Opening keynotes: Building the world's best autonomous connectivity

Headliners/Keynotes

The race for autonomy is becoming a race for coverage. Discover how operators are redefining 'best connectivity' through always-on, intelligent networks—combining fibre, mobile and satellite, and even partnering with competitors to end dead zones for good.

Welcome: Innovate Americas host  
Aaron Boasman-Patel, VP Knowledge and Innovation, TM Forum 

Keynote: Embedding intelligence, achieving autonomy, unlocking value

• AI is changing telecom, but the real opportunity is bigger than automation. It is about using intelligence and autonomy to make networks a stronger engine for growth — improving customer experiences, accelerating innovation, and turning advanced connectivity into measurable business outcomes
• Discuss how operators and technology partners are working together to embed intelligence across networks and operations. Together, they will explore how autonomy can reshape not only how networks are run, but what they make possible for customers, enterprises, and the broader industry
• The conversation will move beyond the mechanics of automation to focus on the business shift autonomy enables:  from operational efficiency to competitive advantage, and from connectivity as a service to connectivity as a platform for trusted, outcome-based experiences. 
• With T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G Advanced network and Ericsson’s cloud-native platforms and AI capabilities, autonomy becomes more than a technical evolution — it becomes a path to foster faster innovation, more resilient operations, programmable connectivity, and new value creation at scale

Lori Ames, SVP – Network Infrastructure & Operations, T-Mobile
Anand Palkhiwala, Head of Cloud Software & Services, Americas, Ericsson

Keynote: The race for coverage: Redefining best connectivity 

• Moving beyond traditional performance metrics to redefine what “best connectivity” means  
• Combining fibre, mobile and satellite to deliver always-on connectivity wherever customers need it  
• Using intelligent networks to optimise connectivity and eliminate dead zones  
• Breaking down traditional competitive boundaries through network partnerships and collaboration 

Rob Backhouse, VP, Network Technology, Bell 

Keynote fireside chat: When coverage becomes a commodity 

• If connectivity is available everywhere, what makes a network better? 
• How will terrestrial and satellite networks come together to deliver ubiquitous connectivity? 
• What will differentiate networks beyond coverage: quality, reliability, resilience or experience? 
• How can AI and autonomous operations create a smarter, more adaptive network? 
• What role will open architectures and interoperability play? 
• What does this evolution mean for the network of the future and 6G? 

Moderated by George Glass, CTO, TM Forum 
Troy Lupe, EVP & Chief Network Officer, Zayo Group
Valentino Gallo, CTIO, Integratel Peru

Innovate Americas 2026 Hackathon Awards  
Trustworthy AI & Data: Agentic assurance – the quest for proof 

• The search is over. The evidence is in. Over the course of three days and alongside our five industry-leading Partners, 100 hackers tracked autonomous agents through a simulated autonomous enterprise, uncovering evidence trails, reconstructing AI decisions, and tackling one of the biggest challenges facing the industry today: How do we prove AI can be trusted? 
• Join us as we celebrate the teams advancing trustworthy AI from aspiration to reality and reveal the winner of the Innovate Americas 2026 Trustworthy AI & Data Hackathon.

Awards will be hosted by: Aaron Boasman-Patel, VP Knowledge & Innovation, TM Forum 
Representatives from AWS, Nvidia, Dell, Accenture and ServiceNow 

Closing remarks  
Aaron Boasman-Patel, VP Knowledge & Innovation, TM Forum