Fiber Connect is an innovative, four-day, optical fiber business and technology event that will offer new and unique opportunities for business development, market development, technology demonstration and peer group interaction, August 20-23, 2023, in Orlando, Florida.
This year’s program theme is “What Fiber Disrupts Next,” highlighting how fiber broadband serves as the enabling infrastructure to disrupt any market, including gaming, streaming entertainment, Internet of Things, precision agriculture, healthcare, machine learning, and augmented reality.
Each year, Fiber Connect attracts thousands of attendees from network operators, integrators, utilities, local government, digital infrastructure investors, infrastructure providers, broadband providers, and more. Fiber Connect 2023 will continue to feature the important topics the fiber broadband industry cares about most, like innovation, deployment best practices, workforce development, funding, and marketing. This year’s conference program will also feature new themes, including sustainability, in-home experience, tower/middle mile, The C-Suite Forum, The State Broadband Summit, and technology deep dives.
Keynote sessions on Monday and Tuesday (Aug 21-22) will feature thought leaders from across the industry, including federal and state-level leadership and operator “Light Talks.”
Pre-Conference Workshop panels will be held on Sunday, August 20, and will explore emerging topics impacting the industry or topics that are new to Fiber Connect, including:
- The Ecology of Fiber Broadband: Forging a Sustainable Future – sustainable options and approaches involved in fiber deployment, supply chain and manufacturing, and how fiber enables other industries to be greener.
- Tower Talks: Middle Mile and Fiber – Now We’re Talking – in-depth information about the opportunities, needs, and challenges faced by tower operators and the companies that work with them as they look to advance broadband services more broadly.
Breakout Session panels on Monday and Tuesday (Aug 21-22) will focus on the issues driving the fiber broadband industry forward, including the following topics:
- Network Perspective: 50,000 Foot View – higher-level market trends, challenges, and opportunities ahead for the fiber broadband industry and how they can be addressed and/or overcome.
- Case Study Central: Creating Opportunities, Changing Lives – real-world examples of successful deployments of fiber broadband networks and services. Inclusion of customer recommended.
- Innovation: What Comes Next – technology developments required to create opportunity and drive market growth.
- Marketing Bootcamp: Strategies to Take Fiber to Main Street – best practices for successful fiber broadband service introduction and adoption.
- Fiber Financials: The Economics of Fiber Broadband – considerations and opportunities for operators deploying fiber broadband services in greenfield or existing network environments.
- In The Dirt: Deployment Challenges & Opportunities – best practices and lessons learned that operators could use to take fiber further, especially to unserved markets.
- Supply Chain & Manufacturing – strategies to help companies overcome supply chain challenges and stressors and complete successful and timely fiber network deployments.
- 5G & Fiber: Any Device, Anywhere – middle mile opportunities for fiber broadband operators and the role fiber broadband can play in expanding 5G and fixed wireless access services to better serve rural communities.
- In-Home Experience: The Fully-Networked Home – highlighting fiber broadband’s ability to support current and emerging residential broadband services, as well as underscore fiber’s unique ability to deliver the scalable capacity required to ensure the integrity of the customer experience.
On Wednesday, Aug 23, the event will host The State Broadband Summit that will explore BEAD and how states can and are preparing to leverage BEAD funding.
The event will also host its second annual Proof of Concept (PoC) demonstrations. The PoCs will focus on how fiber broadband enables markets and communities to create innovation and disruption, change market dynamics, and push the boundaries of what is possible. Fiber Connect 2023 PoCs will be collaborative projects that can involve up to three companies (one must be a Fiber Broadband Association member). Each PoC must demonstrate the benefits fiber brings to markets, industries, and/or communities as a fundamental enabler of disruption, growth, and potential.
Quotes from Gary Bolton, President & CEO, Fiber Broadband Association
“Fiber broadband is the agent of change, a catalyst for innovation, and fundamental to any market disruption that leverages our capacity to create, connect, and engage. This year will be transformational for our industry as we enter the largest investment cycle in history. Fiber Connect 2023 is where the industry will gather to discuss the key topics of the day, debate challenges and opportunities, and reinforce its commitment to closing the digital equity gap for everyone, everywhere.”
“The 2022 Proof of Concept program was a highlight in the Expo Hall as companies showcased a variety of innovative concepts, partnerships, and possibilities. Companies showcased big ideas that will be transformational to our industry as we move forward. The Fiber Connect 2023 PoC Showcase is set to explore how fiber is the only enabling infrastructure with the capacity to disrupt any market – from agriculture to gaming to manufacturing. The PoC demonstrations serve as a stimulating exercise to see just how far fiber can take us in supporting next-generation services and applications.”
