Photos from the Field: OPASTCO Summer Convention

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The OPASTCO 49th Annual Summer Convention came to Minneapolis this week, bringing over 200 attendees together to discuss, "An industry at the crossroads."

Annual Tradeshow and FRED event
The Welcome Reception and Tradeshow kicked off the event on Sunday evening.   Calix participated in the two-day expo and sponsored Monday evening’s happy hour, which was followed by the annual OPASTCO FRED event. This year’s FRED event took attendees tailgating at the Newsroom bar and grill followed by a Twins baseball game at Target Field. The Twins put on quite a show, beating the Orioles 19 to 7!  

General Session
Monday’s general session featured video addresses from Minnesota Senators, Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken. Both Senators spoke of their support for the rural telecom industry and voiced concern over changing legislative policies, like the Universal Services Fund (USF) and ICC reform, and what effect these changes could have on rural telecom companies. 

Monday’s keynote speaker, Steven Shepard, discussed how changing technology is forcing businesses to look at different ways to communicate with customers. Examples like providing customer service via online chat and announcing product offerings on Twitter and Facebook gave attendees new ways to look at how technology, software offerings and social media can streamline specific areas of their business, making them more efficient.  

Calix Educational Sessions
Calix representatives participated in two educational track sessions during the convention.  Eric Doricko participated on the panel “Understanding Ethernet Mobile Backhaul”, which featured information on provisioning Ethernet backhaul, how to implement classes of service, and testing and measurement requirements for service level agreements.

Dave Cleary presented “A Snapshot of the Applications and Traffic Patterns of Rural America”. The session provided attendees with key insights into usage trends and patterns in provider networks nationwide. This information will help providers better manage their network and monetize their relationships with subscribers.  Both sessions were well received by attendees. 

OPASTCO Summer Convention

If you would like to get more information about either session, send me an email at Allison.brausen@calix.com.

A special thank you to Regional Sales Manager, Keith Carlson, for providing photos of the FRED event at Target Field! Do you have photos from an industry event or a topic you would like to see discussed on the Calix blog?  Send us at note at blogs@calix.com.