Two days on stage at the Tobacco Theater, on one subject: what happens to communications when intelligence arrives. Intelligent Engagement is the term CPaaSAA coined for that shift — connectivity to conversation to intelligence to insight — and the programme runs as a single argument in three parts. Intelligence: what the market actually is, and where AI is already shipping and being paid for. Trust: who can be trusted to carry it. Transformation: what it takes to move.
Canal Boat Networking
Investors, founders and operators on a boat, with no pitches and no running order. Sandbox hosts, and the point is the conversations that are hardest to arrange anywhere else. Book it when you get your ticket — capacity is limited, so add it early. If your plans change, go back to Eventbrite and add it later, or release your place for someone else.
The State of Intelligent Engagement
What actually shipped and got paid for in the last twelve months, and what that says about where value is moving: connectivity to conversation to intelligence to insight. This is the frame for both days and the yardstick for everything after it — you should leave knowing which claims to take seriously and which to discount.
Rob Kurver — Founding Partner, CPaaSAA
Where the Money Actually Went
He ran commercial at a CPaaS at scale before advising the operators trying to capture the same value, so he has watched the same budget decision from both sides of the table. Where AI spend is actually landing, which programmes survive their first renewal, and what separates the ones that reach the P&L from the ones that stay in innovation. Specific about the pattern, not the vendor.
Ivan Ostojic — Partner, McKinsey & Company
Outside In: Where the Architecture Question Is Being Settled
Where intelligence runs, who governs it and who owns the layer above the model are being settled now, and mostly outside Europe. An outside-in read on decisions already taken in the US and Asia, and what those close off for everyone else. You will leave with a clearer view of which architectural choices are still genuinely open to you.
Leonard Lee — Executive Analyst & Founder, neXt Curve
Intelligent Engagement, One Year On
She built her CASA25 keynote around intelligent engagement before the term had travelled. A year on: what has actually changed inside companies that already own a communications stack they have paid for, and what it took to move them. The practical version of a transformation story, including the parts that did not work.
Neelam Sandhu — Founder, NS Executive Advisory
The Investor View: Competitors Who Co-Invest
Two investors who compete for the same deals and still write cheques together. How that works in practice, why it started in healthcare, and what an operator should take from a model built on shared risk rather than exclusivity. Relevant if you are weighing a corporate venture arm against partnering with people who already have one.
John Banta — President & MD, Blue Venture Fund/Chris Zock — Co-CEO, Sandbox Industries
Network APIs, AI and Navigating New Territory
Network APIs and AI are converging faster than either roadmap assumed. What that means for a platform that has to sell both, to enterprise customers who want neither in the abstract and both in a working product. A candid account of what gets built, what gets shelved, and how a large CPaaS decides between them.
Kunal Shukla — Head of Network APIs, Vonage
Four Futures for Intelligent Engagement — and What Has to Be True
Four scenarios for where intelligent engagement lands by 2030, each with the conditions that would have to hold for it to happen. The analysts make the case, then the room votes — and the result comes back on Tuesday afternoon after two days of argument. You leave with a framework for testing your own plan against the futures the market is pricing in.
Andrew Collinson — Founder & MD, Connective Insight chairs/Raúl Castañón — Industry Analyst, 451 Research/Amy Cameron — Director Research, STL Partners/Nick Lane — Founder & Chief Messaging Officer, Mobilesquared
AI Voice from the IMS Core
AI voice running inside the IMS core rather than bolted on beside it. Named deployments, the numbers behind them, and what changed operationally once it went live. For anyone weighing whether voice intelligence belongs in the network or in an application layer above it.
Al Balasco — SVP Communication Solutions, Radisys
Voice Intelligence at Scale
A model company and a national operator on the same stage, with the thing running live rather than described in slides. What breaks at scale, what it costs to keep running, and which assumptions from the pilot did not survive production. The honest version of a deployment story.
Leander Zapheriou — GTM, ElevenLabs/Otto-Jan Woltjer — Portfolio Manager Mobile & UC/Voice, KPN
What Do You Charge For Intelligence? Pricing the Shift from Conversation to Insight
Everyone agrees value is moving up the stack. Almost nobody has changed their price list. A pricing specialist chairs while three vendors explain what actually goes on the invoice when conversation becomes insight, and where margin is genuinely available. The only session in two days that takes pricing head on — bring your own questions.
