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ConferenceWorkshop
[ August 31, 2025 by Rob Kurver 0 Comments ]

vCons: The Missing Link Between AI and Communications

At CASA25, we are looking beyond the buzz to focus on the building blocks that will shape the future of programmable communications. One of the most important of those building blocks is vCon—a new open standard for representing conversations.

Why does this matter? Because as AI begins to transform communications, it needs structure. Large language models are powerful, but without a consistent way to capture and exchange conversational data, they struggle to deliver enterprise-grade results. vCon provides exactly that: a standardized “container” for conversations, whether voice, chat, or video.

The Power of a Definition

Last week, we published a guest blog by Thomas Howe, one of the driving forces behind the vCon standard and the vCon Foundation. In his blog, The Power of a Definition, Thomas explained how having a shared definition of what a conversation is can unlock an ecosystem of AI-driven innovation.

At CASA25, Thomas will take the stage for a keynote session to explain why vCons matter, and why they are a cornerstone for agentic AI in communications. His talk sets the tone for a series of deeper dives:

Panel discussions will explore real-world use cases, from customer engagement to compliance and regulatory requirements. A hands-on workshop will give a small group of participants the chance to dig deeper into the standard and its practical implications.

The vCon Foundation and CPaaSAA members are already working together to turn this definition into impact. That means moving from theory to practice—building AI-ready communications that enterprises, service providers, and telcos can trust.

In short: vCon is the missing link. It connects the messy, human side of conversations with the structured, machine-readable world AI needs to thrive.

At CASA25, you’ll hear directly from Thomas and other pioneers shaping this future. Join us in Amsterdam this September to be part of the conversation—and to help shape what comes next!

[ July 14, 2025 by Rob Kurver 0 Comments ]

🎙️ CPaaSAA Talk with Justin Paul (GSMA) — Why GSMA is Partnering with CASA25

In this CPaaSAA Talk, Rob Kurver speaks with Justin Paul from GSMA Open Gateway about why GSMA is sponsoring CASA25, and the collaborative momentum building around Network APIs, real-world use cases, and industry education.

🔹 Why CASA25?

While GSMA runs large global events like Mobile World Congress, Justin emphasized the importance of participating in focused third-party events like CASA25. Open Gateway’s mission is based on collaboration, and CASA25 offers a unique opportunity to engage a highly curated group of CPaaS innovators, telcos, and ecosystem builders in a more intimate, results-driven environment.

“All boats rise if we can drive real adoption and understanding of network APIs. CASA25 is the perfect place for that.” – Justin Paul

🔍 What to Expect at CASA25 from GSMA

📚 Case Directory Collaboration & Workshop

GSMA and CPaaSAA are now working together to align use cases and case studies, showcasing how telcos and partners are turning network APIs into commercial success stories.

Expect a hands-on workshop at CASA25 exploring:

Real-world deployments (e.g. SIM Swap API for fraud prevention, QoD APIs for financial transactions) Monetization models Ecosystem collaboration across telcos and platforms

“The industry needs more than PowerPoints—we need working examples, revenue, and adoption.”

📢 Day 3: GSMA Open Gateway Analyst Summit

On the final day of CASA25, GSMA will host a dedicated Analyst Summit—bringing together industry analysts and member showcases to:

Demystify the Open Gateway initiative Share real use cases and commercial outcomes Amplify awareness through analyst engagement

This is a strategic move to ensure that influential voices in the industry understand and help spread the word about the real-world progress of network APIs.

🚀 Momentum Building

Justin also shared updates on upcoming GSMA events where Open Gateway will be active, including:

MWC Kigali, MWC Las Vegas, and the new MWC Doha A hackathon at India Mobile Congress Continued API awareness campaigns across regions

🎟️ Special Invitations

Telcos and partners in the GSMA Open Gateway network will be offered special ticket opportunities to join CASA25—ensuring a rich mix of service providers, CPaaS platforms, and innovation leaders all under one roof.

💬 Final Word

CASA25 isn’t just another industry event. It’s where use cases meet monetization, and where real change in telco and communication services is taking shape.

“We’re proud to work with organizations like CPaaSAA who are laser-focused on the same outcomes we care about—real progress, real impact, and real collaboration.”

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ConferenceWorkshop
[ June 29, 2025 by Rob Kurver 0 Comments ]

vCon Foundation Joins CASA25: Shaping the Future of Conversation Intelligence

We’re thrilled to announce that the vCon Foundation is joining CASA25 as an official sponsor—joining the ranks of other ecosystem pioneers like GSMA Open Gateway—to lead the charge on a technology that’s quietly becoming one of the most transformative forces in communications: virtual conversations (vCons).

