Seville, capital of 5G and innovation: 5G Forum begins with 70 participating entities

• A total of 87 speakers, 40% of whom are women, will talk about innovation, projects and 5G deployment both in Spain and internationally.
• Telephone operators, technology multinationals, institutions, local, regional and national administrations, organizations, universities and leading companies in the telecommunications sector, with a total of 70 national and international entities, make up a top-level agenda.
• Participants include the country’s main operators – MasOrange, Telefónica, DIGI and Vodafone – together with leading multinationals in the sector.
• The Cartuja Auditorium -managed by Yventu- will host the three face-to-face sessions on Monday 12, Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14 May. Subsequently, the final two days will be held in online format on Thursday May 15 and Friday May 16.

The 5G Forum kicks off tomorrow Monday to turn Seville into the national capital of innovation and 5G technology from May 12 to 16. The Cartuja Auditorium -managed by Yventu-, located in the Cartuja Science and Technology Park, will host the three face-to-face sessions until Wednesday 14, while the two virtual sessions in online format will be held on Thursday 15 and Friday 16.

A total of 87 speakers, 40% of whom are women, will talk about innovation, projects and 5G deployment both in Spain and internationally. European, American and Asian experts and leaders will present the latest in 5G technology, Artificial Intelligence and cybersecurity, and discuss when the next generation of mobile telephony will arrive: 6G.

Telephony operators, technology multinationals, institutions, local, regional and national administrations, organizations, universities and leading companies in the telecommunications sector, totaling 70 entities from the national and international scene, make up a top-level agenda. Participants include the country’s main operators -MasOrange, Telefónica, DIGI and Vodafone- together with other leading multinationals in the sector.

Meinrad Spenger, Speaker of Honor at the 5G Forum

Among the extensive list of participants from the 70 entities that will meet in Seville, Meinrad Spenger, CEO of MasOrange, will be the keynote speaker at the 5G Forum. Spenger will open the inaugural day by sharing his vision of the impact of 5G on digital transformation and the new technologies applied by his company, with a special focus on intelligent and automated systems. Javier Olveira, Director of B2B Customer Engineering at MasOrange, will also speak on this first day, addressing the role of 5G in improving operational efficiency and business service quality.

Javier Olveira, Director of B2B Customer Engineering at MasOrange, will also speak on this first day, addressing the role of 5G in improving operational efficiency and business service quality.

The Spanish operator Telefónica will have an important representation. Joaquín Segovia, General Manager of Telefónica’s Southern Territory, will be interviewed during the institutional block of the opening day, in which he will talk about the advances that are presented around 5G technology in the company.

Among the many innovations Telefónica is working on is 5G Slicing, an innovative emergency service based on 5G technology and Network Slicing. Alejandro Alonso, Network Innovation and Evolution Expert at Telefónica, will explain together with Serafín Doblado, Technical Manager of 112 Extremadura, what this project consists of, which aims to improve the reliability and agility of emergency interventions, provide coordinated and real-time communication enriched with video, location and other visual data, and guarantee the availability of dedicated network resources even in times of congestion.

DIGI, an operator headquartered in Bucharest (Romania), will participate for the first time in the 5G Forum in Seville, thus joining the important list of participating operators. Ismael Serrano, CTO of DIGI Spain, will present on the opening day the progress, evolution and innovation of this operator, which in recent years has burst onto the Spanish market. Vodafone will also participate in the virtual sessions of the 5G Forum.

Important institutional support

The eighth edition of the 5G Forum will be attended by the Government of Spain, the Regional Government of Andalusia and the City Council of Seville, with the participation of Antonio Sanz, Minister of the Presidency, Interior, Social Dialogue and Administrative Simplification of the Regional Government of Andalusia; and Álvaro Pimentel, Deputy Mayor of Seville.

The 5G Forum will once again be attended by several representatives of the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service. Among them, Matías González, Secretary General of Telecommunications, Digital Infrastructure and Digital Security, and Julia Criado, Deputy Director General of Planning and Management of the Radio Spectrum, who will open the presentations of the opening day with the ‘5G map in Spain in 2025’. For her part, María de Miguel, director of the Telecommunications Security Division – Subdirectorate General for Digital Security of the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, will address the importance of 5G and its security, as well as the initiatives adopted by the European Union and Spain to ensure cybersecurity in 5G networks.

