World-leading innovators to demonstrate agile, assured, and orchestrated services across automated, virtualized, interconnected networks
Los Angeles, 17 April 2018 – MEF is pleased to announce the Call for Proposals for the fifth annual Proof of Concept (PoC) Showcase is now open. The PoC Showcase is the centerpiece of the MEF18 global networking event, held 29 October – 2 November 2018 at JW Marriott LA LIVE, in Los Angeles, California. This year’s PoC Showcase will feature up to 16 live demonstrations involving dozens of the world’s most innovative communications service providers and technology vendors. The Showcase will provide valuable insight into how agile, assured, and orchestrated services can be delivered across automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks in accordance with the MEF 3.0 framework.
“The PoC Showcase is the perfect opportunity for service providers and technology suppliers to collaborate on new approaches for delivering the industry’s most advanced services, and to demonstrate their market leadership to the larger global community,” said Nan Chen, President, MEF. “We are excited that this year’s Showcase will feature two types of PoC demonstrations: those proposed specifically for MEF18 that spotlight highly differentiated commercial solutions as in past years and – for the first time – demonstrations of MEF 3.0 implementation projects driven by MEF members.”
Based on previous experience, the PoC Showcase is expected to be one of the most popular elements of MEF18 – the premier networking event of the year for senior professionals who are driving industry innovation. MEF18 has a target audience of 1,000+ attendees from 275+ companies and 35+ countries.
“The annual MEF conference is the one event where attendees can engage directly with top innovators, become educated on future network service trends, and collaborate on market-leading solutions that will transform the communications landscape,” said Pascal Menezes, CTO, MEF. “Each year, the PoC Showcase plays an instrumental role in highlighting the impactful achievements of our members over the past 12 months. We are eager to share the latest advancements on the transformational journey to enable cloud-like network services over automated and interconnected networks powered by LSO, SDN, and NFV.”
The Call for Proposals is now available on the MEF18 Proof of Concept Showcase page. The submission process closes on 29 June, and selected participants will be announced in early September. Participation will be limited to a maximum of 16 demonstrations, so MEF encourages a team approach with service providers, technology vendors, and service orchestration solutions providers coming together to spotlight benefits of industry collaboration.
All Showcase participants are eligible to compete for the MEF18 PoC Awards that recognize the demonstrations that best illustrate agile, assured, and orchestrated services across automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks. A panel of leading industry analysts will review PoC demonstrations and score them on innovation, quality, and alignment with MEF’s work and vision.
For more information, contact Tom Dickson, MEF Proof of Concept Showcase Manager, at tom@MEF.net.
About MEF18
MEF18 focuses on enabling agile, assured, and orchestrated communications services for the digital economy. MEF18 is on pace to be bigger and better than last year’s popular MEF17 event, with a target audience of 1,000+ attendees from 275+ companies and 35+ countries; 250+ service and technology executives; 120 expert speakers, 115+ sponsors and partners; and more.
MEF18’s content, networking, and special activities are designed to appeal to executives and other senior experts from communication and cloud service providers; enterprises; government organizations; network technology suppliers; systems integrators, open source projects, standards organizations; industry and financial analysts; investors; the press; and others.
MEF18’s program will build upon popular elements of last year’s event while introducing several new activities. Elements include: world-class plenaries and sessions with service, technology, and enterprise expert speakers; MEF Workshops; PoC demonstrations; MEF 3.0 implementation demonstrations; a vibrant Networking Hall; MEF Awards Dinner; Global Media Hub; LSO Hackathon; and on-site MEF professional certification exam preparation courses.
The 4Q18 MEF Members Meeting and IMTC SuperOp! will be collocated with MEF18.
For more sponsorship information, please visit the MEF18 Sponsor Price List and Sponsorships and Benefits pages or email Alysia Bennett at alysia@mef.net.
About MEF
An industry association of 200+ member companies, MEF recently introduced the MEF 3.0 transformational global services framework for defining, delivering, and certifying agile, assured, and orchestrated services over a global ecosystem of automated networks. MEF 3.0 services are designed to provide an on-demand, cloud-centric experience with user- and application-directed control over network resources and service capabilities. MEF 3.0 services are delivered over automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks powered by LSO, SDN, and NFV. MEF produces service specifications, LSO frameworks, open LSO APIs, software-driven reference implementations, and certification programs. MEF 3.0 work will enable automated delivery of standardized Layer 1, Carrier Ethernet, IP, SD-WAN, and Layer 4-7 services across multiple provider networks. For more information: https://www.mef.net/.
Media Contact:
Ashley Schulte
Witz Communications for MEF