At this year’s CASA25, the vCon Foundation will be on stage, in the workshops, and in the conversations that matter most—introducing the vCon standard to the CPaaS and cloud communications community, and showing how this deceptively simple innovation could redefine how we store, share, and build on business conversations.

And we’re not exaggerating when we say: this could be as big as SIP, SMS, or CPaaS itself.

What Are vCons—and Why Should You Care?

A vCon is a structured, portable, and machine-readable container for all the data around a conversation: audio, transcripts, participants, metadata, and even AI insights like summaries or sentiment. Think of it as the PDF or vCard for business conversations.

Today, most calls, messages, and meetings are lost to siloed systems, raw audio files, or disconnected transcripts. vCons change that. They allow platforms, enterprises, and AI tools to treat conversations as first-class data objects—with context, structure, and continuity.

And that changes everything.

Why It Matters to the CPaaS Ecosystem

At CPaaSAA, we believe that AI is only as powerful as the data it learns from. And right now, conversation data is mostly unstructured and unusable. vCons unlock that value.

For CPaaS and CCaaS providers, vCons enable:

Plug-and-play conversation intelligence: Any AI model, from any vendor, can read and analyze vCons—accelerating innovation without locking customers in. Unified customer journeys across voice, chat, video, and messaging. Compliance and governance by tracking consent, redacting sensitive data, and storing audit-ready records. Interoperability that breaks down vendor silos and unlocks new business models. And perhaps most importantly: AI with memory.

As we shift from automation to autonomy, the ability to give AI agents persistent, structured memory across interactions becomes the foundation for everything else. vCons are that memory layer.

Why CPaaSAA Is Getting Behind This

As with Network APIs, CPaaSAA believes the real opportunity isn’t just in the tech—it’s in how we connect it to ecosystems, use cases, and adoption at scale.

That’s why we’re excited to welcome the vCon Foundation to CASA25—not just as a sponsor, but as a co-creator of the next wave of programmable communications.

Throughout CASA25, the vCon Foundation will:

Speak on the main stage about the business impact of vCons and real-world use cases already underway. Host a hands-on workshop showing developers and vendors how to build with vCons. Meet with key CPaaSAA members to discuss integration paths, pilots, and co-investment opportunities.

We’ve seen this movie before: standards start quietly, get adopted by a few visionary players, and then become the foundation for multi-billion-dollar ecosystems. That’s what happened with SIP. With SMS. With WebRTC. With CPaaS itself.

vCon is next.

Join Us in Amsterdam

CASA25 is where insiders shape what comes next. We’re proud to have the vCon Foundation as a partner on that journey—and we invite you to come learn, build, and help define the standards that will power the future of voice, video, messaging, and AI.

If you’re building anything in communications, customer experience, or AI-driven engagement—you need to understand vCons.

Let’s make it happen, together.

[ June 13, 2025 by Rob Kurver 0 Comments ]

GSMA joins CASA25: A Global Partner for Real-World Impact

We’re incredibly proud to announce that GSMA—arguably the most influential voice in the global mobile ecosystem—has joined as a sponsor of CASA25.

This is more than just a logo on the page. It’s a powerful signal of alignment. GSMA has been a driving force behind the Open Gateway initiative, standardizing telco capabilities into globally interoperable APIs. And now, they’re not just watching the CPaaSAA movement—they’re actively participating.

Telco Transformation & Network APIs

GSMA’s involvement spans the full CASA25 experience. On Tuesday, they’ll join us as we dive into Telco Transformation and Go-To-Market strategies. That afternoon, we’ll co-host a joint workshop on Network APIs—exploring what they are, why they matter, and how telcos and partners can actually monetize them. In the evening, GSMA is sponsoring the CASA Social Program, helping bring the community together in a relaxed and meaningful setting. Then on Wednesday morning, they’re organizing and sponsoring the Open Gateway Analyst Summit, which we’re proud to co-create with them. It’s shaping up to be a high-impact session focused on real use cases, learnings from the field, and the road ahead.

The collaboration doesn’t stop there. GSMA’s involvement reflects a growing partnership. We’ve been aligning on use cases, sharing learnings, and working together on everything from the case directory to the Certified Playbook. Our shared mission is clear: help telcos succeed by connecting them with developers, CPaaS platforms, aggregators, and contact centers—with practical, monetizable use cases.

