 Welcome, everybody, to JSA TV Live Streaming here from Platform Congress in Antib. This is the Live Streaming Newsroom for telecom and data center professionals. I'm Jamie Skado-Kataya, and I am so excited to be joined by my longtime friend Nikola Hayes, the non-executive director here at Platform Group, as well as the associate dean of London Smith Bank University Business School. Yes! Oh, gosh, I don't know how you managed to do that with so much energy then, especially at this time of the day. Thank you so much for having me. It's a delight to be here with a microphone in front of me with you once again, after years of COVID and we're live in person. I know, and I love what you said to us earlier today. It's like we've been all trapped in an airport, just like suspended state for the past two years while we've been dealing with this pandemic. I thought it was such a great analogy. So welcome, welcome, welcome officially back to JSA TV Live, and congratulations on Platform Congress. This is amazing. Thank you so much. We're very, very, very pleased with how it's gone. Couldn't ask for more really with an inaugural first run event. The atmosphere is fabulous and it's just delightful to see so many happy faces. Can you give our viewers a little bit of background? How did you guys dream this up? Oh, of course. As most people certainly within Europe will know, the team behind Platform have been involved in this industry for many, many years, over 20 years now, and have been responsible for some of the most successful events in the world and certainly in Europe. But what we realized, certainly, you know, COVID was dreadful, but it gives you time to reflect and to think when you can't see people anymore. And it was, what are we missing? Are there too many industry events already? Because that is something that, you know, some people do think. And we realized that the larger events are fantastic and the networking opportunities wonderful. But we've moved away from that really, really important key piece, which is the content. And I think now more than ever, in post-COVID and with the way world economies are going with everything that's going on politically, we need to actually have a platform to be able to share ideas and collaborate and to be able to learn from each other once again. So it was about bringing it all back to that content piece with high-level, very, very knowledgeable people in their areas so that we can learn together once again. Yes, and not infomercials, but actual quality content from the real thought leaders, innovators of our infrastructure industry. I am in love with Platform Congress, I must say. And there's a certain energy on this floor. I mean, it really is just exciting to be in this room and to soak up this energy. How do you describe the energy of this year's Platform Congress? Gina, and I think some of it being a smaller event again, there's a real benefit to that because people get to talk to each other, you can find people. I think the content, the fact that those panel sessions certainly that we had this morning, the keynotes that we've had are so interesting and so full of really rich content that everybody is just really enjoying it. They're seeing people they might not have seen for quite some time face-to-face. The place that we're holding it in on Teeb is the vibe of the town itself, I think, is then mirroring itself in the vibe of the conference of the whole. So we are so, so, so happy that people have supported us this year. JSA, obviously, our sponsors taking a leap of faith for a first-run event. And of course our speakers, very, very senior, very, very busy professionals that have taken time out to come and speak for us because without them we wouldn't have the event that we have. Yeah, and you're right. Having Teeb as a backdrop to this conference has really, there's unquestionable energy and we mentioned content and great speakers. Tell us a little bit more about the key takeaways that you're hoping some of these attendees are walking away with. Oh gosh, how long have you got? I could be here all day. I've learned so much as well. I think the key takeaways are that we're in a really interesting space. You know how long I've been in this industry and it tends to, it ticks over, but because of the wider geopolitical issues, all of a sudden things like investment, things like the fact that it is much more expensive to get hold of funding, the risk, the capital funding, decisions need to be made, whereas for the last sort of five, six, seven years money has just been thrown into it because, let's face it, it was very cheap to get money from whichever form of investment. We're not in that environment anymore and so I think we're going to see a huge shake-up in terms of where that investment goes and certainly from some of the smaller, newer operators coming in, it's going to be a little bit more difficult and a lot more planning needing to go into it. The Africa presentation, the opportunities that are there, the things that are happening on the hyperscale, the investment in infrastructure at the ground level, in the networks, in the cables, all of that is, again, you can read these things but when you're hearing it live on a stage and getting that insider information from people that know this stuff inside out is just joyful. We've got two fantastic panels tomorrow, obviously, one being chaired by Jamie, which is women in data centres, and then the other that I'm chairing, which is diversity and inclusivity in the industry. So I'm looking forward to those now as well. But I'd like to let all the viewers know that this isn't going to be a one-off. We are already planning for next year's, which is going to be bigger and better with more streams of content going on so we can widen it out into more of the whole infrastructure piece as well as looking at some of the operational side as well as finance, and that's going to be being held back here in Antib from the 2nd to the 4th of September 2023. And we've also got an event being held in Marrakesh that looks specifically at Africa because it is such an exciting space in June next year. So we hope to see you back there with us again. Oh, that is so exciting. And I'll tell you the international discussions have been exhilarating. Hearing from the African thought leaders on how they're really pushing their infrastructure to the next level. Hearing from, of course, so many Europeans here today, us Americans representing, literally every corner of the world, so well represented. And now to hear this exciting news that you guys are just getting started. Congratulations. These days are exciting. Thank you. And I feel like, you know, this is just breaking news, really. Yeah, absolutely. The press release hasn't even gone out yet. So you are that this is the first to hear. As always on JSA TV, the first with the utter minute news. Love it, love it, love it. And I should say too that you've just been so involved in producing some of the top regarding industry events throughout your career. We mentioned that earlier. But how have you seen that these events have evolved over the years? What direction do you see them moving in the future? Do you know, and I was thinking about, I was chatting to somebody earlier about this because I organized the program for the first ever event in this space in 2000 in London, and then in 2001 in San Francisco. The first ever events on data centers in the world. In many ways, do you know we haven't moved in a good way. We still have that there, but I do think that sometimes some of the events become almost a victim of their own success because they become so large. They're fabulous in terms of the networking. They're great fun, but we do lose sight of that content piece. And I think going forward, we're going to see a lot more specialized events, whether it's on towers or whether it's on switches and gears, whether it's on the actual cable side of things that are more focused rather than really large, large events more focused on that content, more niche. And I think we're going to see, you know, what better developed in terms of giving inside valuable knowledge that people can take into their own businesses. Nick, from us to you, from my heart to yours, thank you so much for all that you've done for this industry. You have literally educated us for decades and provided platforms like this for us to network and grow together and collaborate. And it's been a joy knowing you all these years. In 20 years time, we're still south here doing this. Absolutely. Where else are we going to be? Let's be honest. Absolutely. Why not, Anteep? So, where can our viewers go to learn more about this fabulous event? Go to the Platform Markets Group website. We're on LinkedIn, very active on LinkedIn. You might have seen lots of things coming out there today, including the live TV streaming. But it's www.platformmarketsgroup.com. Yes, there you guys have it. Thank you so much, Nick, for your time. As always, so generous. And thank you, viewers, for tuning in to JSA TV Live here from Anteep Platform Congress. Thank you very much. Happy networking, everybody.