Doing the double? #WVA12

The final two shortlists have just been revealed for the 2012 World Vendor Awards, bringing with them some interesting dynamics, both for CEO of the Year and for Best Brand. We'll find out who triumphs on the 26 April 2012.

First up we have three contenders for CEO of the Year. The potential double here sits with Alcatel-Lucent CEO, Ben Verwaayen. Ben has the almost unique distinction of being in the running for this gong, having been a previous winner of the top award at the WVA's larger sibling, the World Communication Awards, where in 2005 he was named Most Influential Person (forerunner to the CEO category) as CEO of BT Group.

Up against Ben we have Hans Vestberg of Ericsson, who arguably has one of the toughest jobs in telecoms having recently revealed reduced targets for the company, and  Jeff Gordon of Syniverse, who amongst other things leads a company playing in the fast growing IPX arena.

The other shortlist to be revealed is the other industry voted category, Best Brand. A slightly different angle here, but last years Best Brand, Ericsson, are in the running again, along with the company with the most valuable hardware brand in this years Top 500 Telecom Brands, Cisco. Also in the chase are 2010 winners, Juniper Networks, Syniverse, and who could under estimate the power from the East in the shape of ZTE?

To view all the shortlists, visit www.worldvendorawards.com and make sure you book your seats to avoid disappointment on the night!

#Infographic: Who will be CEO of the Year

Voting is open for the 2012 World Vendor Awards #CEO of the Year, so who are the contenders? The infographic below reveals the contenders...

Cast your votes at www.worldvendorawards.com 

or go straight to the form on SurveyMonkey

Who has the best vendor #brand in #telecoms?

In the February issue of Total Telecom+ we worked with Brand Finance to reveal the most valuable brands in telecoms. Predominantly we were focusing on the telecom operators (the full Telecom 500 is coming soon) but amongst the extra data included was the Top 5 hardware vendor brands.

This research is pretty clear cut, these are the most valuable brands, but are they the best? To get this answer, we need to include other more qualitative factors, reflecting how the industry thinks and feels about brands, and this is the role of Best Brand category at the World Vendor Awards #WVA2012, where the winner is determined by the votes of the industry.

In 2011 Ericsson were triumphant at the awards, beating off stiff competition from the likes of Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Juniper Networks (winner of the Best Brand Campaign category in 2010), and ZTE, and reflecting that you don't need to have the most valuable brand to be the industries Best Brand.

Since then, Ericsson have climbed the rankings from number three to number two most valuable brand, so will this help them win again in 2012, or will the competition be too fierce for them? Only you can determine this, by casting your vote for the Best Brand category for the 2012 World Vendor Awards.

This year 20 great telecom hardware vendor brands are currently in the running, so vote today to help determine who will be on the final shortlist, to be published at the end of April. Those in the running are:

• Alcatel-Lucent
• Amdocs
• Ciena
• Cisco
• Corning
• Ericsson
• Harris
• HP
• Huawei
• Juniper Networks
• Motorola
• NEC
• NetCracker
• Nokia Siemens Networks
• Openwave
• Qualcomm
• Syniverse
• Telcordia
• Tellabs
• ZTE

The Best Brand survey is hosted on Survey Monkey, and you can vote by following this link, or you can go to the homepage of the World Vendor Awards www.worldvendorawards.com and vote there. 

One Month to Enter #ACA12

Are you working on your entries for the 2012 Asia Communication Awards? There's just over 1-month to go.


The awards recognises the successes of telecoms companies, operators and vendors alike, with headquarters in the Asia region to the wider telecom industry. Categories range from specifics like Cloud Service and Social Media Initiative to the generic achievements of Operator and vendor of the Year. Find out more about the categories here.


Why not gain some inspiration as to what the judges are looking for by watching some of the videos from 2011, where you can here from winners and sponsors of the inaugural awards.





2012 venue now confirmed, the spectacular Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel Singapore

We anticipate an event-full week

The week might be eventful but it will certainly be event-full. On Tuesday we have our last Breakfast with Total Telecom for 2011, Next Generation Cloud Services, as well as discovering the results of the PPA's 2011 Independent Publisher Awards. On Wednesday the cameras will be out for Film Day, whilst Friday is the deadline for entries for the 2012 World vendor Awards.

Tomorrows breakfast briefing looks like a busy affair with fantastic speakers from COLT, CE On-Demand, NTT Europe, Verizon Business, as well as sponsors HP, and IDC who are moderating. You can meet the speakers on the event website, and there are still a few seats available.

At lunch tomorrow we discover if Total Telecom are the winners as the Professional Publishers Association (PPA) unveils the winners for this years Independent Publisher Awards (#Indpub). We're up for Digital Brand of the Year (which we won in 2010) and also for Media Brand of the Year. If you hear cheering from the direction of Vinopolis, it might well be the Total Telecom team!

Wednesday will see Total TeleVision busy at Film Day, generating more great executive insight for our channel. The next event will be early in 2012, so worth baring in mind if you are looking for pre-MobileWorld Congress expsoure for your executives...

Finally, Friday will see the traditional rush of companies getting their entries in for the 2012 World Vendor Awards (#wva2012). With new categories including areas such as Best Cloud Solution and The Small Cells Award we anticipate fierce competition. Don't miss out, get your entry in.

All in all, it's going to be busy. Who said it quietens down before Christmas?