Telco Engagement

We’re also excited that as part of their sponsorship, GSMA will invite 10 telcos that are not yet CPaaSAA members to join the full CASA25 experience. This creates space for new voices and more diverse contributions, mixing ecosystems in ways that reflect the future of our industry.

For us, GSMA’s support is a milestone. Just two years ago, we launched CPaaSAA to raise awareness. Last year, we pushed to get Network APIs on the agenda. And now, in Year Three, we’re moving to impact—working side by side with global players like GSMA to make it real.

We’re thankful for their trust and partnership. And we’re just getting started.

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ConferenceWorkshop
[ May 22, 2025 by Rob Kurver 0 Comments ]

Workshops at CASA25: Small Room, Big Impact

At CASA, we’re always looking for ways to make the experience deeper, more personal, and more valuable for our members and partners. This year, we’re introducing something brand new—and we think it’s going to be one of the most impactful additions yet: invite-only sponsor workshops.

These aren’t your typical conference sessions. They’re intimate, closed-door conversations where our key sponsors get to connect with the people who matter most to them—partners, prospects, thought leaders, and innovators—in a room with 12 to max 24 seats, and no distractions.

Eight Spots. High Trust. Big Opportunity.

Across Monday and Tuesday, we’ll host eight of these workshop sessions. Each one is led or sponsored by a Gold or Silver CASA25 sponsor. Some may be product deep dives. Others will be expert-led roundtables or strategy-focused conversations. What they all have in common? They go deeper than a keynote ever could.

Four spots are already claimed by sponsors who saw the value right away. That means there are just four more workshop slots available.

If you’re a sponsor and you want to:

Create a private space for discussion with select invitees Explore a topic in-depth, with expert moderation Build real relationships that go beyond badge scans

…this is your moment.

What Makes It Special?

Unlike big-stage presentations, these workshops are quiet, curated, and built for quality interaction. They’re held in private rooms onsite at CASA25, with top-level attendees who are invited for a reason.

You get an hour to host a focused, high-trust conversation. No mics, no panels, no pressure—just smart people talking about what matters.

If you’re planning your sponsorship and looking for a way to make a meaningful impression, this is it.

Let’s build something memorable together!

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ConferenceWorkshop
[ May 11, 2025 by Rob Kurver 0 Comments ]

More Impact, Less Noise: Why CASA25 Will Be Different (and Better)

We’re doing it differently this year. Not just because we can—but because the industry needs it.

The CPaaS space is moving fast. AI is rewriting the rules. Network APIs are breaking silos. Security and trust are front and center. And the convergence of telcos, platforms, and intelligence means one thing: we need less talk, more action.

Welcome to CASA25: the impact-first experience.

Member-Only = Higher Signal, No Noise

This year, we’ve made a bold call: CASA25 is for members only. Why? Because the magic happens when people don’t have to pitch, prove, or posture. When they’re in a room of equals, peers, challengers. When they can say what’s really going on—and ask the questions that matter.

If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room. At CASA25, you’re in the right room.

With 180 curated attendees, this is where CPaaS insiders connect, create, and collide.

The Right Vibe: Tobacco Theater

Our new venue—the iconic Tobacco Theater in Amsterdam—matches our energy. Intimate, edgy, and full of character. No expo halls. No plastic booths. Just conversations that matter.

Picture this: deep dives in the main track, real-world use cases on stage, workshops happening in the shadows—tucked away in breakout spaces where alliances are forged and deals are born.

The Format: One Track. Many Sparks.

We’re keeping the main track tight. No filler. Just a curated sequence of keynotes, panels, and rapid-fire sessions designed to inspire action. You’ll hear from industry pioneers, startup rebels, and global telcos shaping the future—live and unfiltered.

Alongside: invite-only workshops and roundtables. Small rooms. Big energy. From AI frameworks to API monetization to trust-building in a fragmented ecosystem—this is where the real work gets done.

What You’ll Leave With

A dozen real ideas to take back and implement Fresh connections with people who actually matter A fire in your belly and a notebook full of notes And maybe—just maybe—a new venture, product, or partnership

Why We’re Doing This

Because in Year 3 of CPaaSAA, we’re not chasing volume—we’re chasing impact. CASA isn’t just an event. It’s our annual moment to shape what’s next for this industry. Together.

See you in September. Bring your brain. Bring your edge. Bring your full self.

Because this isn’t a conference. This is CASA.