Signaling what will likely be a significantly stepped-up partnership now that the NCTA no longer has a yearly trade show, the cable industry’s top lobbying organization will integrate its technical papers into the SCTE’s Cable-Tec Expo convention in Denver next October.
“Our industry is at an inflection point in which technological advances and business needs are converging to pave the way for new opportunities,” said Chris Bastian, senior VP and CTO of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers, in a statement. “We’re delighted to be able to leverage our close relationships with NCTA and CableLabs to make the valuable insights of broadband telecommunications’ most innovative minds available to full conference attendees.”
The announcement was made after the emails promoting Expo tech paper submission deadlines began popping up with NCTA sender addresses in late January.
RELATED: NCTA shutters its 65-year-old cable show, INTX
NCTA and SCTE officials talked extensively at last October’s Cable-Tec Expo in Philadelphia about ways to integrate their two events. NCTA was mulling another attendance drop for its annual event, previously branded as The Cable Show, with the Boston-based INTX in May producing disappointing turnouts. NCTA was very concerned that their Washington, D.C., engagement this spring—which would overlap directly with the NAB Show in Las Vegas—would face serious challenges in matching even the modest support garnered in 2016.
It was during Cable-Tec Expo that NCTA official apparently had all the information they needed—they announced the cancellation of the 2017 D.C. event during the Expo.
“SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo historically has driven learning and development across every level of the cable workforce,” said Dr. William Check, senior VP and CTO of the recently—and awkwardly—rebranded NCTA – The Internet & Television Association. “The integration of the NCTA and SCTE/ISBE papers will bring to Expo an added dimension by harnessing the focus on new thinking that was a mainstay of our highly regarded Spring Technical Forum partnership.”
The deadline to submit proposals is March 1. Cable-Tec Expo will run Oct. 17-20 in Denver.