops with their peers, and making progress
towards the association’s Vision 2030 Roadmap.
A series of inspirational presentations and debates were led by
senior executives and technical experts from diverse member
organizations including Ciena, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Intel, KDDI,
Microsoft, NEC, Nokia, NTT, Rakuten Mobile, Sony, The Linux
Foundation, and VIAVI Solutions. They explored the progress and
future possibilities of IOWN technologies through deep technical,
business use cases, and operational discussions. A series of key
sessions were also live-streamed, with 137 members participating
online from across the globe.
Stimulating sessions on the latest developments in
photonics-based use cases and their industry impact ranged from
financial services infrastructures, remote media production and
fiber sensing, to green computing for remote data centers, 6G, and
digital twin applications.
FUTURES Comes to the Forum
The centerpiece of the Vancouver meeting was the IOWN Global
Forum’s first ever public event, FUTURES – Powering Tomorrow with
Photonics. The event created a unique opportunity to share with
non-member organizations insights into the work of the IOWN Global
Forum, and open insightful discussions around the opportunities for
wider industry stakeholders to play their part in delivering a
photonics-driven future.
Highlights of the FUTURES program included ‘The Possibilities of
IOWN Technologies’, a panel discussion moderated by Joe O’Halloran,
Networking Editor for Computer Weekly, with panelists from Ciena,
Ericsson, Nokia, and Sony.
New Members, New Momentum
Membership in the IOWN Global Forum has increased to over 140
organizations and academic institutions worldwide. Over 12 Sponsor
Members joined the association in the last 12 months, including
Akkodis and Google.
New Directors Elected
During the Member Meeting, five Directors were elected to the
IOWN Global Forum’s Board of Directors - Rong-Ruey Lee, Senior
Researcher, Chunghwa Telecom; Per Beming, Chief Standardization
Officer, Ericsson; Mike Kellogg, Director, Global Transformation
Strategy, Microsoft; Giovanni Manto, Vice President of Optical
Networks, Nokia; and Chris Wright, Chief Technology Officer and
Senior Vice President of Global Engineering, Red Hat. The IOWN
Global Forum’s Board of Directors offers impressive leadership
experience and a wide range of technical expertise across the
communications ecosystem.
Dr. Katsuhiko Kawazoe, President and Chairperson of the IOWN
Global Forum, commented: “On behalf of our membership, the IOWN
Global Forum is delighted to have hosted its most exciting Member
Meeting yet. Much progress has been achieved in our collective
pursuit for a photonics-driven future. However, our mission is not
a simple one, and requires a truly international effort across the
entire technology ecosystem to make it a reality. I would like to
thank everyone for their continued contributions to this exciting
future. ”
The IOWN Global Forum is now looking ahead to the next Member
Meeting, which will take place on October 8-11, 2024 in Taipei,
Taiwan. Follow the updates on its Events page.
About IOWN Global Forum
The IOWN Global Forum was established in 2020 as a private
sector organization to develop IOWN technologies and use cases. As
of the end of 2023, it is comprised of over 140 organizations. The
objective of the IOWN Global Forum is to accelerate innovation and
adoption of a new communication infrastructure to meet our future
data and computing requirements through the development of new
technologies, frameworks, specifications, and reference designs in
areas such as photonics R&D, distributed computing, use cases
and best practices. For more information, visit Home - IOWN Global
Forum - Innovative Optical and Wireless Network .
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