Žiga Lešnik — Partner, Simon-Kucher chairs/Ricard Chramer — Founder & CEO, Meetric/Daniel Morris — CPO, Sinch/Adnan Saleem — CTO Software & Cloud Solutions, Radisys
The Antithesis: What Nobody Cares About
The model is table stakes. What decides the outcome is go-to-market, and nobody writes posts about that. Twenty deliberately contrarian minutes on what customers actually respond to, what a sales motion looks like when the technology is no longer the differentiator, and where most AI strategies quietly fail.
Sam Wilson — CEO, 8×8
Building Sovereign AI Comms
Sovereignty as a product category rather than a compliance cost — built in Europe, for buyers who cannot put regulated conversations through a centralised model. What that architecture costs to build, who is paying a premium for it, and how the pitch lands with procurement. A commercial case, not a policy argument.
Daan de Wever — Founder & CEO, Dstny
When the Categories Collapse
UCaaS, CCaaS and CPaaS have stopped describing what anyone actually buys. What replaces them, who loses when the labels go, and what happens to the companies named after them — including the consolidation that usually follows. Four platforms with skin in the game, no opening statements, and a chair who will not let them agree.
Dave Michels — Principal Analyst, TalkingPointz chairs/Sam Wilson — CEO, 8×8/Daan de Wever — Founder & CEO, Dstny/Kunal Shukla — Head of Network APIs, Vonage/Jesper Larsson — Head of Strategy & M&A, Sinch
Day One Close
Five minutes to pull the day together before drinks — what the arguments had in common, and what to listen for tomorrow.
Rob Kurver — Founding Partner, CPaaSAA
Day One Party — TufTuf Club
Off-site at TufTuf, and the point of the evening is the room rather than the programme. Everyone from both days is there, and most of the useful introductions happen after the first drink.
Welcome Back
Five minutes to set up the day: what Monday established, and the two questions this morning has to answer.
Rob Kurver — Founding Partner, CPaaSAA
Network APIs and the Intelligent Communication Fabric
Network APIs as part of a communication fabric rather than a product line, from the operator that has committed hardest to it. What has been built, what enterprises are actually buying, and how the commercial model differs from selling connectivity. A view of what a network API business looks like once it is past the pilot stage.
Aoife Condren — CMO, Proximus Global
Mobile Network APIs: Signals of Value
Eighty interviews, twenty-one markets and seventy-plus deployments — the first hard read on where network API revenue is actually coming from, with STL’s independent forecast alongside it. Which use cases are earning, which have stalled, and what the numbers say about the next two years. The data behind the arguments in the rest of the block.
Andrew Collinson — Founder & MD, Connective Insight/Miriam Sabapathy — STL Partners
The $25 Trillion Blind Spot: Turning Network Intelligence into Retail Revenue
Open Gateway deployed in retail at scale, with the consent question addressed on stage rather than left to the legal annexe. How the deployment was sold internally, what the retailer got out of it, and where the friction actually was. A worked example rather than a market sizing.
Paolo Fodor — Founder & CEO, Vydens
Enterprises Don’t Buy APIs. So What Is the Industry Actually Selling?
Enterprises buy outcomes they can price, not endpoints. So what is on the invoice, and who signs it? Two operators, a retail deployment and the verification layer work through what the industry is actually selling, to whom, and at what point a network capability becomes something a buyer will pay for. Crafted by GSMA Open Gateway.
Amy Cameron — Director Research, STL Partners chairs/Johanna Wood — Director Network APIs Global, Vodafone/Ievgen Martsin — VP Product, Proximus Global/Paolo Fodor — Founder & CEO, Vydens/Volkan Kaya — Founder & CPA, WeVerify
Who Is Actually Calling: Network Signals in Production
Caller identity checked against live network signals, on stage. The provenance problem stated plainly and then demonstrated — what the network can prove about a call, what it cannot, and what that is worth to an enterprise drowning in spoofed traffic. A live demo, not a walkthrough.
