The 2012 SCTE Cable-Tec Expo has already come and gone, but the follow-up activities arising from the week-long event are only just getting started. 

Besides serving as a venue for continuing professional education, SCTE’s Expo also makes for a great setting to develop new business opportunities. Hundreds of vendors, MSOs and other cable professionals pack the conference hall to check out the latest in cable technology, products and services. Content is tailored for technical workshops, exhibits and specialized pavilions to attract like-minded individuals to connect and find opportunities for collaboration.

This year, I had the opportunity to participate on the Expo Program Committee and moderate a panel under the SEMI track titled “Exploring Best Practices and Strategies to Achieve Efficiency in Fleet Energy Management.”  The panel featured industry veteran and President of opXL,LLC,  Mr. Tom Gorman, the Senior Manager of Tech Ops at Time Warner Cable, Mr. Jack Sheehan, and the Fleet Testing and Analysis Team Leader at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Mr. Kevin Walkowicz. These three gentlemen represent different walks of life in the cable industry but worked well together to provide their audience with critical insights and strategies to capitalize on fleet management tools like GPS and workforce management, an idle-time reduction program and open-source data-focused tools from the Department of Energy (DOE) designed to enable lower vehicle energy use.

A typical MSO’s fleet is the second largest contributor to its carbon footprint besides facility and network electricity. The fleet also represents a significant portion of the MSO’s operating budget, costing tens millions of dollars for fuel consumption alone. Given the important role fleet energy management has to play in reducing an MSO’s costs and emissions, I believe that this topic will receive even greater attention at the upcoming SEMI 2013 spring event and also at next year’s Expo.

The SCTE Cable-Tec Expo was a great opportunity to meet face-to-face with potential clients, customers, and industry experts. Meeting in person allowed for the opportunity to connect on a more personal level while encouraging creative business modeling and future planning. The next Expo might be a year away, but we’re already looking forward to another week of networking and growth in the Big Easy in September 2013.