Testimonials

NGT SUMMIT AFRICA 2007 – NOVEMBER 2007
Last month I attended the NGT (Next Generation Telecoms) Summit Africa 2007 in Nairobi, Kenya – an event very different from your standard telecoms conference.

I have to admit, the first thing that struck me was the premium price tag attached to the event, but the delegates I talked to all agreed it was worth every dollar of it. Organised by GDS International of the UK, the Summit attracted a very high proportion of top level executive attendees, many of them CEOs and CxOs of African or multinational telcos, mobile operators and other service providers, as well as system vendors and solution providers.

So the networking opportunities – often considered the most important part of a conference – were excellent, and GDS did a fantastic job providing an environment for it with gala dinners, cocktail receptions, as well as dedicated meeting facilities. The Windsor Golf and Country Club on the outskirts of Nairobi, with a view of Mount Kenya, certainly was a venue with a special touch to it.

What set this event apart from others was also the very high degree of interactivity. Throughout the two days, a continuous schedule of one-on-one meetings had been organised, enabling delegates to talk more in depth than usually possible during the typical Q&A sessions following presentations or the more casual networking during breaks or in the evenings.

In parallel, there was a continuous program of workshops. These were presentations to relatively small subsets of delegates in meeting rooms, which again enabled more interactivity than the usual top-down presentation style to an entire audience.
   
All in all, an excellent event that we will be happy to attend again next year.

See the full review here: http://www.budde.com.au/ under ‘Latest News’.
Peter Lange, Senior Analyst - Budde Communication

“I have been able to build relationships that will be key for my group of companies.  ARPU trends in Africa session was particularly insightful given the challenges of pricing and packaging new products and services.  I am grateful of the invitation

Thank you!’
Ken Munyi, GM – Africa Online

“Nothing could replace a real face-to-face meeting complimented by very pleasant social entertainment activities.

Thanks and congratulations to all the NGT Summit Team!”
Xavier Dejoie -  Thomson.

“Well organized Summit, incredibly efficient staff who were very helpful.  Would love to attend more from this group.”
Sivan Pillay, Head of Commercial Business – Endemol Africa

“A wonderful experience which enables key industry players to exchange views and ideas.”
Chilao Mutesa, Director Corporate Planning – Zamtel

“As a delegate it was just tremendous that I could meet and discuss with the most Senior Corporate Executives, where else could one gain access to such a number of the most senior people in the industry within such a short space of time and in one place, normally this would be impossible.

Thank you for a great Summit.”
Keith Redford, CTO – Globalcom

“This is an exceptionally valuable information gathering forum.  It has opened a window for me to see what innovative solutions are available both on the network side as well as services operations support systems areas.”
David Mettle, CTO – Ghana Telecom

“I have been involved in a number of Summits before.  This is the first summit whereby I feel that it was worth every minute. The organization of the event was first class and you can tell that the speakers have been carefully selected. 

I would definitely recommend NGT and I would not hesitate to attend any of the other events.”
Albert Nthathakane, MD – Comnet Lesotho.

“I would like to thank the professionalism shown by GDS Staff in managing this highly important NGT Summit for development of Africa.  The knowledge gained from the NGT Summit will be used by Botsnet to procure hardware and software in a quality way to fulfill customer needs beyond expectation.”
Oteng Mudongo, GM – Botsnet PTY Ltd.

“NGT Summit Africa was a unique event.  Very focused and well planned.  It allows industry leaders and CEO’s to establish one-to-one contact and helped in increasing awareness of market developments. 

Well done to the Programme Co-ordinators and the GDS Team.  Great Team Work!’
Vinod Sud, CEO – Telecom (Seychelles) Ltd.

“Was a good and well run Summit’
Mike Brierley, President & CEO – MTN NS.

The Summit was well organized and provided an excellent return on investment. We had high level meetings with senior IT executives in our targeted vertical who grasped our solution concepts and were able to see how they would apply through their organizations. The forum provided a relaxed, intimate environment for in-depth, meaningful discussions. We expect to close new business initiated at this event!”
David Stuart, Vice President Marketing, Optinuity

“Very good event and presentations.”
Bruce Pales, Business Development Director Europe-Lucent Technologies

“Very good conference, very dynamic and very good attendance from senior people with real investment projects!”
Normand Tremblay, SVP Sales, Thomson-Cirpack, France

“What surprised me was the value that I got from the one on one meetings with vendors. I came to network with my peers but a few new relationships were surprising. I can be pretty tough to reach at the office and that can sometimes work against me …”
Georg Benzer,CIO, Arcor, Germany

“What stands out from this event was the quality of the speakers chosen to moderate the round tables. I like working with genuine facilitators who can open people up and keep the discussion moving.”
Marco Visser, CEO KPN Mobile, Netherlands

“It’s a company policy not to attend events but what convinced me that this was different was the level of senior management confirmed and the fact that we, as the delegation, had direct input into the content of the program. This is a unique format and it worked extremely well. I look forward to working with the NGT Summit team again.”
Hendrik Forsgren, CIO, Tele 2

“Very useful and a great opportunity to meet other experts.”
Jioi Vitek, Director,Deloitte Consulting

“Very good networking opportunity as well as getting profound understanding of the situation in the market.”
Daniela Davidova, , Czech Telecom

“Excellent opportunity to meet operators, service providers and manufacturers.”
János Zsakó, CTO, 3C Hungary.

“The conference was excellently organised and provided me with a lot of new contacts, both within telcos and vendors, which I am sure will help me in my future work.”
Terje Tøndel, CEO, ETIS, Belgium

“A good opportunity for contacts and future business development”
Octavian Christea, President/Director General ­ Bitnet.

“This is a very good opportunity to meet people from the industry. Great atmosphere for discussions!”
Pawel Paplinska, Marketing Director-Energis Polska

“A tremendous opportunity!”
Mark Takacs, Senior Consultant ­ Accenture

“Well organised and very fruitful”
Li-Yajun, EMEA Director, Huawei Technologies.

“A fact – I have received the maximum which is possible to be gained from such an event!”
David Yakov, Sales Director-TTI Telekom

“Overall, it was an excellent, well organised show.”
Al Blank, VP Corporate Marketing -MTS

“Even better than Prague!”
Bernard Laurent, Head of Twister Programme-EADS Astrium