SCTE Announces 2023 Autumn Lecture & AGM

The SCTE® (Society for Broadband Professionals) today announced that its annual Autumn Lecture & AGM will be taking place on Thursday October 12 at One Great George Street in London for the cable, fibre, and telecoms industries.

As part of its mission to educate and inform, the SCTE hosts these events three times a year as a benefit for its members and the wider industry. Featuring a broad range of speakers from across the industry, ‘The Fibre Spectrum: from Build to Skills’ commences with a presentation by Mark Basham, VP Advanced FTTX Solutions whose lecture, ‘Micro Approach to FTTx Network Build’ addresses the benefits of moving from chassis OLTs deployed in central office facilities, to compact OLTs in a highly distributed architecture.

The SCTE also welcomes CTO Tom Rigg and CEO Michael Lee from award-winning altnet B4RN, who will be providing a lecture entitled ‘B4RN: The Network With Community at its Core’. As a leading altnet with a unique business model, B4RN will offer valuable insight into how their operation works and how community engagement is so critical to their success. Rigg and Lee will explore the strengths and limitations of such a model and how it shapes B4RN’s plans for their 400Gbps future.

Before breaking for lunch Colin Waterworth, Customer Engagement Director at GE will share with the audience his views on data in his lecture, ‘Leveraging the intelligence behind data to improve design quality and efficiency’.  Geospatial data is a fundamental component of the network design process, something that altnets rely on to execute the fibre roll out. New types of data are becoming available almost weekly, but harnessing that data effectively rather than drowning in it is essential.

In a break with tradition, the afternoon session will be hosted in conjunction with WICT, featuring a panel of leading women across the fibre industry. Moderated by Dr Gillian Kendrick, CEO of Real World Systems in a session entitled ‘The Future of the UK FTTH Market: Is A Skill Shift Required To Keep Up With The Industry?’, the panel includes:

• Roshene McCool, Senior Market and Technology Development Manager, Corning/Chair of Women in Fibre Committee FTTH Council
• Lindsay Rogers, Company Director @ Mint Digital Consultancy/Board Member at WICT, UK & Ireland
• Tamryn Jade Sutcliffe - Training Delivery Lead at Vorboss
• Karen Handley, Head of Future Careers at Virgin Media o2

Gillian Kendrick, moderator said, “I’m delighted to be moderating such an impressive panel of experts on such an important and timely topic and look forward to some fascinating and thought-provoking discussions on October 12.”

Lindsay Rogers, panellist and Board Member at WICT said, “The FTTH market is changing and will continue to change at pace. I’m excited to be part of this discussion on what this means for the industry’s organisation and people, current and new.”

Anthony Basham, recently appointed CEO of DKT A/S and President of the SCTE® said, “This Autumn Lecture we are delighted to have partnered with WICT and I’m excited to be looking at this dynamic area of our business, which continues to inspire and surprise us all. The lineup is stellar, and I have no doubt we will benefit from their expertise over the course of the day.”

The Autumn Lecture forms part of a series of events provided by the SCTE as part of a series during the calendar year. Designed to raise and maintain standards across the cable, fibre and telecoms sectors, the SCTE has been providing accreditation, training courses, publications, networking opportunities and a close-knit community of engineers and technicians since 1945. At the Autumn Lecture, there will be two sessions in the morning, followed by the women’s panel and AGM in the afternoon. There will be plenty of opportunities to network during coffee breaks in the morning and afternoon, plus a 90-minute networking lunch in the bar area.

The Autumn Lecture is free of charge to attend for SCTE members, and costs £50+ VAT for non-members. If you’re interested in attending, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and register your interest via this link, as spots are limited. Find out more about the event session lineup here: https://t.ly/qKThA