🎤 Show Me the CPaaS! – The CASA25 Showcase Challenge Recap

Where CPaaS Meets American Idol

The grand finale of CASA25 wasn’t just another panel or pitch. It was a showdown. A live challenge. A little bit of circus, a whole lot of talent—and just a dash of demo chaos (because what would a live tech demo be without that?).

Welcome to the CPaaS Showcase Challenge: where four ambitious players took the stage not just to talk, but to show what CPaaS can do. Think “American Idol” for programmable communications—complete with judges, a live audience vote, and an evening reveal of the winner over well-earned beers.

And after the smoke cleared, Creo Solutions walked away with the top honors. But each contestant brought something unique to the stage—turning this into one of the most exciting sessions of the entire event.

💡 The Format: Live Demos, Real Judges, Big Stakes

Each contestant had 10 minutes to demo a live product or prototype. A panel of judges—Amy Cameron (STL Partners), Andrew Collinson (CPaaSAA), and Mike Mills (Gamma)—asked the hard questions. The audience joined as the 4th judge, voting in real-time across five criteria:

Innovation Ease of Deployment API/AI Integration Commercial Relevance Presentation Style

Let’s meet the four contenders and their demos:

🚀 Telnyx – “Ask Your Assistant, Not Your Developer”

Presenter: Pete Christianson

Telnyx opened strong with a vision for voice-first AI assistants that anyone—not just developers—can spin up. Pete demonstrated a scheduling bot built entirely by a non-technical product marketer. The voice AI handled calls, recognized users, and even interacted using natural language prompts.

Despite a hiccup during the live demo (we’ve all been there), the message was clear: self-serve CPaaS is moving from low-code to no-code to language-native.

🧠 Standout Insight:

“The future of CPaaS isn’t about asking your developer—it’s about asking your assistant.”

💬 Judge Reactions:

• Loved the infrastructure and vision.
• Strong voice-AI play, especially for SMBs.
• Questions about GTM, channel strategy, and fraud controls.

🧠 Radisys – Agentic AI, Natively in the Network

Presenter: Adnan Saleem

If Telnyx imagined a no-code CPaaS future, Radisys delivered the network-native AI reality. Adnan dialed a phone number—no apps, no installs—and activated a personal voice assistant that joined a 3-way call, understood context, answered questions, and sent a post-call summary via SMS.

Agentic AI, integrated directly into the IMS core, running on telco infrastructure. A jaw-dropper.

📲 Why It Mattered:

Fully app-free experience Personal and contextual assistant Works on any device, not just smartphones

💬 Judge Reactions:

• Monetization path for telcos is clear
• Real concerns around privacy, hallucination, and AI trust
• Strong vision with real-world use cases

🏃‍♂️ XConnect – The Global API-Driven Marathon

Presenter: Mark Harvey (Sekura.id, now part of XConnect)

XConnect brought the most creative use case of the day: a global marathon app powered by 12 GSMA Open Gateway APIs. From seamless login and geolocation to crowd control, KYC, and roaming detection—this app wasn’t just about running. It was about showcasing the power of layered APIs in a real-world scenario.

The app even triggered interest from a major sports brand. Not bad for a prototype built “just for fun.”

🎯 Big Idea:

APIs are like LEGO blocks—alone they’re fine, but together they build real value.

💬 Judge Reactions:

• Loved the story and ambition
• Pressed on go-to-market and monetization
• Disappointed they couldn’t see the live app in action

🧠 Creo Solutions – The Conversation Intelligence Cloud

Presenter: Robert Galop

Last up—and eventually the winner—was Creo with a vision for Conversation Intelligence at Scale. By ingesting VCons (voice conversations as structured data) across telco networks and apps, Creo provides call summaries, alerts, insights, and co-pilots for every type of customer—especially SMBs.

The demo? Seamless. Calls became structured records. Emotional alerts triggered owner follow-ups. Action items synced with apps. And everything was API-enabled for partners to plug into.

📈 Why They Won:

Business-ready product Clear revenue lift for telcos and UCaaS/CCaaS providers Strong vision, great execution, and killer pitch

💬 Judge Reactions:

“This doubles ARPU.” Concern over data overload addressed with usable dashboards Scalable, telco-friendly, and enterprise-relevant

🏆 And the Winner Is…

🥇 Creo Solutions

After the judges debated and audience scores were tallied, Creo was crowned the winner of the CASA25 CPaaS Showcase Challenge. Their conversation intelligence platform ticked every box: innovation, commercial relevance, scalability, and polish.

🎤 Closing Time: From Demos to Drinks

With the Challenge concluded, Rob Kurver came on stage to thank everyone—especially Nicolai Schaettgen for his brilliant emceeing and Laila van Hooff, the behind-the-scenes mastermind who made CASA25 run so smoothly.

The audience gave them a big hand—and then did what every great tech event should end with: walked next door to the Beer Factory for some final rounds, deeper conversations, and warm goodbyes.

CASA25 was a wrap. But the impact—and momentum—will carry into CASA26 and beyond.

Want more from CASA25?

Explore all the blogs, sessions, and videos here – including thought leadership on Agentic AI, Network APIs, Intelligent Engagement, and the future of programmable communications.

See you next year. 🧠📲🍻