Description
Plenary Session 3 | Geospatial World Forum 2026 | Amsterdam, April 28 – May 1
This plenary panel from Geospatial World Forum 2026 brings together leaders from telecom, geospatial, and enterprise technology to explore how GeoAI and digital twins are reshaping utilities and network management.
The session opens with a keynote from the CEO of network digital twin specialist Marcatur, who argues that telecom infrastructure built decades ago still relies on engineering data that's often lost before it ever reaches a system of record. He makes the case for shifting from static "systems of record" to dynamic "systems of action," and stresses that combining physical and logical network inventory is key to building reliable, real-time digital twins.
Moderator: Akanksha Tyagi, Senior Director – EMEA, Geospatial World
Panelist:
• Geert De Coensel, CEO, Merkator
• Mats Hultin, Former CIO at Ericson and Board Member, JSAN Consulting
• Krishna Bodanapu, Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Cyient
• Nicolas Paparoditis, Deputy Director General, National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN)
• Bhupinder Singh, Co-founder, EIRIS & Board Member, Magnasoft
• Garret Synnott, Senior Director, Cognizant
Timestamps:
00:00 – Introduction
00:39 – Keynote: Network digital twins in telecom
06:14 – Panel: Are we overhyping or underestimating GeoAI and digital twins?
12:19 – Where is the most immediate ROI: predictive maintenance vs. planning?
17:13 – Enterprise readiness for adoption
19:09 – How automated can network planning realistically become?
22:01 – Barriers to adoption: cost, data quality, organizational structure
25:03 – Public-private partnerships and data quality assurance
#GWF2026 #GeoAI #DigitalTwins #GeospatialWorldForum #NetworkManagement #SmartUtilities #Telecom