The ‘Olympics’ of the Subsea Networks Industry: The SubOptic 2010 Conference & Convention
The SubOptic conference & convention is very much the “Olympics” of the subsea networks industry. It is a must-attend event every 3 years for between 600 & 1,000 of the industry’s key players. There are lot of conferences every year, but SubOptic is the only non-profit making conference organised by the industry and for the industry, within the undersea cable community. Hosted by NEC & Fujitsu SubOptic 2010, the seventh in a series of such conventions since the first SubOptic in 1986, will be hosted by NEC Corporation and Fujitsu Limited. Though competitors in the marketplace, the two host companies have adopted a cooperative team approach for SubOptic 2010 organisation with a secretariat team dedicated to SubOptic 2010 comprising more than 10 staff from the two companies. More details about the sponsorship and exhibition opportunities available and the registration packages will be published early next year. SubOptic 2010 will take place at the Pacifico Yokohama Conference Center, in Yokohama Japan, from 11 to 14 May 2010. The Pacifico conference facility has an integrated 600-room hotel, Intercontinental The Grand Yokohama which will act as the base hotel for the conference. This will combine the intimacy of SubOptic 2007 in Baltimore, with all of the advantages of a purpose-built conference center. There are several other international hotels with total of over 2,000 rooms, and a shopping mall nearby the conference center as well.
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By Colin Anderson
The Same - But Different It is a privilege and an honour to have been selected as the Program Chair for SubOptic 2010. The submarine industry has been good to me - I have been involved in many interesting projects and met many wonderful people - so this is an ideal chance for me to try to give something back in return.
When I was appointed as Program Chair in January 2008, the first comment that I made to the Executive Committee is that I expected that the program for SubOptic 2010 would be ‘evolutionary’, not ‘revolutionary’. And after the work that the Program Committee has done so far this year, that is still my view. SubOptic 2001 in Kyoto, SubOptic 2004 in Monaco, and SubOptic 2007 in Baltimore, were each great conferences, despite the very difficult period through which the industry was going in that 6-year period. And each event gained from the experience of the past events. So what are we going to do different for 2010, and what are we going to do the same? Well, read on to find out... Executive Committee The Program Committee is formally responsible to the SubOptic Executive Committee, and the EC interacts formally with the PC at our regular EC meetings. The Executive Committee currently comprises 16 diverse companies from within our industry (in alphabetical order): Alcatel-Lucent; Australia Japan Cable; Apollo Submarine Cable System Ltd; British Telecom; Cable & Wireless; Deutsche Telecom AG; EGS Survey