by Robert Bell, Executive Director, World Teleport Association
Despite the disappointments of the Copenhagen climate talks, climate change is fast becoming a reality for business. It is partly a matter of planning for the future. The political battles rage on, taking different paths in different parts of the world, but the overall trend is clear. Activities that produce greenhouse gases will be penalized economically. More efficient use of resources from energy to water will become a high priority. Companies face a choice of when, not if, to “go green.”
At the 4th Annual Navy Satcoms Users Workshop organized by the Satellite Industry Association (SIA) during the AFCEA West show in San Diego last February 3rd, senior U.S. Navy officials affirmed that the US Navy’s reliance on commercial satellite communications will continue to grow in the next few years.
The next Pacific Telecommunications Conference, PTC ’10, will again focus on a hot topic for many in the telecommunication and IT industries, "cloud computing". While seemingly esoteric to many, especially some in the sometimes insular satellite sector, cloud computing is coming to dominate the thinking of planners and implementers in many telecommunications and IT sectors. The conference, to be held January 17-20, 2010, in Honolulu, Hawaii (www.ptc.org), will bring the concept of cloud computing down to earth and examine its impact in a variety of ways, including the challenges and opportunities it presents to the satellite sector.
Phew…we survived! That seemed to be the expression on everyone’s lips at the recently-concluded Satellite Business Week organized by EuroConsult held in Paris from 7-10 September. There was a definite feeling of relief in the air. Relief that the recession hadn’t hit the satellite companies as badly as it had other industries. A sentiment that probably isn’t shared by companies that recently filed for bankruptcy such as ICO Global, Protostar and SeaLaunch-all but the latter were noticeably absent this year.
MILCOM 2009, the premier international conference on military communications, has confirmed that Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, Gen. Peter Chiarelli, is the keynote speaker for the Wednesday, October 21, 2009 luncheon event. The keynote address aligns with the conference’s technical program that highlights the convergence of communication technologies used by the military, government and homeland security operations. MILCOM 2009 takes place October 18 though 21, 2009 at the Seaport Hotel and World Trade Center in Boston Massachusetts.
Telcos, mobile network operators and ISPs are now as much a part of the media business as broadcasters, cable networks and satellite services. Each is fighting for its fair share of the revenues from what is still a healthy business. But everyone has to collaborate to make the content become a reality.
Conference to Focus on New Administration Priorities and How They Will Reshape Government SATCOM Spending
The 8th annual ISCe Conference. ISCe 2009, scheduled for June 2-4 in San Diego, California, will focus on SATCOM solutions for homeland security, disaster recovery and support for warfighters in the pursuit of victory. ISCe 2009 will provide attendees with unprecedented access to key military and civil agency decision makers. For more information go to www.isce.com
Over 1,000 attendees officially registered for the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) conference held in Hawaii from January 17-21, 2009 with 4,000 more participating in the event as "networkers." This number was lower than in previous years, but the quality of the attendees in terms of having top executives of leading companies more than made up for the quantity of delegates. Besides, the PTC is slightly different from other shows in that it has five times as many other participants who can register as a "networker" and still participate in the many activities surruonding the event. Set in the paradise-like setting of the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki--it might be hard to believe that any work can actually get done here. But make no mistake about it-a lot of business is being done at the PTC and the quality and depth of the sessions are as good as any.
If you think you’ve explored every possible market for satellite services and products, think again. One of the industry’s best kept secrets is a major trade show that attracts almost three times the number of attendees as the annual Satellite show in Washington, D.C. The Broadcast, Cable and Satellite Eurasia Expo and Conference held annually in Novermber in Istanbul, Turkey attracted 14,000 attendees in 2007 and 511 exhibiting companies from 44 countries. The exhibition and conference’s main draw is the emerging market of over 500 million people in the Eurasian region where Turkey is a major center.
The satellite industry will be facing serious challenges in raising new capital and credit due to the downturn in the world financial markets. This was the gist of a whole-day ISCe Satellite Investment Symposium (ISIS-NYC) held at the 3 West Club in midtown Manhattan, New York last October 13, 2008.