BT presents the Messaging Challenge at the Genesis Hackathon 2024

As part of Genesis 2024, ROCCO introduces The Genesis Hackathons

We think we can all agree the Industry has some major challenges, some of which have been ongoing for many years. In our annual Genesis event, ROCCO brings together mobile operators, enterprises and vendors to unite to try to address some of these challenges.

• This March, the Genesis team are organising industry Hackathons where two specific challenges one for Messaging and one for Wholesale Roaming, will be raised by Mobile operators, to the participants.
• In the Hackathon style, the participating teams made up of members of MNOs, Vendors or mixed teams will have a short time to respond to the challenges (three weeks) and when the time period has expired will present their solutions.
• The stakeholders who raised the challenges will judge the solutions, and a short list of the top 3 for each Hackathon will be created.
• The top solutions will then go to Genesis 2024 on May 20th and 21st in Seville and be presented to the Lions Den where the Lions will judge them.
• The winner of each Hackathon will receive an award at the Genesis Visionaries Gala.
• The challenges will only be known in March when the Hackathons begin, to ensure all companies have the same time to respond to the challenges. The objective is to find solutions which can be adopted by the industry, potentially helping the entire ecosystem.
• The benefit to the participants will be the ability to demonstrate how in a limited time they have the skills and resources to develop solutions which meet market needs. Are you up for the challenge?

ROCCO is happy to announce that BT will raise the challenge in the Messaging Hackathon

Robert Jones, Head of Messaging at BT, will be the person in charge of representing this stakeholder.

Robert Jones

Robert is the Head of Messaging at BT, leading the team responsible for the strategy and commercial delivery of BT’s Enterprise and Wholesale messaging products and has over nine years’ experience in the messaging industry. Before his current role in BT, Robert had various roles across the Consumer and Business divisions of EE, Orange and Wanadoo, working within Business, Airtime and Broadband. In these roles, Robert has consistently emphasised partnership development to deliver mutual value.

The focus of his team is on the development and delivery of messaging solutions that meet the needs of customers and partners, ensuring that BT’s products are both innovative and reliable. A key priority is the enhancement of the messaging portfolio to include richer messaging products, as well as tackling fraud in the SMS channel. This effort is part of the #TrustinSMS initiative, which has recently been recognised with the Prime Minister’s Award for Cyber, a testament to BT’s comprehensive strategy for protecting its customers.

Robert has a keen interest in technology and security, a passion that informs his approach to leading his team and driving the development of secure and innovative messaging solutions.

What is the Genesis Hackathon about?

The Hackathon is a new and revolutionary competition in our industry in which the participating companies come up in a short time (three weeks) with new and original ideas/products/ services/solutions to solve specific challenges announced in March.

These challenges will be presented by recognised stakeholders (MNOs or Enterprises) in two different categories: Roaming & Messaging on March 4th. The challenges are real industry issues/cases to which several companies are looking for a solution. Participants will have to develop a product/service/ solution that solves the challenges in an original way.

Find out more about The Genesis Hackathons & register to participate here.