TSTCI Member Central
2014 Futures RetreatWelcome!BACK TO THE FUTURES ... Yes, due to popular demand and because we’ve gotten a wee bit better at financially planning these meetings – the Future’s Retreat is Re-Instated. This year, we will be heading to the Land of Enchantment, Inn of the Mountain Gods. So pick up, pack up and we’ll see you in New Mexico August 6-7, 2014!!! The TSTCI Futures Retreat has always been the conference of things to come in the “Future”; however, we are there. We are looking at the technologies, applications, and customer focus that was the stuff of the future in conferences past. Today, those technologies, those applications and those customer focus and demands are what we are providing or looking to provide better. The buzzword now is “BROADBAND.” So, this year, in addition to looking into the crystal ball to predict the “Future” we are going to help you get prepared to implement the future that is already here! Through other TSTCI conferences we are working to help prepare your workforce to begin “blowing your own horns” – an opportunity no one felt comfortable with in the past and, therefore, we let some of that opportunity pass. But in today’s telecommunication world, you must blow your own horn when appropriate – and the services you all are offering and providing and planning for in the rural areas of the state, demand that your horn play loud and clear – to customers, legislators and regulators. What tune are you playing? We are Rural, and Rural Matters. Your companies, your networks, your employees, your customers and members, your vendors, your legislators, your regulators and you need to be playing from the same song book – something like…. WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU! The 2014 return of the TSTCI Futures Retreat will be Wednesday, August 6 through Thursday, August 7, 2014 at the Inn of the Mountain Gods, Mescalero, New Mexico. The meeting sessions will begin Wednesday morning and go until noon and then begin again Thursday morning and end around 11:45 am. The “Meet & Greet & Eat” Welcome Reception will be Wednesday evening at 5:30 p.m. Again, by popular demand – David Pearce Snyder, Futurist will open our session on Wednesday with “CYBERTUNITY’S KNOCKING” – Strategic Opportunities for Telecoms in the Decade Ahead. As you recall, Mr. Snyder gave all of us food for thought and predictions for future last year during this conference – so we may get the report card on his predictions. Mr. Snyder will do both sessions on Wednesday and attend our reception Wednesday evening. We open Thursday with Hank Moore, Futurist and Corporate Strategist™, who will motivate us with his talk “The Future has Moved… and Left No Forwarding Address”. Hank is certain to inform and encourage us to remember our past as we embrace the future. On Thursday we focus on Broadband and broadband-type services (Cloud). Bill Orr and another with Cisco are going to get into some of the nuts and bolts of Broadband in their “Operating in a Broadband & Cloud Kind of World” that will help you understand how to meet your demand without breaking your bank and how these services and operations may impact your network designs and your operations. They promised me they would be “technically entertaining.” It can happen! It will happen! Then National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC) will walk us through their vision of the “Future of Broadband.” Rural Broadband is not only a service, it is an economic developer for the area and it is a connection to and for your customers. We hope you will plan to join us for another great Futures Retreat at Lake Tahoe. If you have questions or need any assistance, please contact Weldon R. Gray, CEO-TSTCI at 903-658-0055 or [email protected] or Pat Holder, Event Planner at 512-349-7470 or [email protected] Look forward to seeing you in August! |