 From theCUBE Studios in Palo Alto in Boston, connecting with thought leaders all around the world, this is a CUBE Conversation. Hello everyone, welcome to the special CUBE Conversation. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE for a Mobile World Congress preview, a hybrid event where theCUBE will be there in person. Mobile World Congress in Barcelona officially happens in person in a few weeks on June 28th. We'll be there live from the Telco DR, Cloud City booth, and I'm here with Daniel Roxton, CEO and founder of Telco DR. Exciting to see her, she's a maverick making waves, big time in the Telco business. This will be a hybrid event. There'll be people in person and there'll be a virtual showcase in the Cloud City online area. Of course theCUBE will be there broadcasting. Telco DR will have a main stage, showcasing people in person and virtual DR. Daniel, as you called DR, welcome back to theCUBE. Great to see you. It's great to see you too, John. Thanks for having me as always. Really been exciting to be part of this showcase. You got the space that you secured, a very bold decision to procure the Ericsson 65,000 square foot booth, which was abandoned by Ericsson because of the pandemic. No one thought it was going to happen. You had the vision to secure the space. We talked back in April before the lockdown, still touch and go, now it looks pretty clear the curtain is going to raise. There'll be many people there in person. People going to the beaches after I hear in Spain. A lot of action. How do you feel about the decision you made, the risk you took? How's it all feel? It feels great. 100 days ago, when I saw this opportunity pop up with Ericsson bailing, it was an opportunity to elevate the awareness of the public cloud in Telco. And I think now, I think we're two, three weeks into the show kicking off. It's gonna happen, like you said. Mission accomplished, right? Who would have thought 100 days ago, I would have been partnering with GSMA to bring you Cloud City, right? The booth is built. We have 30 vendors coming in, driving this kind of change into the industry. I have a keynote. As an evangelist, this is a dream come true. This is the biggest stage in our industry. And I have amassed a cloud army, right? Gear it up to talk to senior Telco executives about the future of technology in our industry. And so I think it's been the best call I could have made. I think probably Ericsson's not feeling so great, right? I think they're probably bumming, but game on, we're super psyched and it's happening. So let's go do it. I think Ericsson has the classic FOMO fear of missing out because not only are they missing out, they had it. They had the space and they decided to abandon it. You picked it up. Great move. I really think that you're a maverick and I really applaud you for the bold steps you're taking and the vision. And I think it's worth acknowledging. Thank you for doing this. It's an inspiration for many. But I've been following you on social media and it's been fun to watch your tweets. Again, a very bold position, but very pro-tech, very pro-Telco future of Telco. You've been detailing some of the things you're doing. There's an ecosystem play here. It feels a little bit anti-Telco in the sense of it feels open. It feels different. It feels cloud native. What are some of the cloud city details? Can you share the vision around the space, what the vibe's going to be and any updates you'd like to share? Yeah, so I love Twitter. I'm putting out, I'm trying to do about a thread a day going into MWC about the change that's coming to our industry. You'll see content there about everything from software to cloud, to pricing and whatever else. And so please follow me, TelcoDR. Always trying to make it fun and interesting there. But like I said in my just a moment ago, really trying to make Cloud City the epicenter of cloud for Telco. And so we're bringing in a variety of vendors. When we started to look and started to plan the space, we're like, you know, this isn't kind of like everyone bring their own stall. We really wanted to give it an experience where it felt cohesive like a community. And so I think I have some new renderings that we're going to share with your audience in terms of the way that the vendor spaces look, right? We have 30 vendors representing, I think my last count, 70 plus demos. And they're from all over the world coming from all different parts. And I think for these guys, it represents an opportunity to be in a premier space that typically you'd pay millions for. The smaller vendors don't have that kind of budget. And it's one of those, you know, catch 22 sort of situations in our industry where you're nobody if you're not at MWC, but if you're so small, you kind of can't afford to go there. And so you kind of blow your budget, but you still get this little plot of land. And so for them, this is like a really awesome opportunity to be in premier, premier space. I mean, we don't even have to put the address of where we are. You just say, go to the Ericsson booth and everyone knows where that is. So it's really, really great. This is the biggest show in our industry. It's the biggest stage. It's been, you know, almost a year and a half since we were all together before, you know, since the last time companies have had their opportunity to get their message out, right? Like, what are they doing? What are their roadmaps? And so, you know, some of the larger companies decided they could wait, you know, that they didn't, you know, could wait until Barcelona 2022. And so when you look back, and I was just thinking about this the other day, the last time we were all together and had a quote, a normal MWC was 2019, right? It's three years, three years to get their market message out. And I think the people coming to Cloud City can't wait. I know