By Ali Rafi, NCST Jan 07, Batch 4

The hype of convergence has been on air for quite some time now. However, the actual extent of convergence is still vague. Some think it is the right time when everything will become mobile. Some say we have got the entire basis currently and it is just the matter of building innovative applications on top of them to have convergence in reality. Then comes today’s and tomorrow’s definitions of convergence and hence the confusion surrounding what it is all about and how it is going to be achieved.

One thing is for sure, it is the entrepreneurs who are responsible and for bringing the innovations forward and removing the inefficiencies from the business models. Therefore, if we are to see any changes in the communications landscape on a noticeable scale, it is the entrepreneurs who are going to do this for us.

	The team behind hubhub 07.

Therefore, nuStart, a student entrepreneurial organization based in Singapore and Stockholm, took the initiative of bringing together some of the most successful, established as well as emerging entrepreneurs and innovators in Sweden, working on the information and communications technology field under one roof (or the “hub”) in order to give more meaning to the hubbub (the buzz) of convergence. Aptly themed, ‘Where Web, Voice and IP TV meet’, Hubbub 07 was held on 24 November 2007 at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden. The event measured close to 150 over participants and speakers.

The speakers shared their views and insights on convergence of Web, Voice and IP TV. In the midst of the IT people, nuStart also invited guests and speakers who did not believe in the idea of convergence at all. This added an extra dimension to the conference and served as a means of interesting and informative debate on the practical realization of convergence.

The conference kicked off with the speakers talking about how and what convergence looks like today; the latest trends that the forward-thinking ICT entrepreneurs are adhering and how they are approaching the various inefficiencies in the communications world. Furthermore, the speakers also touched on their experiences, imagination and knowledge of ICT and predicted how convergence might look like down the road in the next five years (the tomorrow’s vision).

Hubbub formed the basic conference structure that had a blend of the most famous bloggers/ IT-geeks in Stockholm. With this, the international presence of such a conference was felt at all times before, during and after the conference. Moreover, the live back-channels and the live blogging added more colours to the event.

Hubbub 07 in Stockholm was a big hit in Stockholm and beyond (courtesy to our backchannels and bloggers). Stockholm has the ideal structure and foundation for the emerging entrepreneurship in the ICT field. Participants were fascinated in cool ideas and they just don’t want to miss any opportunity to have their say and broaden their visions from such an event. They participated whole-heartedly by throwing in a lot of useful and relevant suggestions at all times during the conference.

The best part is that the participants were not shy to voice out their opinions. Therefore, Hubbub was organized in a way where we had short speeches and long Q&A sessions. This served to be an excellent ploy to keep everyone awake, inspired and motivated by making them realize that their presence was important to the event.

In short they look for three things to keep them going in such an event

1. Fun
2. Interactive
3. Inspirational

This is precisely what nuStart’s Hubbub provided the participants with! For more information, please visit our website at www.nustart.sg/hubbub07

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