[SatNews] Bringing a ton of information to attendees is GVF with their presentations and events for today (Monday) through Friday of this week.

Starting at 1:30 p.m. and running until 2:45 on Monday, GVF starts the afternoon by turning the attention of room 143A to the hot topic of Maritime Satcom Strategies. GVF’s Maritime Satcom Forum Chair, Simon Bull, who is also Senior Analyst at COMSYS, will spearhead discussions for the second half of the GVF’s Emerging Applications Series. Mr. Bull will open the Maritime discussion with a presentation on Maritime Satcom Strategies — The State of the Art, focusing on satellite industry offerings that have enabled an economic extension to the maritime environment; services normally found in terrestrial work-places, i.e. voice and high speed broadband access delivering email, intra/inter-net access and video applications for both business and personal usage. Join Simon, iDirect, INMARSAT, EUTELSAT, HUGHES and others as they discuss how they are taking connectivity to the next level.

Then, from 3:15 until 4:00 p.m., directly after the networking break, the Seminar will focus on a Market Analysis: The Maritime Sea Change. Seminar participants will share their institutional knowledge of the Maritime market and help shed light on market trends and where the Satellite Industry’s involvement is headed.

GVF’s pre-day Series concludes at 4:00 p.m. with the topic Commercial Shipping, Fishing and Leisure: Addressing the "2nd Layer of the Pyramid" which, due to subject matter popularity, has turned into a closing C-level roundtable that pulls together more of the top Maritime players. Joining Simon on this Panel are Nick Dukakis, SVP Maritime Services, SpeedCast, Bertrand Hartman, CEO, Omni Access, Jan Hetland, CTO, Telenor Satellite Broadcasting AS, Steve McCabe, CEO, NewWave Broadband Ltd., Tore Morten Olsen, CEO, Marlink, and Mark Borgas, General Manager, Australian Satellite Communications Pty, Ltd.

For Tuesday, March 15th, at the GVF Booth, #1917, receive information on membership programs, the GVF 2011 Calendar, the GVF training experience, and much more. Members, partners, and affiliates of the GVF will be at the booth throughout the conference.

Wednesday, March 16th, from 10:15 to 11:30 a.m., GVF kicks off their annual Regional Focus Forum with the Eastern Europe & CIS Panel: The New Satellite on the Block in room 202. Eastern European and CIS satcom market opportunities are escalating. From oil and gas to universal service, and from lotteries to consumer broadband, GVF Secretary General David Hartshorn will delve into this discussion with the region’s leading players: Dozer, Synterra, Intersputnik, Russian Satellite Communications Company, Gazprom Space Systems, Hughes Network Systems and VT iDirect, uncovering the vertical markets that keep this region on the industry map.

From 1:45 to 3:00 p.m., Asia Pacific: Winning One Country Market at a Time starts off the afternoon in room 202. Asia's upside market potential has always eclipsed the rest of the world, and recent developments are keeping that promise alive: China's comms-on-the-move business is brisk. Despite intense competition and political turmoil, India's VSAT sector continues to post gains. Indonesia and Australia are raising the bar for government-funded broadband initiatives. Asia's DTH, maritime and other sectors are big and getting bigger. Gregory Francis, Managing Director, Access Partnership will drive the discussion with a key group of regional players, including SpeedCast, AsiaSat, Australian Satellite Communications, Mahdi Bagh Computers, Supernet, IPSTAR, THAICOM Public Company Limited, and SingTel.

From 3:15 to 4:30 p.m., COMSYS’ Simon Bull Chairs the GVF regional panel, Middle East and Africa: Feast or Famine (Or Both)? Has satellite in Africa and the Middle East peaked, or is there more to the story? Sky-Stream, ARABSAT, Regent Square Group, Nilesat, Microcom and MENANETS will discuss new C, Ku and Ka-band satellite services that target African and Middle Eastern customers, fiber build-out and the threat of a saturated wireless back-haul business. What is the short, medium and long-term future of these dynamic regions?

Latin America: A Sleeping Giant Awakes will close out the GVF annual Regional Focus Forum at Satellite 2011, starting at 4:45 p.m.. Latin America is back. Rebounding economies, pent-up demand, and the availability of new satellite services are stirring a resurgence of business in the energy and mining sectors, government verticals, consumer markets, and more. But there's always a catch; deregulation, terrestrial competition and orbital congestion are just a few of the variables to be addressed by the satellite industry. Cristovam Nascimento, Senior Partner, Unisat and GVF Brazilian Correspondent will work with a panel consisting of experts from Intelsat, SES WORLD SKIES, O3b Networks, Tesacom, Andesat, Telespazio Argentina, HISPASAT and Star One S.A.

On Thursday, March 17th, the Gobal Interference Mitigation Initiative takes place. From 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., The Global Interference Mitigation Initiative: The Year in Review & Prospects for 2011 and Beyond presented by GVF & SUIRG will comprise GVF’s final day of thei program. The Forum, which will be held in room 209, will provide updates on each facet of this global industry challenge, as well as each of the initiatives that are underway to resolve the problem. The global initiative to combat escalating levels of satellite interference has now reached a scale that is without precedent. The international satellite sector, the user community and governments have been collaborating to implement a variety of solutions designed to improve signal quality for broadcast and telecommunication services worldwide. This Forum will reveal the results of those efforts and determine the next steps to be taken, particularly as they relate to training, product quality assurance, carrier ID, the Space Data Association, and wireless interference. With regard to the latter, regulators around the globe are beginning to consider and open up more satellite spectrum to wireless operators. Recently, Ku and even Ka-band have been added to the list of targeted frequencies, together with C-band.

David Hartshorn, Secretary General, Global VSAT Forum (GVF) and Martin Coleman, President/CEO, Satellite IRG, will be leading the discussion among top industry experts including: Ron Busch, VP, Network Operations, Intelsat; Mark Rawlins, Head of Payload Engineering and Operations, Eutelsat,; Stewart Sanders, SVP SES Eng.; Chairman Space Data Association; Tim Shroyer, Chief Technology Officer, General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies; Mark Steel, Sr. Director of Engineering, Cobham SATCOM Land Systems; and Dick Tauber, VP of Transmission Systems and New Technology, CNN News Group. There is no charge for attendance at the Interference Mitigation Summit, but seating will be limited. To ensure a place for your organization in this important forum, RSVP today at the GVF or SUIRG websites.

On Friday, March 18th, GVF and SatProf will offer a Hands On Skills Test (HOST) and a GVF HOST Examiner conference on at the GVF, Alexandria, VA, Training Center. With a large number of prospective students already planning to attend the show, this scheduled HOST will provide an efficient option for trainees to complete the HOST required for both GVF Basic and Advanced VSAT installation certification. Trainees may pre-pay for this session at http://GVF.coursehost.com/course/z28fu2 and must also email [email protected] to reserve a place—spaces are limited. In the afternoon of March 18, an informal meeting of worldwide GVF Examiners will be held at the same location. All current GVF Examiners and Instructors, and all of those interested in applying to become an Examiner are invited to join us. There is no charge for attendance.