I'm chomping at the bit, going early even. So really excited to bring this band of cloud, you know, cloud vendors that are driving the change in the industry together. And I think we've taken over MWC. It's kind of exciting. I think, I mean, one of the things you mentioned about the chomping at the bit that this 2019 since the last Mobile World Congress, I think there's been a pent up demand, not only from a personnel standpoint, the people, humans want to see each other, but I think there's been no outlet for some of these companies to tell their stories and get the news out. And there's been a lot of transitions in the past 24 months, just in the industry. So I'm interested in getting your take on this market map. These are the startups, are they mostly mature companies? What's the makeup of the Telco DR ecosystem? Yeah, there's a lot of startups. Certainly a startup that I recently invested $100 million into, to Togi, which you see right there in the center of the map there, hasn't launched. I think there's a couple of companies that are launching in the booth, which is exciting. There's people who are launching new offerings, established companies. We're really excited to have Mavenir, which is one of the bigger players in the space around OpenMan, which is a new technology. And so, I think those guys have a great opportunity to be in the Ericsson booth, where most of the revenue is ran revenue to be pitching their technology open ran. I think that's a great opportunity for them. OneWeb is gonna be in the booth as well, which is a low earth orbit satellite company that's offering broadband to consumers. And so, I think it's a little bit of everything. It's everything from small 10 person startups all the way to much bigger companies. And then we have kind of this idea of new technologies, cloud technologies, space technologies. And so it's really, I think it's really exciting. And I think the point that you just said, a lot has changed since 2019, right? I mean, MWC usually typically occurs in, it's the last week of February. And so that was 2019. And we had a quote, normal 2019. And then 2020 hit, and it was a first show to cancel. And so it's been a long time since we've been out there. You typically plan your whole year around this event. It fills your funnel with leads. It's really, it's a little bit, it's a lot more than marketing, right? You're filling your funnel and getting your message out. So three years before then. And who knows, maybe someone will get a $100 million investment coming in there with the, you're right, get the checkbook out. I want to find out more. I want to get more to that investment because that really made a lot of noise in a good way for you and the team because it really kind of connects the dots of what's going on. We're in a very agile environment right now. And before we get there, I want to get your thoughts on the Cloud City booth that TelcoDR has. Of course, the Cube will be broadcasting there with the hybrid live TV show. The Cube, of course, got great guests. AWS, Google and a handful of awesome people. Samsung, among others, just great guests that lined up. You've got amazing keynotes. Tell us more about what the content program is going to be like, what you're thinking around the experience that's going to be there inside the TelcoDR booth this year. Yeah, I think there's nothing really normal about this MWC when you compare it to previous, even other events, but certainly other MWCs. And a hundred days ago, we didn't know what a tennis was going to look like. We didn't know what the different vaccination rates would be around the world. And so we're like, we definitely need to double down on having a great hybrid experience. We started to look at the GSMA offering and it was a pretty kind of typical offering as you've seen from events before. And so we really wanted to say, could we reinvent this experience and make it better for the areas that would not be able to travel or re-entry back into the country? Maybe you could come, but going back would require a quarantine that was kind of untenable. And so we reached out to the Cube coming out of COVID. We knew it wouldn't be the same. We call this partnership and we call this experience Cloud City Live. And it really is like a live TV show, right? I think every country has the concept of a morning show where there's the anchors and they cut to different stories and short shots and longer pieces. And so that's what we're doing. And so sort of going through this area, sort of the experience of Cloud City Live. We've built the booth, which I think we have a picture of today. This is a rendering of the booth for the Cube. This is where you'll spend most of your time, but it's basically a live broadcast studio right there in MWC. And so we're really excited about that. We've built a main stage. And I think, again, there's another picture here. What we're doing here is I think four talks a day. It has this really cool represent, sort of rethinking of how to present. So typically a speaker is sitting there speaking to the audience with content slides behind them. But you see this other side of the wall, the zoomies, right? The roomies, which are the people that are going to be sitting on those cubes, listening to the presentation are there live. But then we have the zoomies on the wall that are listening in. And so it's this idea of, the virtual people kind of feel left out. They're not part of the conversation. The roomies will be able to see the zoomies and the zoomies can see the roomies. And it's really exciting. And so I haven't seen this before on an event floor where you're really bringing in those virtual people. They're kind of like forgotten who are those guys. We don't even know. But so we're trying to do that. And I think the third way we're trying to make it really great for