Public administrations will show their explicit support for the deployment of 5G as a key infrastructure for the country, with a special focus on rural areas and the challenge set by Europe to achieve it before 2030.

Networking’, ‘Cyber Day’ and female talent

The 5G Forum will once again be a unique opportunity for public-private dialogue, as the event brings together companies, institutions, startups and universities in one place. An ideal ecosystem for positioning, attracting talent and exploring new business models.

One of the great novelties of this edition will be the ‘Cybersecurity Day’, the last day in person at the Cartuja Auditorium on May 14. A day dedicated exclusively to cybersecurity in which industry experts will give the keys on how to protect companies and individuals from cyber attacks.

The final day of the forum, in virtual format, will be dedicated to female talent. Some of the more than 30 women participating in this edition will be interviewed to address issues such as diversity, leadership and the gender gap in the sector, as well as to send a message of inspiration to the new generations of young women and girls.

Exhibition area with demonstrations

The event will have an exhibition area during the on-site sessions at the Cartuja Auditorium from May 12 to 14. MasOrange will showcase the deployment of a 5.5G Advance network with higher capacity, lower latency, immersive communications, massive connectivity and more intelligent and integrated ground-orbit networks. Telefónica will present three demonstrations that bring technological innovation closer to everyday life: an exhibition drone, virtual reality glasses combined with a smart helmet, and a robot from Xiaomi.

Secmotic will present Seclive, a solution designed to improve safety in the workplace through the use of computer vision and technology. Vicomtech will present examples of immersive experiences that combine 3D video and extended reality (XR) technologies as a sample of what will be possible with the mobile networks of the future, among others. Wavecontrol will showcase MonitEM-IoT, a solution that enables comprehensive monitoring of human exposure to electromagnetic fields, ensuring that technological advances do not impact public safety.

SAPEC will show how it is possible to deploy a private 5G network in less than twenty minutes, as well as how to configure and manage it. TESLA will offer the possibility to enjoy several smart cars and live the experience of driving them in a closed circuit. There will also be exclusive demonstrations by leading companies such as GMV, Gradiant, OpenNebula, Ayscom, Teltronic, Axion, Nokia, Rohde & Schwarz, Kenmei and AIFunded, as well as the University of Malaga and ‘El Observatorio’ of Medina Media Events.

Leading companies and multinationals

The opening day of the 5G Forum will be attended by leading companies and multinationals such as the Chinese technology company Huawei, a leader in information and communication technology infrastructure and telecommunications equipment in the world. Fernando de la Cruz, chief architect of wireless solutions at Huawei, will participate in the opening day, while José Ángel Capote, head of Cybersecurity and Privacy at Huawei Spain, will speak at the ‘Cyber Day’ on the management of security configuration in 5G networks.

Victor Pascual, CTO Spain and Portugal at ZTE, will present how 5G continues to evolve towards the 6G Era with artificial intelligence (AI) as the main protagonist. “At ZTE we are working to take AI beyond data centers: we are integrating it directly into the network”.

Pablo Alvarez, CEO of Netmetrix Solutions, will address how the integration of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites with 5G networks is revolutionizing the global telecommunications landscape by overcoming traditional limitations of coverage, speed and accessibility. Joel Zaragoza, CTIO and Director of Services at Netmetrix Solutions, will speak at Cyber Day about simulation, stress testing and advanced monitoring as key techniques to test the robustness of digital infrastructures against cyber threats.

Sergio Cabrero, leader of the Interactive Media Technologies line at Vicomtech, will present the results and developments of the 6GDIFFERENT project, a research initiative arising from the alliance between the technology centers Vicomtech, Gradiant and i2CAT, which will come to an end in 2025. Zaloa Fernández, Senior Researcher at Vicomtech, will show how more intelligent and autonomous mobile networks are being built, capable of adapting themselves to changes in real time. José Joaquín Escudero, head of Advanced Mobile Communications at Gradiant, will talk about advanced communications in 5G/6G from an Industry-oriented perspective; while Arnau Singla Manau, research engineer in space communications at i2cat, will share advances and challenges of satellite networks in 5G and 6G.

