OCT. 9, 2018 (Exton, PA)—A smorgasbord of topics of interest to multiple sectors of the cable telecommunications community fills the agenda for Innovation Theater’s return to the heart of the SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo show floor this month.
More than a dozen panels and presentations featuring CEOs, CTOs and other thought leaders will take place during Innovation Theater’s three-day run from Tuesday, Oct. 23 through Thursday, Oct. 25 at Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center. Presentations will view the future of cable through the lenses of such topics as AI, RDK, Smart Cities, customer service, business, and diversity. Innovation Theater will be hosted by Gerard Kunkel, Founder and Managing Partner of Next Media Partners.
Following Expo’s preliminary events and workshops—including a special seminar on Distributed Access Architecture (DAA)—on Monday, Oct. 22, Innovation Theater will kick off on Tuesday with a discussion of small- to mid-size market issues featuring leading association CEOs. The schedule of Innovation Theater panels and presentations comprises:
· Tuesday, Oct. 23
o Off The Beaten Path: Strategies For Success In Small, Midsize and Rural Markets—Shirley Bloomfield, CEO, NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association; Rich Fickle, President and CEO, National Cable Television Cooperative; Matt Polka, President and CEO, American Cable Association. Moderator: Mike Grebb, Publisher, Cablefax. (Noon – 12:30 p.m.)
o Welcome to the Gigabit Generation—Charlie Vogt, President and CEO, ATX Networks; Jay Lee, Chief Product Officer, Access Networking, ATX Networks. (12:45 – 1:15 p.m.)
o CBRS: The Future is Here—Charles Cheevers, CTO, CPE, ARRIS; Mehmet Yavuz, CTO, Ruckus Networks, an ARRIS company. Moderator: Duncan Potter, Senior Vice president, Marketing, ARRIS. (1:30 – 2:00 p.m.)
o L&D Panel: Vision of the Future of Technical Training and Education—Tom Adams, Executive Vice President, Field Operations, Charter Communications; Walter Landry, Director of Technology Learning Strategy, Cox Communications; Dr. Martha Soehren, Chief Talent Development Officer and Senior Vice President, Comcast. Facilitator: Dr. Jessica Briskin, Assistant Professor, Bloomsburg University. (2:15 – 2:45 p.m.)
o Creating a Fabric to Simplify and Automate the Metro Networks—Amit Bhardwaj, Director of Product Management, Juniper Networks. (3:00 – 3:30 p.m.)
o The Cable Center: Women in the C-Suite—Julie Laulis, Chairman, CEO and President, Cable ONE; Emily Ward, Chairman, CEO and President, AlcaCruz. Moderator: Jana Henthorn, President and CEO, The Cable Center. (3:45 – 4:15 p.m.)
· Wednesday, Oct. 24
o ONAP Discovery Kit—Oren Marmur, Vice President, Head of NFV, Amdocs Open Network. (1:15 – 1:45 p.m.)
o RDK Open Source Project—Jason Briggs, Senior Director, RDK; Charles Cheevers, CTO, Customer Premises Equipment, ARRIS; Albert Dahan, CTO, Metrological. Moderator: Leslie Ellis, President, Ellis Edits. (2:00 – 2:30 p.m.)
o Expanding Your Access Network for GrowingDemand—Catherine McNaught, Manager, Emerging Applications, Corning Optical Communications. Moderator: Kevin Bourg, Director, Optical Network Architect, Corning Optical Communications. (2:45 – 3:15 p.m.)
o Smart Cities Really Are—Steve Wimsatt, Senior Director, Business Development, Ruckus Networks, an ARRIS company. Moderator: Duncan Potter, Senior Vice President, Marketing, ARRIS. (3:30 – 4:00 p.m.)
· Thursday, Oct. 25
o L&D International Panel: Future of Technical Training/Education and You—Hugo Castillo, Technical Training Manager, Cable Onda and Roberto López, Manager of Technical Learning and Industry Outreach, Telecom Argentina SA. (9:30 – 10:00 a.m.)
o The Power of Self Learning and AI for Field Service—Steven Knight, Principal Solution Engineer, Oracle. (10:15 – 10:45 a.m.)
o The Cable Node of the Future Is Intelligent, Modular and Scalable—Ed Dylag, Market Development Manager, Intel Network Platforms Group. (11:00 – 11:30 a.m.)
o Cable Center Customer Centricity Consortium (C5) and Cable Solutions Through Design Thinking—Kimberly Gibson, Senior Director, Customer Operations, Cable ONE; Scott Wise, Vice President, Contact Center Operations, Cox Communications; Todd Barber, Sales Director, CallMiner. Moderator: Dr. Charles Patti, Cox Endowed Professor of CX and Senior Fellow, The Cable Center. (11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.)
Under the leadership of Program Chair Kevin Hart, Executive Vice President and Chief Product and Technology Officer for Cox Communications, SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2018 has attracted a banner list of speakers. Following opening remarks by Hart, the Opening General Session on Tuesday, Oct. 23 will feature a keynote by Pat Esser, president of Cox Communications, and a landmark panel comprising: Michael Powell, president and CEO of NCTA–The Internet & Television Association; Phil McKinney, president and CEO of CableLabs; Mark Dzuban, president and CEO of SCTE•ISBE; and moderator Tony Werner, president, Technology, Product, Xperience, Comcast Cable. Vernice “FlyGirl” Armour, America’s first African American female combat pilot, will bring her keynote message of “Get Gutsy. Lead Gutsy!” to achieve breakthrough results to the Annual Awards Luncheon on Wednesday, Oct. 24.
SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo is renowned as the pre-eminent venue that combines the thought leadership, engineering innovation, and deal-making that power the technological future of broadband telecommunications. As a nexus for content and service providers, technology partners, and industry experts, Expo provides rich insights into technologies, products, and services that can generate revenue, streamline operations, and increase customer satisfaction.
The Distributed Access Architecture (DAA) pre-conference session on Monday, Oct. 22 will feature insights from international operators and vendors and is free to all full-conference attendees. The Fall Technical Forum at Expo 2018 is setting records for number of technical speakers (104) and workshops (48). In addition, the Cable TV Pioneers will conduct their annual banquet in conjunction with Expo, on Monday, Oct. 22.
Registration for SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2018 is available at expo.scte.org/attendee-registration.