Mark Harvey — Chief Identity Officer, XConnect/Matt Salisbury — CEO, Honey Badger HQ
Who Pays for a vCon, and for What
Conversations are becoming records — consented, portable and auditable. Someone has to pay for that, and where a record originates decides who can credibly charge for it. A carrier, a platform and an analyst work through where the money sits, and which players can never retrofit provenance no matter what they build.
Moderator to be announced/Jon Brinton — CRO, Crexendo/Kevin Nethercott — CEO, Tresic/Raj Dass — Simwood
Nobody Negotiates Their Way Out of Being a Supplier
Scarcity, risk and demand. Why suppliers stay suppliers, what that position actually costs over time, and the three things that change it. Ten minutes to open the afternoon and frame the argument about capital and ecosystem.
Rob Kurver — Founding Partner, CPaaSAA
The Operator View: Getting Things Done Inside
How anything actually moves inside a large organisation, from someone who has sat on both sides of that table. Where proposals die, who has to be convinced first, and what a founder or partner should do differently. Practical rather than inspirational, and specific about the sequence.
Shilpa Strong — Independent Board Director, ISC/Dan Phillips — Partner, Sandbox Industries
Ecosystem and Capital: Five Cities, One Recurring Conversation
Six months, five cities and the same conversation every time: capital wants into this sector and cannot find the front door. What Sandbox heard from operators, founders and investors, and what that says about how the ecosystem is put together. Where the mismatch between money and opportunity actually sits.
Chris Zock — Co-CEO, Sandbox Industries
Network Signals, Sovereignty and Cross-Industry Collaboration
Where operators partner instead of acquire, what data residency does to the architecture, and which network signals are worth sharing across an industry boundary. A German operator that built its own CPaaS, an Asian carrier, a challenger platform and a hyperscaler, with an analyst holding the ring. Expect disagreement about who should hold the data.
Dean Bubley — Principal Analyst, Disruptive Analysis chairs/Jacqueline Hennessy — Sr CPaaS Product Manager, T-Wholesale/Ardian Atmaja — Head of Digital Product Development, Telin/Kevin Dundon — Alianza/Sridhar Gollapudi — Head of Industry Solutions, Google Cloud
The Founder View: Working With Corporates
Selling into, partnering with and surviving a large corporate, from the founder’s side. How long it really takes, what a pilot is actually worth, and which corporate signals mean something. The other half of the ecosystem conversation, and useful in both directions.
Andrea Reynolds — CEO, Swoop/Jeff Carroll — Partner, Sandbox Industries
Speaker and title to be announced
To be announced
Shark Tank
The showcase challenge has grown up. Real startups, real investors and real questions — no demo a weekend with an AI could have produced. Founders pitch, the judges push back in public, and the room sees how these companies are actually assessed. Often more useful than the pitches themselves.
Chris Zock — Co-CEO, Sandbox Industries chairs/Shabeer Puthukkudi — Core Cognitics/Remco Magielse — GlbNxt/Further startups to be announced
What the Room Believes: Intelligent Engagement in 2027
Monday’s vote, read back after two days on stage, by the analyst who ran it. What the room believed on Monday morning, whether the arguments in between moved it, and what that implies for the next twelve months. The one session where the audience’s own view is the subject.
Andrew Collinson — Founder & MD, Connective Insight chairs/Amy Cameron — Director Research, STL Partners/Dave Michels — Principal Analyst, TalkingPointz/Raúl Castañón — Industry Analyst, 451 Research
The Year Ahead
Thanks to the speakers and sponsors, the CPaaSAA calendar for the year ahead, and where CASA27 goes. Ten minutes on what these two days changed and what to watch between now and next September.
Rob Kurver — Founding Partner, CPaaSAA
Drinks, Food and Expo
Proper food, not just crisps, and an hour and a half to finish the conversations the programme started. The expo stays open throughout. At 19:00 it ends and the rest of the evening is yours — home, bed, or a pub, depending on your flight.
GSMA Telco Roundtable and Open Gateway Forum
A closed, GSMA-run day for operator champions, working through Open Gateway implementation in regional clusters. Technical alignment between operators rather than a vendor conversation. Details go to invited participants.
This page is kept up to date as speakers, sponsors and travel plans change, so times and line-ups may move. Check back nearer the event for the final running order. Speaker names link through to full profiles.