The World’s Best Bloggers are Coming to Vienna to Discuss the Future of Digital Media
The World Blogging Forum Vienna (WBF), an international blogger convention, will take place on November 13, 2010 in Vienna. The event will be hosted by A1 Telekom Austria. Some 200 participants from 14 countries will get together at the company headquarters and discuss the future of digital media production and use. The event website https://wbf2010.at has already established itself as a discussion forum in the run-up to the event.
“Nowadays almost everybody can generate digital content, share it via social media and open a public debate on it. Our media usage is changing radically,” explained Ritchie Pettauer. The blogger and social media expert is co-organiser of the event. He adds: “It is the discussion forum that makes this year’s WBF so special. For us it is really important to get people involved. This is why we decided to have several group sessions in order to encourage active involvement. Keynote speakers and participants shall equally contribute information and develop scenarios for the digital world of the future.” The number of participants is limited to 200 in order to grant an effective exchange of ideas and knowledge. Participants include the world’s top bloggers such as Eric Dupin, spokesman of Citroën and one of the most well-known bloggers in France, Matthias Lüfkens, former business journalist and associate at the World Economic Forum Davos, as well as Mihaela Draghici, organiser of the World Blogging Forum 2009 in Bucharest.
Enablers for Future Scenarios
Attending the WBF is free for bloggers. The host of the event A1 Telekom Austria will provide technical infrastructure and the venue, make travel arrangements and accommodation for participants from abroad. “With the World Blogging Forum Vienna we are bringing an event to Austria that provides the perfect platform for raising key questions of the 21st century and discussing future scenarios,” explained Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO of A1 Telekom Austria. “Being a telecommunications company we provide the infrastructure for these applications. This makes us an enabler for future media. We would like to discuss and develop the environment and visions for this future with bloggers and the web community.” Some additional sponsoring partners also support the summit of great minds for a digital future: Hotel The Ring, VITE, Nokia, Samsung, Digital Affairs, querform and Wienerwaldtourismus.
Three Sessions for the Future of Digital Media
In order to attend the event future participants have to get active beforehand: running their own blog is a basic requirement to attend the World Blogging Forum. Registered participants of the World Blogging Forum Community provide input on a regular basis. “Participants are already discussing the future of digital media production and use via their own medium: the blog. On November 13th they will have the opportunity to get together and discuss these issues face-to-face, here in Vienna. The aim of this discussion forum is to generate theses on the future of digital media production,” said Werner Reiter, press spokesman of A1 Telekom Austria.
A1 Telekom Austria will welcome these international experts at its headquarter in Vienna Lassallestrasse. There will be three sessions altogether, focusing on the following topics: “Global Communication Trends 2010 to 2020: An in-depth look at the future of digital media“, “Politics, Education, Work and Health: The role of digital media in future societies/Futuristic lifestyles” and “Evolving Prosumers: Trends in media usage/production in the next ten years”. At the beginning of each of these thematic blocks participants will hold three to five short presentations. These presentations will be the starting points for discussions. There will also be a closing event for the convention: the WBF party at Club market (http://markette.wordpress.com/) will provide additional opportunity for socialising and networking.
A1 Telekom Austria – Mobile and Fixed Net Communications from One Source
A1 Telekom is Austria’s leading provider of telecommunication services, encompassing 5 million mobile communications customers and 2.3 million fixed access lines. The company was created out of the merger between Telekom Austria and mobilkom austria in July 2010. A1 Telekom Austria’s customers benefit from a global package of offers for voice telephony, Internet access, data and IT solutions, value added services, wholesale services, to mobile business and payment solutions. The product brands Telekom Austria, A1, bob and Red Bull MOBILE represent quality and smart services.
A1 Telekom Austria is part of the Telekom Austria Group – a leading telecom provider in the CEE region. The Telekom Austria Group has international operations in eight CEE countries. The Telekom Austria Group has international operations in eight CEE countries.
In Austria, A1 Telekom Austria has over 10,000 employees. The CEO is Hannes Ametsreiter, who is simultaneously CEO of the Telekom Austria Group and Member of the Board of the GSM Association (GSMA) – which represents the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry.