Preliminary Conference Agenda

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Wednesday, March 30

10:00 am – 2:00 pm	FTTH Council Americas Committee Meetings (click here for more information)
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm	Opening Reception in Exhibit Area

Thursday, March 31

7:30 am – 8:30 am	Continental Breakfast in Exhibit Area
8:45 am – 9:00 am	Welcoming Remarks and Introduction
8:45 am – 9:00 am	Presented by Heather Burnett Gold, President and CEO, FTTH Council Americas
9:00 am – 10:00 am	Success Stories from FTTH Leaders: How We Made It Happen CLICK HERE TO MEET THE PANELISTS
9:00 am – 10:00 am	Moderated by Tom Cohen, Partner, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP Panelists: Edi Demaj, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Rocket Fiber Mark Latham, City Manager, Highland, Illinois Darby A. McCarty, President and CEO, Smithville Communications, Inc.
10:00 am – 10:15 am	Break in Exhibit Area
10:15 am – 11:00 am	Panel Presentation: Building Public/Private Partnerships: What are the Parameters?
10:15 am – 11:00 am	One of the hottest topics in all fiber deployments is how communities can work with private entities to improve the project's investment case. This panel will focus on the parameters under which such public/private partnerships can work successfully. Moderated by John George, Director, Solutions and Professional Services, OFS Panelists: Timothy Herwig, Central District Community Affairs Officer, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Joanne Hovis, President, CTC Technology & Energy Geoff Segal, Senior Vice President, Macquarie Capital
11:00 am – 11:45 am	Panel Presentation: Public/Private Partnerships: Examples of Deployment
11:00 am – 11:45 am	Hear from community leaders who have already moved to the public/private partnership model. Learn how panelists decided to move to this model, and how they made the partnership work. Moderated by Kevin Morgan, Director, Cloud & Services Marketing, ADTRAN Panelists: Mark Erickson, Economic Development Director, City of Winthrop, MN Jay C. Stowe, President and CEO, Huntsville Utilities Robert Wack, Council President, City of Westminster, MD
11:45 am – 1:00 pm	Group Networking Lunch
1:00 pm – 1:45 pm	What Incumbents Need to Further their Fiber Investment
1:00 pm – 1:45 pm	The largest number of all-fiber access lines are being deployed by incumbent network operators. They know your communities, your citizens, and most importantly, how to run a network. This panel will review ways for communities to assist in improving the investment equation for their incumbents. Moderated by Heather Burnett Gold, President and CEO, FTTH Council Americas Panelists: Allison M. Ellis, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Frontier Communications Tyler Middleton, Vice President, Operations, Metro Minnesota, CenturyLink Communications Shane West, Vice President, Marketing and Product Development, TDS Telecommunications
1:45 pm – 2:00 pm	Break in Exhibit Area
2:00 pm – 2:45 pm	Working with University Communities
	University communities bring together unique characteristics, including a concentration of ultra-high bandwidth users and (usually) existing fiber assets to share. With both demand and assets, the investment case for all fiber should be relatively easy, correct? In this panel, participants from university communities will discuss the realities of deployment, including challenges and opportunities. Panelists: Steve Biggerstaff, Founding President, Director and Advisor, Metronet Blair Levin, Executive Director, Gig.U; and Senior Non-Resident Fellow, Brookings Institute Metropolitan Policy Project Mike Smeltzer, Director of Special Projects, Champaign Telephone Company; and former Director of Networking, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
2:45 pm – 3:45 pm	Applications Driving Fiber Deployment
2:45 pm – 3:45 pm	The ever increasing number of high-bandwidth applications required for education, healthcare, lifestyle and/or life/work management are creating a greater demand than ever before for all-fiber networks. However, these applications also represent revenue opportunities, and can assist carriers and communities in justifying the investment case. This panel will provide a preview of some of these must-have applications. Moderated by Bill Wallace, Executive Director, US Ignite Panelists: Suman Banerjee, Professor, Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin–Madison David Sandel, President, Sandel & Associates Natalie Verette, Director of Sales, TeleQuality Communications, Inc.
3:45 pm	Closing Remarks
3:45 pm	Presented by Heather Burnett Gold, President and CEO, FTTH Council Americas