Alfonso Carrillo, Chief Edge Solutions Architect at OpenNebula Systems, will discuss ONEedge5G, an industrial research project aimed at investigating Artificial Intelligence techniques and Zero-Touch resource management methods for the efficient deployment and operation of distributed edge environments.

Daniel San Miguel, GMV’s Head of 5G Security Solutions, will be giving a paper on cybersecurity specializing in the 5G ecosystem, focusing on detection and protection against 5G-specific security flaws. Patricia Tejado, Head of Digital Public Services of GMV’s Secure e-Solutions, will also be interviewed during the day’s conference on female talent.

On behalf of Ayscom, Rubén Gutiérrez de la Torre, Solutions Engineer at Keysight, will present the challenges and solutions for setting up, validating and operating a private 5G network. Mercedes Fernández, Innovation Advisor at NTT DATA, will talk about the hyper-technological revolution. Cecilia Jordán, Director of Business Development and Industry 4.0 at Teltronic, will talk about 5G, MCX and FRMCS and how we are heading towards the new Era of Mission Critical Communications.

Juan Mas, CTO of Datatronics, and Sergio Ibanez, Oracle’s Director of Presales for 5G in Europe, will offer insights on how automation of 5G SA networks, in conjunction with continuous monitoring and learning, can help monetize the deployment investment and its evolution. Meanwhile, Mariano Garcia, from HPE Aruba Networking, will discuss 5G-based enterprise solutions.

Carlos Alonso, manager of Wavecontrol’s applications department, will talk about MonitEM-IoT, a new solution for the comprehensive assessment of human exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF).

Universities will also play a leading role during the eighth edition of the 5G Forum. Pedro Merino, head of Red Victoria and director of the Institute of Technology and Software Engineering (ITIS-UMA) of the University of Malaga, will share the European projects that develop and test 6G on Red Victoria and will present plans and real experiences with functions of the future 6G network such as reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) to improve coverage, the integration of sensing and communication (JCAS, combination of sensing and communication in the same system) or the integration of satellites with terrestrial 5G networks.

Cristina Peñas, commercial director of Axion, will moderate the panel ‘5G in Axion: Experience of our customers and preparing for 6G’, with the participation of Marcos Estopiñan, head of Digital Marketing and Innovation of Carmila; Javier Reina, University Professor at the University of Seville; Pedro Espina, technical director of RTVA; and Antonio Emilio Muñoz, Telecommunications engineer of 112 Andalusia.

Also participating in the first day will be José Luis Alcolea, head of 5G Strategy at Hispasat, who will present the company’s plans to expand satellite connectivity; Raúl Maldonado, corporate director and people at Circet Spain; Belén Lanuza, general manager at DIHBU 4.0, who will discuss POLEA LAB, the first pilot of the Polea initiative focused on creating industrial scale-up labs focused on two key technologies: industrial 5G and exoskeletons/cobots; Jaime Ruiz, director of Innovation at Nokia; Gabriel R. Gonzálvez, CEO of Opossum Studios; and Mª Eugenia Taillefer, director of AI Funded.

All conferences will be available for on-demand viewing through ‘The Observatory’, the digital platform of Medina Media Events, where each conference will be available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, free of charge.

The eighth edition of the 5G Forum is organized by Medina Media Events and has the support of Orange, Telefónica, DIGI, Netmetrix, Huawei, ZTE, GMV, NTT DATA, HPE – Aruba Networking, Vicomtech, Gradiant, i2CAT, OpenNebula, Ayscom, Keysight, Teltronic, Datatronics, Oracle, University of Málaga, Axión, Wavecontrol, Nokia, Rohde & Schwarz, Hispasat, Circet, Iplus|F, Dihbu, SAPEC, Gsertel, Kenmei, Ingenalia, AIFunded, Opossum, AEVAC and Secmo Schwarz, Hispasat, Circet, Iplus|F, Dihbu, SAPEC, Gsertel, Kenmei, Ingenalia, AIFunded, Opossum, AEVAC and Secmotic, among others.