the people who can't travel or, maybe it's financial, maybe it's health, whatever the reason, maybe it's time. It's a big time suck to go to MWZ. Is the telepresence robots, right? So I bought a hundred robots. They move kind of slow, just heads up. But your ability to go around and see different vendor demos, you can go to a meeting with someone who's there physically. The robot is kind of like an iPad on wheels. I'm sure I just offended the robot people, but I mean, it's an easy way to think about it. But it's controllable by the person that's virtual. So they can kind of ee, move the robot around. And I want to go talk to Mavaneer. I want to talk to Jitogi. I want to go to the different areas of the booth. They can move around. And that's kind of exciting. So three different ways to experience this virtually. Certainly the live streaming broadcast TV show with theCUBE will be playing the main, I do this. I always do this with my thumb, but we'll be playing the keynotes live as well. And then of course the robot participation for a more individual sort of experience. Yeah, the main stage over there, the cubes over there. I mean, first of all, the cube is really excited to be in the middle of all this. And I think you mentioned the killer layout. I think it really is an example. Our teams have been working really hard together on this for a spectacular lineup. Your team over there has been amazing. You've created a media experience that's second to none that I've ever seen, but it's also immersive. So you got all the elements of immersion, presence, but it's also a media experience. So for the companies that are there, they can get the word out. There's going to be a lot of community engagement, but it's also that inclusion of the hybrid, which are the virtual piece. Really, really important. So really great format. We're super excited. And again, great vision, great project. I think it was just, it was a way for us to kind of hedge your bets a little bit on the big booth, right? Like, I mean, what if no one came? How could we leverage this into higher ROI? And I think Cloud City really was that bet. And excited to partner with you. I agree that teams have been working insanely hard to pull this off. I mean, I did have live TV broadcasting experience before 100 days ago. And so I wouldn't say I'm an expert now, but I certainly have learned a lot about what it takes to put on a show like this. We were having a meeting and I was talking to some friends about the like, it's kind of like the ESPN of tech and the Today Show coming together in one format. Plus, you've got the immersion with the robots and you've got all the other channels that are open. This is a defining moment. I think you're really going to look back at this and say, not only was the space a bold move, I think the format of how you're executing the content program will be a template. And I'm excited to be part of it. So it's such an opportunity to experiment, right? Coming out of COVID is new. And this is one of the first big shows. I think a lot of other tech conferences can learn from this experience. They'll be like, hey, let's learn from what they experimented with and build on it. And I'm excited about that, because it's going to open up a bunch of shows that maybe you don't have the time to travel to, but maybe now the experience will be elevated. And it's the mindset too that Telco DR that you guys have, and I like this cloud native. It's agile, it's thinking differently. It's all good. And I also want to get your thoughts. You're one of the big keynote speakers on the GSMA stage, which I know you're excited about it. So your tweets and your LinkedIn posts, can you tell us anything about that keynote, what you're going to talk about, what you're thinking is? What's the posture that you're going to take? Give us a little taste. Yeah, so, this is like, I mean, I wish it was totally written at this point. You know, it's true, you know, we're in early in June, you know, the countdown's on. I mean, this stage, like I said, I mean, the biggest speakers in Telco have this opportunity. And I'm really happy that GSMA, you know, is giving me this opportunity to share my message. I think the screen behind me will be like 72 feet, and I don't know how many different directions. My talk is on June 29th. And we play with a bunch of different topics. But I think what I'm going to focus on is really a message around the future is here, the future is now. You know, I think a lot of people might have been surprised by the dish announcement and how closely they're partnering with AWS. And I think there's really two sides forming, right? Whenever there's a big change in an industry, I think there's a lot of debate and discussion and controversy and, you know, sort of, you know, it's fire, we're scared of it, but you know, also it keeps us warm and cooks our food. And I think we're in that kind of moment of change for Telco. And I think people from other industries are like, really, the cloud's been around for a while. But I think in Telco, it's really sort of this, like, you know, they're late bloomers, I guess, and kind of embracing this. And so I think I'm going to focus on, you know, this is a really great thing that you can use for your advantage. And so, yeah, putting in the final touches on that. And I'm excited to deliver that speech. Well, I'm super excited for you and the team because as Steve Jobs said in his crazy ones commercial, you can debate them and ignore them, but you can't, I mean, you can debate them and disagree with them, but you can't ignore them. And I think Telco D or you guys are going to be, have a big presence there in Cloud City Live and Cloud City Virtual, Cloud City in person. All exciting. I know there's some also fun stuff going on. Can we talk about, like, or is this still a closed book? Can