LONDON, January 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

The GSMA today announced that executives from Cisco, Ford, Visa and ZTE will be making keynote presentations at the GSMA Mobile World Congress, which will be held 27th February - 1st March 2012 at the Fira de Barcelona Montjuic venue in Barcelona. The GSMA also announced new developments across other programmes at Mobile World Congress, including the exhibition, App Planet, the GSMA Forum Series and the mPowered Brands Programme.

"Mobile is connecting the world in ways never thought possible just a few years ago," said Michael O'Hara, chief marketing officer, GSMA.  "More than a mere communication device, mobiles now serve as our books, health monitors, payment devices, social connectors and tour guides. Mobile technology is embedded in our cars, homes, appliances, governments and utilities. Mobile World Congress 2012 will celebrate the current state of mobile and offer a glimpse into the future."

The GSMA announced that the following executives will be participating in the Mobile World Congress keynote programme:

• John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco Systems
• William Clay Ford, Jr., Executive Chairman, Ford Motor Company
• John Partridge, President, Visa Inc.
• Shi Lirong, President, ZTE

Previously announced keynote speakers for Mobile World Congress 2012 are:

• Ben Verwaayen, CEO, Alcatel-Lucent
• Warren East, CEO, ARM
• Ralph de la Vega, President and CEO - AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, AT&T
• Brian Dunn, CEO, Best Buy
• Sunil Mittal, Chairman and MD, Bharti Airtel
• Li Yue, President, China Mobile
• Vikram Pandit, CEO, Citigroup
• Rene Obermann, CEO, Deutsche Telekom
• John Donahoe, President and CEO, eBay
• John Riccitiello, CEO, Electronic Arts
• Hans Vestberg, President and CEO, Ericsson
• Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman, Google
• Peter Chou, CEO, HTC
• Michael Roth, Chairman and CEO, Interpublic Group
• Michael Abbott, CEO, ISIS
• Kevin Johnson, CEO, Juniper Networks
• Stephen Elop, President and CEO, Nokia
• Ryuji Yamada, President and CEO, NTT DOCOMO
• Dan Hesse, CEO, Sprint Nextel
• Franco Bernabe, Chairman and CEO, Telecom Italia Group
• Jon Fredrik Baksaas, President and CEO, Telenor Group
• Jo Lunder, CEO, VimpelCom
• Vittorio Colao, Chief Executive, Vodafone

In addition to the keynote programme, the 2012 conference will also include dedicated tracks on applications, cloud computing, embedded mobile, mobile advertising, mobile health, mobile money, next-generation technologies and OSS/BSS, as well as sessions exploring business strategy, developing markets, devices, network capacity, regional issues and social media, among other subjects. The conference programme will feature presentations from many prominent speakers including:

• John Donovan, CTO, AT&T
• Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) and Joint Managing Director, Bharti Airtel
• Olaf Swantee, CEO, Everything Everywhere
• Olivier Piou, CEO, Gemalto
• Khalid Al-Kaf, CEO, Mobily
• Thierry Bonhomme, EVP, Networks & Carriers and Research & Development, Orange
• Ghassan Hasbani, CEO - International, STC Group
• Sandro Dionisi, Head of Telecom Italia Labs and Chairman, NGMN
• Matthew Key, Head of Telefonica Digital

Ford, eBay Exhibiting for the First Time at Mobile World Congress
Ford Motor Company will be exhibiting for the first time at Mobile World Congress and will have a significant presence on the exhibition floor in Zone 3 at the Fira de Barcelona.  Ford joins eBay, who is also exhibiting for the first time at Mobile World Congress, as well as Etisalat, NEC and Panasonic, who have recently signed on to showcase their solutions at the event. More than 1,400 organisations will be exhibiting at Mobile World Congress 2012; for the current list of exhibitors, please visit http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/exhibition/.

IMGA Joins App Planet for Third Year
App Planet, the award-winning, developer community-focused "event within an event", allows attendees to explore the many dimensions of the ever-changing and critically important mobile apps market.  International Mobile Gaming Association (IMGA) will again hold its IMGA Summit and Awards Ceremony as part of App Planet, joining previously announced App Planet partners Nokia, Research in Motion, Samsung and Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP).   The Generalitat de Catalunya is the sponsor of App Planet. For more information on App Planet, please visit http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/appplanet.

GSMA Expands Forum Series at Mobile World Congress
The GSMA continues to expand its Forum Series, a sponsored programme which brings together industry players to discuss and debate a range of topics in focused sessions. In addition to the previously announced LTE Forum, Mobile Cloud Forum and Mobile Security Forum, the GSMA will be holding an Augmented Reality Forum on Monday 27th February with the Khronos Group as the Platinum sponsor.  Additionally, the Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI) will hold its LTE TDD/FDD International Summit on Monday 27th February.  Sponsors for LTE Forum include NEC, Openwave and ZTE; sponsors for the Mobile Cloud Forum are Cisco and NEC; and sponsors for the Mobile Security Forum include AdaptiveMobile, Norton by Symantec and Trend Micro. For more information on the Forum Series, please visit http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/forum-series.

McCann Worldgroup Joins mPowered Brands Programme
McCann Worldgroup has become the latest company to join the new mPowered Brands Programme at Mobile World Congress. McCann is participating as an mPowered Brands Ambassador in an exclusive, one-day mobile industry learning and tour programme designed to help marketers and brand leaders gain insights into the mobile industry and make important connections for achieving business objectives.  For more on the mPowered Brands Programme, please visit http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/mpoweredbrands-overview.

For more information on Mobile World Congress 2012, including details on how to attend, exhibit or sponsor, please visit http://www.mobileworldcongress.com.

The Mobile World Congress is the cornerstone of the Mobile World Capital Barcelona from 2012 to 2018. The Mobile World Capital also includes the Mobile World Centre and the Mobile World Festival, programmes and activities that will span the entire year and will benefit not only the citizens of Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain, but also the worldwide mobile industry. For more information on the Mobile World Capital, please visit http://www.mobileworldcapital.com.

About the GSMA
The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide. Spanning more than 220 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world's mobile operators, as well as more than 200 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers, Internet companies, and media and entertainment organisations. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as the Mobile World Congress and Mobile Asia Expo. 

For more information, please visit Mobile World Live, the online portal for the mobile communications industry, at http://www.mobileworldlive.com or the GSMA corporate website at http://www.gsmworld.com.

SOURCE GSMA