On Wednesday, March 28th, I will be on a panel of speakers at a Light Reading magazine’s “Smart Cities, Dumb Pipes” breakfast workshop, part of the Smart Cities Connect 2018 Conference at the Kansas City Convention Center. Our topic will be: “Why smart cities need to scale up their communications infrastructure...and how to do it.”
I am looking forward to sharing my perspective on this topic, because Clearfield has been focused on scalability for years. The scope of most municipalities’ communications infrastructures are manageable at first, but can get out of hand when connectivity starts to scale. What then?
As Light Reading reported: 2.3 billion people lived in urban areas in 1991, out of the 5.4 billion inhabiting the planet. By 2016, that number had risen to 4 billion people living in cities out of 7.4 billion people worldwide. More people needing more resources in more closely confined environments means communities have to get smarter about how they manage, well, everything -- physical assets, information, transportation, public safety and more.
We have a great panel of top industry experts with unique points of view:
- Satya Parimi, Group VP, Data and Cloud Products, Spectrum Enterprise
- Matt Sayre, VP, Technology Association of Oregon
- Jaime Fink, CTO, Mimosa
- Rebecca Hunger, External Affairs and Strategic Communications, Corporate Development & Strategy, Crown Castle
- Kim LaGrue, Chief Information Officer, City of New Orleans
- Mari Silbey, Senior Editor, Cable/Video, Light Reading
Among other topics, we’ll delve into:
- How high-performance consumer broadband factors into the best smart city strategies;
- What technical and operational approaches are working in connected communities today;
- How communities can partner with infrastructure providers to create the necessary foundation for smart city growth;
- The ins and outs of wired and wireless deployments;
- How low-power IoT networks fit into the equation;
- What type of capacity cities need to future-proof their communications infrastructure.
- #SmartCities18
If you’re hungry for insights into this growing concern (or just hungry for breakfast), please join us. It promises to be a very filling morning.
Here’s a link to more information: https://www.informa.com/.
By Cheri Beranek
A founding member of Clearfield, Inc., Cheri Beranek is considered a communications visionary. Her extensive leadership experience and unique management style combined deliver outstanding corporate performance.
Ms. Beranek was appointed Clearfield president and CEO in 2007 after having served as President of APA Enterprises’ subsidiary APA Cables & Networks. Within 15 months of her appointment, she successfully re-positioned the Company for dramatic growth. Under her direction, Clearfield has reversed 20 years of losses, recorded five consecutive years of profitability and posted historic gains in both the market capitalization and shareholder equity. Today, Clearfield is a multinational business with more than 175 employees and over 580 customers.