New Providence, The Bahamas, June 30, 2008 – The upcoming conference and expo of the Caribbean Association of National Telecommunications Organizations (CANTO) will bring together world renowned presenters in the field of telecommunications, provision of entertainment contents and information technology. Yet, two of the featured speakers who will bring their messages to the 24th Annual Conference and Trade Exhibition scheduled for Atlantis, Paradise Island from July 13th to 16th truly embody the theme of this year’s Conference: “Caribbean Unity through Connectivity.”
One is Dr. Hamadoun Toure, the Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). He leads the 140-plus year old organization founded as the International Telegraph Union in Paris in 1865, just 21 years after Samuel Morse sent the first telegraph message, to coordinate the international interconnection of telegraphy. Today, the ITU coordinates development of information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and services in least developed countries, produces international standards for global telecommunications networks, manages radio frequency spectrum and satellite orbits and promotes communications services that ensure safety of life on land, at sea and in the skies. Additionally, the ITU seeks to shape the global public and private policy agenda to the benefit of its member countries and their citizenries. Its most recent major policy goal has been summarized in the theme, Connect the World, which has been articulated by its sister organization, the Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) through the theme, Connect the Caribbean. Thus, the conference is honored to have the ITU Secretary General Dr. Hamadoun Toure to lead discussions on the topic “Caribbean Unity through Connectivity”?
Dr. Toure took office on January 1, 2007 and is committed to making ITU an innovative, forward looking organization adapted to meeting the challenges created by the new ICT environment and to spearhead the Union towards implementing the resolutions of the World Summit on the Information Society as well as achieving the Millennium Development Goals. As Director BDT, Dr. Toure played a significant role in the WSIS process by launching numerous projects based on partnership building with international organizations, governments, civil society and the private sector. Clearly, Dr. Toure is an individual who can illuminate the importance of Unity through Connectivity with the CANTO Conference attendees when he delivers the feature address on Monday morning, July 14th.
Just as Dr. Toure embodies the knowledge and the drive to connect “all the world’s inhabitants”, so, too, does another very special guest speaker at the CANTO Conference embody the other portion of the theme. No one knows the importance and richness of the Caribbean, in the regional and global context, as does Frederick A. Morton, Jr., Founder, Chairman and CEO of Tempo Networks, LLC. He also knows the critical importance of unity amongst Caribbean nations, places that he was aware, even as the son of Nevisian parents growing up in the US Virgin Islands, held an irresistible magnetism for the world. As Mr. Morton says of the Caribbean, “Its music, its history, its breathtaking scenery – the place is the Earth’s last Eden!”
Morton had a dream of bringing that Caribbean joy to people all over the globe. A Rutgers-trained lawyer with a Masters degree in Public Administration from Columbia University, he joined a prestigious New York firm, representing many Fortune 500 Companies before joining the media conglomerate, Viacom, where he quickly rose to Chief Litigation Counsel.
Even though Morton subsequently became MTV Networks’ Deputy General Counsel of Business and Legal Affairs, he never lost his passionate immersion in Caribbean culture, and knew that somehow, someday, he would bring his legal expertise and Caribbean passion together to create something the world had never seen before. And so he did, bringing forth a Caribbean Tempo in 2005 that has engaged and excited the hearts and souls of Caribbean people all over the world. He saw Tempo as “the bridge to this culturally rich and trendsetting community.” Frederick Morton certainly knows about the power of unity amongst Caribbean people and will be sharing his thoughts with the delegates at the CANTO Conference on Paradise Island as the Keynote speaker on Monday morning, July 14th.
These two dynamic and knowledgeable speakers are only two of what will be four days full of life-changing and inspiring speakers who will be bringing all of their diverse expertise to the delegates in a Conference that is full of meetings, round table discussions, and seminars sure to build Caribbean Unity through Connectivity while giving the attendees a true Bahamian experience.
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