CTIA Wireless 2012 is the largest meeting of the wireless industry in the world and will be occupying New Orleans today through Thursday. The conference will occupy eight halls in the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, making it the third-most-expansive exhibition at the center this year.
The chief executive officers of communications giants AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon and mobile music application companies Pandora and Spotify all are scheduled to speak, in addition to former President Bill Clinton.
During the conference, application providers, retailers, distributors, service operators and other business owners and parties interested in wireless communication will attend educational sessions and forums on the industry, which has grown to include fields not traditionally associated with wireless communication like health care, automotive and energy.
The event is expected to have an economic impact of $47 million, according to the visitors bureau. “There’s definitely going to be a stronger economic impact,” said Kelly Schulz, spokeswoman for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. “These are business professionals, who are going to go out around the city when they are not in their meetings and spend money.”
The event was last held in New Orleans in 2005 and had about 21,000 attendees. The International CTIA WIRELESS show has since grown to:
- draw more than 40,000 qualified attendees every year
- occupy more than 300,000 sq. ft. of exhibit space
- host over 1,000 exhibitors
- attract more than 1,100 press and analysts worldwide
- offer top-level speakers and the most comprehensive educational programming in the industry
For more information on attendees or exhibitions, visit ctiawireless.com or track the event through the CTIA blog.