Choosing a smarter future at The Brussels 5G Assembly

On Wednesday 20^th November, we collaborated with tech-giants Huawei to organise their inaugural Brussels 5G Assembly. The event welcomed over 200 delegates to the prestigious Concert Noble and featured a full day of interactive presentations and discussions, plus a showcase of 5G solutions and demonstrations. These included projects that look at how 5G is helping to support visually impaired children, providing increased transparency in the agricultural supply chain, and even helping whisky distillers in Scotland to create new recipes and blends.

The opening address was delivered by Dr Hui Cao, Head of Strategy and Policy, Huawei EU Public Affairs and Communication Office, who highlighted the theme of the day: ‘Choose a smarter future’. Dr Cao reminded the room that everyone present shared a common goal of “shaping a smarter, fairer and more integrated future…for Europe.”

Mark Spelman, Head of Thought Leadership at World Economic Forum and Ranga Yogeshwar, Physicist, Science Journalist and German TV Personality, touched on another of the event's key messages, with both providing insights into the ‘bigger picture’ benefits of 5G and how it can help to tackle some of the biggest global and societal challenges.

In keeping with this theme, one of the key takeaways from the event was the potential of Green 5G and how technology can have a positive impact on the environment. Topher White, Founder and CEO of the Rainforest Connection demonstrated how his company monitors rainforests around the world for illegal logging cartels and explained that 5G technology will help to speed up the response time of authorities to these activities, ultimately preserving whole forests for future generations. The event itself followed the ‘5G is greener’ narrative with the organisers making contributions to carbon offset programmes, resulting in the Brussels 5G Assembly being certified as a carbon neutral.