you open up a little bit and talk about what's being planned for music and entertainment? So some things on LinkedIn, a poll. Yeah, yeah. No, you know, so my philosophy is leave no stone unturned. We didn't know what this was going to be like. We did, you know, this is not like, oh, let's follow the normal MWC playbook of a booth in meeting rooms and, you know, maybe a happy hour or a party. And so, double down everywhere, double down on the hybrid play and we're double downing on fun. So yeah, I ran two polls, one on Twitter, one on LinkedIn to kind of see kind of what the mood is. What are people into, right? We haven't, no one's really gone to any sort of live music in the United, in Austin, Texas, which is a live music capital of the world. I think I just started concerts sort of coming back. So I ran a poll. It's kind of funny how different it is on the different social platforms. So same for players, right? Ricky Martin, right? Sort of Latin, more upbeat, you got Alicia Keys would be great in a booth setting, right? Acoustic, Eddie Vedder, I mean, Pearl Jam is amazing. Lionel Richie, kind of classic, great with a piano. And I mean, you can see like, Eddie Vedder is just kicking ass on Twitter, but like not, not so loved on LinkedIn. He needs to work on his LinkedIn outreach. So, but yeah, we're looking to have a concert in the booth. You know, we're still sort of finalizing the act. I kind of want to hold that, that card close to my chest. I can confirm that probably is not Eddie Vedder. And I'm kind of bummed because I really was looking forward to that. He just, he can't make it work in a schedule. But you're having music for sure though. You, there will be a musical act. Yeah, no, I think the plan is, is we're gonna have games in the booth, ways to win prizes, really trying to drive telco people into the booth, see other vendors, learn about the cloud, maybe go to a main stage presentation, do some activities in the booth. So that's gonna really drive sort of that participation in all the different areas of the booth. We're gonna have concerts every night, probably with some sort of headline or Tuesday, I think is what we're thinking. That's gonna be like a happy hour sort of situation, probably 45 minute kind of set. So really, really intimate. I think we can only have about 2,500 people in the booth at all times. So COVID regulations and whatever else. So it's gonna be a unique opportunity to be really close to a star, right? And so really excited about that. And then yacht parties. I mean, yacht parties in Spain in June. And so what we're doing there is, this is a little bit more of an intimate event. It's a yacht that can hold about a hundred people. But the idea is to really connect with senior executives and meet them. And given the fact that it's in the summer, usually, again, it's in the early, I mean, it's in the late winter, just beginning spring. So sometimes the weather's a little bit dicey in Barcelona. When you're at snowed, legit. So sometimes it rains, but I think in the summer it's just gonna be hot. So I can deal with hot being from Texas. So yeah, we're totally bringing the fun and bringing the contents and bringing the cloud. And we're really, really, really excited about this show. Summer sand. Let's keep it in the summer. Everyone loves summer in Barcelona. It's beautiful. Isn't it? Yeah. Well, we only have a few weeks left, a quick summary. What should people expect from the in-person experience and what should people expect for the virtual experience? Can you share a quick reason why they should attend and participate and engage? Yeah, I think, you know, just going back to that dish announcement, I think if it caught you by surprise, I think you need to come, right? You haven't been to an MWC in 28 months. Things are changing and they're changing really quickly. And I think people thought the cloud move and cloud adoption was years away. I think the dish story proves that it's here and now. And if you're a technologist and you were caught by surprise, I think you should come. If you're a CEO looking for ways to improve your bottom line, I think the cloud is a fantastic way to do that. If you're a CFO looking for new ways to push your, at the end of the day, telcos have a lot of technology going on, right? Looking for ways to improve the financial metrics, I think you need to go. I think if you were at the end of the day surprised that someone called telco DR could take over MWC and create a whole space, a whole pavilion dedicated to the public cloud, you need to participate in whatever way you can do. I think in person is best, right? I think a lot of people are tired of, like you said, being sequestered and being away from people we're ready to connect. But if you can't, I think you participate in Clouds of the Live, sign up for a robot, sign up for a virtual meeting and start learning now. Start understanding how you can use this for your organization. It's only a few weeks away. We can't wait to see you in Barcelona. I know a lot of people are getting flights now as it opens up. Really last minute hotels are starting to fill up in Barcelona in the summer. I know people making plans to hit the beach towns in the south and take a little extended vacation. Danny Rosen, CEO and founder of telco DR, you cannot ignore her. She's making ways, make a big bets, $100 million in to Togi that we'll hear a few more about that. Big bet with the space, it's paying off. Public cloud in telco. Everyone will be talking about telco DR. Thank you so much for coming on for this MWC preview. So it was great to talk with you, John. Thank you so much. Okay, CUBE Conversation Preview of Mobile World Congress, theCUBE will be there. We'll be part of the great big media production that will be happening. I'm John Furrier with the host of theCUBE. Thanks for watching.