A stellar journey with STL’s marquee event across continents.
Hello,
It’s me again, Stellar the voice of STL with yet another interesting story of my globe-trotting. The last time we spoke, I shared my amazing 25 years of optical fibre experience which transcended boundaries and is transforming billions of lives. If you haven’t checked my journey yet, please do. This time I am sharing my incredible experience of connecting with friends and colleagues through the series of industry events around the world in the last 60 days.
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Back with a Bang!
For the past couple of years, the industry has been pining to once again be face-to-face. From conferences to award shows, businesses have had to postpone, cancel, or find creative ways to ‘go virtual’ with events. Needless to say, it was high time for all of us to set out on the journey to network again, find new development opportunities, learn about the latest industry trends, connect better with clients, and more importantly, find renewed purpose. All of those reasons propelled STL’s participation in 4 marquee global events:
- Commsday, Australia
- Fibre Connect MENA, UAE
- FTTH Europe Conference, Austria
- Fiber Connect, USA
Let me tell you all about these fantastic couple of months!
Comms Day (May 4-5th 2022, Sydney)
I started my journey from Australia, supporting the Communications Day (CommsDay) event as a Gold sponsor. In light of the 2019-2020 east coast bushfires and 2021 eastern Australia floods, Network Resilience was kept as a key theme of the event. True to the claim, the event is a meeting place for Australia’s telecoms leaders. And guess what? I met up with my family members, Jitendra Balakrishnan, Dr. Seldon Benjamin, Mark Hesling, Achyut Ashesh, Craig Munro and Kimberley Winter there. I also had the pleasure to meet my new Australian friends, telco CEOs, policymakers and global technology experts, to discuss major segments of the industry such as broadband, 5G mobile, data centres, backhaul and long haul, rural and remote communications and policy. I left the country with the promise to build strong networks that are resilient even in the face of natural disasters. Thanks to CommsDay for organising the platform.
FTTH MENA (May 17-19th 2022, Dubai)
I reached my next destination Dubai, the Middle Eastern melting pot, to support Fiber Connect Council MENA as a Silver Sponsor. I attended the event with Gavin Faulds, Nripendra Nitesh, Shrikant Lakkaraju and Nawal Elmazozi, from my Middle East family. This event was truly an eye-opening experience for us. Do you know why? Because we were involved in major discussions with our Middle Eastern friends about the key role of fibre in building state-of-the-art digital societies, the benefits of fibre deployment for fixed/mobile operators, governments and end customers, as well as the challenges of sustainability and smart cities in MENA region. We, as the STL family gathered multiple media coverage at the event and even closed some hot deals but what I am most excited about is that I took off from the land of dreams with a potential manufacturing partnership agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Cheers to new beginnings!
FTTH Conference 2022 (May 23-25th 2022, Vienna)
Even before I could relax, Europe was calling out to me for the next event. Flying across countries, I landed directly in Austria as a Platinum sponsor of the world’s largest fibre summit- the FTTH Europe Conference. My family members Rahul Puri, Phill Coppin, Matteo Villani, Balram Sharma, Simon Lorenzin, Luca Facchinetti, Thibaut Laporta and Swapnil Khapekar warmly welcomed me with an amazing platform to discuss and debate all aspects of FTTH, 5G and other fibre-enabled technologies. It was a proud moment for me as I saw my family members shine at several round tables and podium debates. The highlight of the event was when I took out 3 new products from my backpack to present in front of my industry friends which just left them in awe. Let me just say that my European family members are uniquely poised to Accelerate Fibre-Dense 5G in Europe, with incredible collaborative capabilities and capacities. A special shout out to the FTTH Europe council for organising a flawless event which attracted more than 3000+ delegates.
Fiber Connect 2022 (June 12-15th 2022, Nashville)
The USA – My final destination where my family is growing and growing and growing! Nashville, the Music City, hosted the leading optical fibre business and technology event in America, Fiber Broadband Associations’, Fiber Connect 2022. This event highlighted that when capacity is unlimited, the possibilities are limitless. My family members Stephen Szymanski, Daniel Romer, Travis Ball, Sally Key, Teresa Kennedy, Tamitha Brown and Danah Ditzig literally lit it up. We deliberated with our industry friends about the economic and community growth created by fibre broadband to become a social beneficial agent impacting individual lives. As I left there with a bag full of insightful inputs, all I could think about was how the US would develop with STL.
Looking Back!
What an incredible couple of months I’ve had! Meeting new friends and family members was quite a rejuvenating experience. Reflecting back, I learned a lot about how digital networks are evolving and enjoyed debating and sharing ideas on industry technology like 5G and FTTH. There is so much to achieve together as an industry. And I have to play a major major role in transforming billions of lives by providing all-in 5G solutions. As I am super excited to take up whatever the next network challenges may be and I can’t wait to choose my next travel destination.
Do you have any suggestions? Where would you like to see me next?
Thanks for sharing in my journey and I’ll be back soon with more stories. Until then, Adios Amigos!
