ISE Expo 2022 in Denver celebrates 30 years of infrastructure education

This year’s ISE Expo, August 24-25, 2022, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, marks the event’s 30th year. Like the industry it serves, the show has expanded its scope over that time, with fiber optics and, recently, 5G wireless networking becoming more prominent. In fact, the expo and the magazine that produces it changed their names from “Outside Plant” to the current “ISE” (for ICT Solutions and Education) to reflect their broader charters.

But, despite such changes, the mission of the event has remained constant. “ISE EXPO 2022 is where decision makers come to see new technologies, learn best practices, and connect with each other,” says Janice Oliva, publisher of ISE magazine (which this past January was acquired by Lightwave’s parent company, Endeavor Business Media). “Year after year our attendees come to meet their peers and business partners to help them improve the broadband networks they serve.”

Growing market, growing show

Oliva and ISE were fortunate last year to evade COVID-19 sufficiently to hold ISE Expo live in Fort Worth, TX. This year’s event is expected to draw a larger crowd, in the range of 3000 people from several countries (with attendees mirroring the combination of engineers and network designers, executives, and construction and maintenance professionals who compose ISE magazine’s subscriber base.

Those who arrive a day or two early can take part in a golf outing that is new to the schedule this year. Tee time at the Wellshire Golf Course, designed by Donald Ross and opened in 1926, will be at 7:00 AM MDT on August 23.

The program begins in earnest at 8:00 AM with a series of hour-long sessions that run until just after 10:00 AM. The 12 sessions (six per hour) fall within four tracks:

1. Construction & Engineering/Network Transformation/Edge Compute/CapEx & OpEx Optimization
2. FTTx/Optical Networks/Access Networks Evolution
3. 5G/6G Evolution & Fixed Wireless Access (FWA)/Densification/Mobile Powering/RAN Progression/Wi-Fi
4. Network Monitoring & Reliability/Cybersecurity/GIS/IoT/URLLC/Power.

The sessions will cover a wide range of topics, from the latest in PON technology to pairing fiber to the home with fixed wireless access to network maintenance to the combination of 10G networking and edge compute. This last will be delivered by Steven Harris, executive director, education and L&D sales at SCTE. Lightwave will collaborate with sibling magazine Cabling Installation & Maintenance to deliver the results of an exclusive survey of hiring and training practices among communications professionals as part of this session collection as well.

Ken Paker, senior vice president of information and network technologies and CTO at TDS Telecom, will cap the day’s conference proceedings with a keynote address.

Thursday, August 25, continues the morning conference scheme. The day will begin with an 8:00 AM workshop offered in collaboration with training specialist Light Brigade. The workshop will take the form of an “FTTX OSP Design Short Course” and will offer participants insight into such factors as the effect of subscriber density on FTTx architecture and topology choice as well as other elements that should be considered in a successful FTTx network design. Light Brigade’s Danny Huffman, who also is president and founder of ONUG Communications, a network planning, and construction services company, will lead the workshop; a separate registration is required to attend.

Those not interested in the workshop can instead participate in another slate of educational sessions from 9:15 to 10:15 AM. Session options include a presentation from Kevin Morgan, chairman of the Fiber Broadband Association, who will discuss “Fiber Industry and Technology Trends.”

A series of keynote “Tech Talks” will close the conference portion of the event. Attendees will be able to choose from among four presentations from such speakers as:

• Ben Goth, Vice President of Network Services, TDS Telecom
• Troy Johnson, Vice President of Network Engineering, Consolidated Communications, Inc.
• Kevin McDorman, Vice President, Customer Care, AT&T
• Joshua Seidemann, Vice President of Policy, NTCA.

Special events

Oliva expressed pride in a Women in Telecom event, a first for ISE Expo, that will take place from 9:45 to 10:30 AM on Wednesday, August 24. The gathering will include both networking as well as a panel discussion. The panelists will include:

• Kristi Westbrock, CEO at Consolidated Telecommunications Co. (CTC)
• Rhonda Maun CEO at Consortia Consulting, Inc.
• Cheri Beranek CEO, Clearfield

Under the guidance of facilitator Jenifer Prather, CEO at Totelcom Communications, the panelists (who could include at least one more beyond those listed) are expected to discuss such topics as work/life balance and mentoring. Oliva said that more than 200 women attended the 2021 edition of ISE Expo, so she expects this event to draw a crowd.

When not scoping out the demonstrations, attendees will have plenty of opportunity to see a variety of other products and technologies on the exhibition floor. The exhibits will be open from 11 AM to 5:00 PM on August 24 (including a happy hour-and-a-half at the end) and 11:30 AM to 3:00 PM on August 25. Intrepid attendees who visit the requisite number of booths will be eligible for a prize drawing – with a vacation for two to Puerto Vallarta up for grabs – right before the exhibits close that day.

And there may also be a champagne toast on the exhibit floor to celebrate the ISE Expo’s 30th anniversary, Oliva says. Because that kind of longevity is well worth celebrating.

STEPHEN HARDY is editorial director of Lightwave.