Something Good’s Cooking for 2021
By Mark Dzuban
At catered events back in the salad days of my early cable career — I can’t help but think of soggy shards of iceberg lettuce and dollops of Thousand Island dressing — it was always a good sign when the server would whisper “keep your fork.” That was the signal that something really good was coming next.
I was reminded of that as all of us folded our napkins after the all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of knowledge sharing and innovation that was SCTE•ISBE Cable-Tec Expo® Virtual Experience. Following a year that served up indigestible offerings for so much of the world, Expo showed that cable’s technology kitchen is a place where exciting things are cooking.
From Charter’s holographic stream demonstration to my Expo conversation with our indefatigable program committee co-chairs, Comcast’s Ed Marchetti and Charter’s Tom Monaghan, and my fireside chat with our first SCTE Standards Explorer member, IBM, it was clear that our industry is setting the table for dramatic changes. Having turned on a dime to accommodate the endless dinner rush of pandemic usage, we’re poised to satisfy the needs that surfaced, which will in turn power business results in the year ahead.
We’ve talked before about how important cable’s COVID response was to keeping the world working, learning and communicating, but our Expo discussions reminded us of some of the ingredients that made our industry so successful. Ed and Tom pointed out how cable’s agile culture, the deployment of thousands of additional workforce members, and proactive measures to anticipate where upgrades or node splits were needed continue to make a huge difference in broadband performance.
As I listened to them I thought of how major brands in years gone by — Lord & Taylor, JC Penney, Sears and others — failed to react to changes in the market, resulting in the collapse of their businesses. Similarly, some not-for-profits have become lethargic, have lost their ability to keep their perspectives current, and have seen their value erode.
Like the rest of our industry, SCTE•ISBE has recognized the need to keep our menu fresh and relevant. Here’s how:
- Even before the pandemic, we had proactively launched our standards program’s Explorer initiative to address areas such as telemedicine and aging in place. Our working groups are already well on their way not only to creating and scaling transformative applications, but to doing so in ways that capitalize on the specific strengths of the industry’s 10G platform.
- Our pre-Expo launch of our new Learning Management System (LMS) is the latest step in upgrading our L&D program to move with the environment and deliver ROI to the industry. Using competitive analyses, customer feedback, and university-based learning partnerships, we’ve developed programs based on the best industry and learning science available.
- Driven by the industry’s needs for a nexus of thought leadership, knowledge sharing and innovation, we made a necessary and highly successful pivot this year to a virtual Cable-Tec Expo. The results have been eye-popping: visitors from 104 countries — well over the Expo average of 69 — and a 400% increase in downloads of Expo papers. As we return to Atlanta next Oct. 11-14, we’ll be blending live and online elements into a hybrid event that leverages partnerships and collaborations to become the premiere global cable and technology event.
Like any great chef, we continually challenge ourselves to up our game. Although we’ve built our reputation on delivering five-star results — standards that have contributed to more than $1.1 trillion in industry revenue; learning and certification programs that have helped boost subscriber satisfaction; and Expo experiences that are without peer — where we’ll excel in the year ahead is in helping cable meet the new challenges on its plate.
Here’s my advice as we look to 2021: “Keep your fork.”
Mark L. Dzuban
President/CEO, SCTE
As President and CEO of SCTE•ISBE, Mark Dzuban is continuing a lengthy career of telecommunications leadership. Mark has been instrumental in positioning SCTE•ISBE as a leader in energy management and technical education, driving creation of the Energy 2020 program, the CORTEX Expert Development System™ and other programs and services that build value for cable system operators, technology partners and individual members. Mark was honored with the prestigious NCTA Vanguard Award in 2011.
