Program
There Is Something for Everyone to Learn
Whether you were looking for new strategies to build your customer base, tools to make deployment more affordable, or the opportunity to learn from industry leaders as they explore the future of fiber—the 2020 Fiber Connect will present a comprehensive lineup of education led by the industry’s best.
MEET THE PROGRAM COMMITTEE
2020 Schedule-at-a-Glance
MEET THE 2020 SPEAKERS BROWSE 2020 SESSIONS BY TOPIC
Business 
Engineering 
Operations
Customer Connections Fiber Starter Kit
Please note all times are in Eastern Standard Time*
| 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Expo Hall: Virtual Booths Open |
| 8:45 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. | Monday Kickoff and Awards |
| Welcome from the Chair of the Board of Directors – Katie Espeseth, EPB | |
| Award winners announced: Star and Photon Awards | |
| State of the Industry – Gary Bolton, President and CEO of Fiber Broadband Association | |
| Monday morning education overview: Joseph Jones, On Trac, Inc. | |
| 9:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. | Keynote Address: Over-the-Top / App-Based Video & Its Future Bill Routt, President and COO, MobiTV |
| 9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | Break |
| 10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. | 10:00 AM Breakout Sessions |
| A Legal Primer for Building a Fiber Deployment | |
| FTTH Basics and Network Design |
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| Fiber Broadband in the 2020s: Strategies to Succeed with Fiber |
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| 10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | Break |
| 11:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. | 11:00 AM Breakout Sessions |
| Broadband as an Essential Service Requires a Service-Oriented Approach |
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| Connecting Gigabit Communities: Springfield, MO (SpringNet) $120 Million Fiber Project |
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| Funding Options for a Fiber Deployment | |
| 11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. | Break |
| 12:15 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | 12:15 PM Breakout Sessions |
| Next-Generation PON Technology |
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| Public-Private Partnerships |
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| The Planning, Designing, and Engineering of a Fiber Deployment | |
| 1:00 p.m. -1:30 p.m. | Thought Leadership/Expo Theater Sessions |
| "The End-to-End Gigabit Experience" Presented by Greg Luhman, ADTRAN | |
| ETI | |
| Sterlite Technologies |
| 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Expo Hall: Virtual Booths Open |
| 9:00 a.m. – 9:20 a.m. | Keynote Address: A Conversation with a RUS Administrator Chad Rupe |
| 9:30 a.m. – 9:50 a.m. | Keynote Address: A Conversation with an FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr |
| 9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | Break |
| 10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. | 10:00 AM Breakout Sessions |
| Discussion with Tennessee Service Providers on Economic Development |
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| Hardscape Trenching - Approach to Innovation |
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| The Process of Selecting Vendors & Partners | |
| 10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | Break |
| 11:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. | 11:00 AM Breakout Sessions |
| 5G - Planning, Architecture and Infrastructure Considerations in the Deployment of 5G Technology |
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| Establishing Marketing, Branding, Community Relationships, & Customer Service | |
| Trends in Policy & Legislation and its Impact on Fiber Business |
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| 11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. | Break |
| 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. | Women in Fiber Lunch Sponsored By: Corning, Graybar, OFS, Commscope & AFL |
| 12:15 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | 12:15 PM Breakout Sessions |
| 5G - Leveraging the Capacity Provided by Fiber-Based Technologies to Support the Densification of 5G Technologies |
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| Preparing and Building out the Construction Phase | |
| 1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. | Thought Leadership Sponsored by Clearfield - Enabling the Escalation of Millions to Billions of Fiber Endpoints Expo Theater Sponsored by Commscope - Aligning your Network Architecture with your Business Goals |
| 1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | Thought Leadership Sponsored by OFS - Advanced Optical Cabling Trends & Solutions; Speakers: Roger Vaughn, John George Expo Theater Sponsored by Sterlite Technologies - Fiber and Networks of the Future: Requirement and Solutions |
| 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Expo Hall: Virtual Booths Open |
| 9:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. | Keynote Address: Creating an Authentic Customer Experience from Acquisition to Ongoing Customer Engagement Melani Griffith, Vice President, Customer Engagement, Google Fiber |
| 9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. | Break |
| 10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. | 10:00 AM Breakout Sessions |
| Fiber Broadband Research |
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| Preparing and Launching the Installation Phase | |
| The Customer Experience | |
| 10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. | Break |
| 11:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. | 11:00 AM Breakout Sessions |
| Establishing Your Brand Image | |
| A True Story of Broadband Bringing Two Rival Communities Together |
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| Gigawatts & Gigabits |
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| 11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. | Thought Leadership Sponsored by VIAVI - How Remote Fiber Testing Optimizes Your Network Expo Theater Sponsored by Calix - Ultimate Customer Experience: Is Wi-Fi 6 and Managed Wi-Fi Enough? |
| 12:15 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. | 12:15 PM Breakout Sessions |
| Lessons Learned in Year One of a Fiber Deployment | |
| Marketing Trends & Changes | |
| Smart Cities |
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| 1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. | Expo Theater Sponsored by Graybar - Graybar’s Logistical, Supply Chain and Managed Services For Deploying Broadband Expo Theater Sponsored by 3-GIS - How to solve the hardest telecom problems: be GIS first |
| 1:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. | Expo Theater Sponsored by Walker & Associates - A Message from our President, Mark Walker |
Click individual sessions to view descriptions and speaker details.
The 2020 Fiber Connect program was approved for 10 BICSI Continuing Education Credits!
