The IOWN Global Forum’s Member Meeting Advances Mission for Photonics Revolution

Industry players from across the globe came together in Canada to connect, collaborate, and innovate

VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–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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