The GSMA today announced additional keynote speakers who will be presenting at the 2010 Mobile World Congress, which will be held 15-18 February, 2010 in Barcelona.  The GSMA also revealed the lineup of application developer conferences (ADCs) to be held as part of the App Planet at Mobile World Congress.

“Through its top-flight conference programme, expansive exhibition and focused specialist events, the Mobile World Congress addresses every aspect of the broad mobile communications ecosystem,” said Michael O’Hara, chief marketing officer at the GSMA.  “Attendees will learn about and experience first-hand the latest developments in core mobile technologies, the role of mobile in key vertical sectors such as healthcare, finance, media and entertainment, and the rapidly-evolving world of mobile applications. All of this reinforces Mobile World Congress’ position as the industry’s must-attend event.”

New keynote speakers confirmed for the 2010 Mobile World Congress include:
• Shantanu Narayen, President and CEO, Adobe
• Erik Huggers, Director, Future Media & Technology, BBC
• Manoj Kohli, CEO and Joint Managing Director, Bharti Airtel
• Lu Yimin, President, China Unicom
• Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO, Research In Motion
• Daniel Ek, CEO, Spotify

The GSMA also announced that Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan will be making a special presentation to Mobile World Congress delegates at 10:30 am on Tuesday, 16 February.  In her speech, Queen Rania will discuss the impact mobile communications can have in extending education to the world’s population. Queen Rania is UNICEF’s Eminent Global Advocate for Children and is Honorary Chair of the UN Girls’ Education Initiative. Queen Rania has supported Education for All, the In My Name Campaign, and the Class of 2015 to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Her Majesty also launched and serves as Co-Founder and Global Co-Chair for 1GOAL, a campaign to promote global education in partnership with FIFA, the World Cup South Africa 2010 and the Global Campaign for Education.

The GSMA will also be hosting nearly 90 government delegations in its Ministerial Programme for the 2010 Mobile World Congress, with approximately 40 ministers in attendance. This represents an increase of more than 30% over last year’s attendance in the programme, which brings together policy makers and industry leaders to discuss strategies for shaping the future of the mobile industry, as well as mobile’s potential to accelerate economic growth and advance social development around the world.

Mobile Developers Converge on App Planet
The inaugural App Planet event at Mobile World Congress continues to gain momentum, with industry leaders including RIM, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone and WIPJam each hosting full-day application developer conferences (ADCs).  The schedule of App Planet ADCs is:

Monday, 15 February – Vodafone 360 Developer Conference
Tuesday, 16 February – BlackBerry Developer Day by RIM
Wednesday, 17 February – Sony Ericsson Application Developer Conference
Thursday, 18 February – WIPJam Application Developer Conference

In addition to hosting its ADC, Vodafone is a sponsor of App Planet, which will feature more than 120 exhibiting companies, such as Alcatel-Lucent, Intel, Qualcomm, RIM and Skype, among others.  The GSMA expects between 3,000 and 5,000 mobile application developers to visit App Planet over four days. App Planet will take place in Hall 7 of the Fira de Barcelona at Montjuic. Full information on App Planet is available at http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/exhibition/app_planet.htm.

Sponsors for the 2010 Mobile World Congress include LG Electronics as Platinum Sponsor and Generalitat de Catalunya as Mobile Innovations Platinum Sponsor. For more information on the 2010 Mobile World Congress, please visit www.mobileworldcongress.com.