Read below as our Director of North Americas, John Tait recalls his time spent at the Regional Fiber Connect Workshop in Lake Tahoe, CA.
Arriving for my first time at the picturesque Lake Tahoe, I was blown away by the beauty of the lake and surrounding mountains. The glass-like water and gushing streams snaking their way through the mountains was an unforgettable sight. Just a short march down the meandering road, The Everline Resort in Squaw Valley, offered an incredible backdrop to the Regional Fiber Broadband conference. The single-day show was a well run event by the FBA, and there was plenty of conversations taking place about the now-announced BEAD funding allocations, how this money will be best spent, and to connect Americans that lack broadband access today. Our team also got the chance to welcome the newest member of our commercial team, Scott Salzer to the company. He has a wealth of telco deployment experience and it was great for our team to get to spend some time with him face to face.
During the conference, I was lucky enough to sit with some very experienced folks on stage to discuss some of the challenges that arise during deployment. Topics included different construction methodologies, the standard and best practices used in our different organizations, as well as how we are going about preparing for the labour challenges that will inevitably arise with such a large influx of capital into the industry. On this last point, we all agreed that a large part of this problem will need to be solved in-house by standing up training programs and proving career pathways for people that are just starting out in the industry.
There were a lot of other great discussions, especially around what local communities, municipalities or utility providers can do to help accelerate and facilitate a broadband deployment in their area; as well as what role AI will play in the telco space both through design, deployment and operations. All in all it was a great event and an even more beautiful location - hoping I can get back there soon (either for business or pleasure).