“…the rapid rate of change in cable telecommunications is going from fast to furious …”

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Read the full SCTE press release here

Shortly after my keynote in Tampa today to open the Society of Cable Telecom Engineers Emerging Technologies conference, the SCTE put out this press release:

Jim Carroll, international futurist, trends, and innovation expert, said the rapid rate of change in cable telecommunications is going from fast to furious in a stirring keynote address today to a sold-out Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) Conference on Emerging Technologies® 2006 in Tampa.

Carroll was a perfect fit for the forward-focused ET, with a high-energy speech that entertainingly challenged attendees to embrace constant change and see it as rife with opportunity as opposed to a threat.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: 800-542-5040
Kimberly Maki, SCTE VP Marketing & Business Development, ext. 221, kmaki@scte.org
Joe Madagan, SCTE Editor Marketing & Communications, ext. 212, jmadagan@scte.org.
Visit SCTE online at www.scte.org.

SCTE ET KEYNOTE CARROLL HAILS COMPELLING CALL TO ACTION

JAN. 11, 2006 (Exton, PA)–Jim Carroll, international futurist, trends, and innovation expert, said the rapid rate of change in cable telecommunications is going from fast to furious in a stirring keynote address today to a sold-out Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) Conference on Emerging Technologies® 2006 in Tampa.

Carroll was a perfect fit for the forward-focused ET, with a high-energy speech that entertainingly challenged attendees to embrace constant change and see it as rife with opportunity as opposed to a threat.

“Furious rates of scientific advance will make the last 10 years of rapid technology development seem like a slow train ride,” said Carroll. “Optical researchers are learning how to slow the speed of light to 30 miles a second, in order to develop the next generation of optical router. Next-generation storage companies are dealing with concepts that involve storing three data bits in every single molecule. It’s only a matter of time before VoIP is built into every laptop at the chip level. How do we ensure that we’ve hitched our train to everything that is going on?”

Carroll told the audience that bandwidth demand is set to explode. “With digital cameras having just entered our world, we are already taking 80 billion pictures a year and are sharing them online. Once we all start sharing video, bandwidth will take off in ways that are unimaginable.” Carroll challenged the audience members to ask themselves if they are thinking big enough.

“Everyone is focusing on 100 MBPS or 300 MBPS as being the key question for the year 2010,” he said. “I think we should be thinking about yottabits and zetabits when it comes to capacity.”

Carroll affirmed his audience members for their presence at a conference like ET, which, with its myriad networking opportunities, helps to meet the need to develop what he calls “complexity partners,” other companies that are specialists in their particular technical niche of the industry. “No one cable engineer, no one cable company, can possibly do it all,” he said.

The keynoter said that new competitors will continue to emerge at a furious pace overnight–and learning to tap into the global innovation mind is critical.

“We are now witnessing a sort of infinite idea loop, in which new ideas, inventions, and innovations occur faster than ever before,” he said. “No one can hope to define the future anymore–the best you can do is simply to plug into the future that is being developed all around you, and learn how to profit from it.”

Carroll said that, fueled by the Internet, what took four years to discover in years past can now take about four hours.

Carroll’s speech kicked off two full days of ET, which is featuring four hard-hitting sessions focused on what cable’s future will look like in three-to-five years.

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The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers is a non-profit professional organization committed to advancing the careers of cable telecommunications professionals and serving the industry through excellence in professional development, information and standards. SCTE currently has more than 15,000 members from the U.S. and 70 countries worldwide and offers a variety of programs and services for the industry’s educational benefit. SCTE has more than 70 chapters and meeting groups and has technically certified more than 3,000 employees of the cable telecommunications industry. SCTE is an ANSI-accredited standards development organization. Visit SCTE online at www.scte.org.

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