FEATURE
SUBOPTIC 2023 IS IN BANGKOK, THAILAND ON 13-16 MARCH! BY ALICE SHELTON
T
he SubOptic 2023 conference is now less than 3 months away. The conference will be held in Bangkok, Thailand from 13-16 March. As always, the conference programme will run alongside an exhibition showcasing the latest in submarine cable technology, services and operations and a social programme allowing multiple networking opportunities. The SubOptic conference is the premier event for the submarine cable industry. Run by the SubOptic Association and bringing together all members of the community every three years, it is the only event of its kind put on by the industry, for the industry. All content shown at the conference is generated and presented by members of the industry, whose papers are selected by teams of independent experts based on the merit of the proposed subject matter. The SubOptic Association is a non-profit association active in the international submarine cable industry which historically has been best known for its conference. Over the last two conference cycles, SubOptic has expanded its programs and built its membership. Today, the SubOptic Association is proud to have more than 100 active member companies, each of whom plays an important role in the submarine cable industry. The Association exists to promote the industry, foster debate, exchange ideas and act as an
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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE
educational resource for the entire submarine cable telecommunications community. SubOptic 2023 is the eleventh conference to be organized under the SubOptic banner and will mark the 36th anniversary of the first event which took place in Versailles in 1986. The conference has been held twice before in Asia (Kyoto in 2001 and Yokohama in 2010), Thailand is the first Asian country outside of Japan to host a SubOptic conference. The conference, both because of its reputation as a stellar industry event, as well as its unique location, has already attracted several hundred registrations, and the Association is expecting the 2023 conference will exceed pre
THEME AND PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
The 2023 conference theme is Navigating the Open Seas – Collaboration on our Critical Infrastructure. The criticality of reliable and diverse global connectivity to the world has been accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Today’s new age of remote working, coupled with increased social, commercial and economic dependence on the internet, cloud services, IoT, etc all of which ride over the global fibre backbone beneath the seas, have collectively increased the importance of our industry to the world. Submarine cables, which carry well over 95% of today’s intercontinental com-