Some CTIA partners uncertain about Super Mobility Week 2015

CTIA's 2015 Super Mobility Week will take place Sept. 9-11 in Las Vegas but some of the trade group's partners, which it secured for its revamped 2014 event, are uncertain about whether or not they will return and be part of the trade association's conference next year.

CTIA created Super Mobility Week to not only merge its two annual shows into one—bringing in its MobileCON event focused on enterprise mobility—but also to partner with other organizations in different vertical markets.

CTIA spokeswoman Amy Storey told FierceWireless that the organization "will have something to announce in the future, but not now" regarding partnerships for Super Mobility Week in 2015.

The Competitive Carriers Association forged a partnership with CTIA for 2014 after CTIA essentially snubbed CCA by scheduling Super Mobility Week the same week as CCA's smaller show, which CCA had publicly scheduled nearly two years before CTIA set the date for its own event.

In addition,  CTIA partnered with IFA, the huge annual consumer electronics trade show in Berlin, as well as with The Money Event to focus on mobile payments. The group also partnered with  4G World and Tower & Small Cell Summit to co-locate their events with Super Mobility Week.

The Competitive Carriers Association has said it will not co-locate its annual convention with CTIA in 2015. Instead, it will hold its conference Oct. 7-9 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. CCA called the circumstances surround its 2014 show "unique."

"We had a successful event, but our board and members' preference is for CCA to have our own show that does not overlap or conflict with other industry-related events," CCA President Steve Berry said in a statement to FierceWireless. "We have more carriers attend our event than any other show, and our goal is to continue to be the home for competitive carriers and provide our members with educational and networking opportunities that they cannot get anywhere else."

The biggest challenge for CTIA will likely be coordinating with IFA again. Next year IFA will hold its conference Sept. 4-9, meaning that only one day of its conference will officially overlap with CTIA's conference. Most keynote sessions and device announcements are made at the start of IFA so by the time Super Mobility Week  begins IFA will be winding down in terms of both news announcements and activity.

This past year IFA took place Sept. 5-10, overlapping for two days with Super Mobility Week. However, there appeared to be little coordination between the two shows this year and many of the major device announcements from Samsung Electronics, Sony, Huawei, LG Electronics and others occurred at IFA days before CTIA's show even started.

IFA spokeswoman Nicole von der Ropp  said IFA is talking to CTIA about next year. "We are definitely trying to figure out how to cooperate," but she said at this point it is unclear what form that will take. She noted that the fact that IFA will only overlap with Super Mobility Week for one day in 2015 complicates those discussions.

Von der Ropp said that this year IFA and CTIA tried to broadcast keynotes at each other's events. "We started it this year but it definitely needs to be improved," she said. IFA and CTIA "have to discuss how we can let our audiences profit," she added.

Chris Lotspeich, director of marketing at UBM Tech, which runs the 4G World and Tower & Small Cell Summit, said the company expects to partner again with CTIA for Super Mobility Week. "Though we are still working on what our program would look like at the event, our current plan is to be back with Super Mobility Week in 2015," he told FierceWireless.

Aditya Khurjekar is a founding partner at Lets Talk Payments, a mobile payments news source. He was one of the driving forces behind holding The Money Event at CTIA's show this year and said the event will co-located again with CTIA in 2015. "As far as I know," he said. "If there were one person who would know, it would be me."  

In 2015 Khurjekar suggested that CTIA integrate more with The Money Event and other co-located events. "The concept of a co-located event, I think that's really hard," he said. "And I've shared that with CTIA."

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