ChannelVision Jan-Feb 2017

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MEMBER-DRIVEN, MEMBER-FOCUSED
The ICT community is a busy one but places a high
importance on dialogue. Industry trade events continue
to proliferate at a faster pace than ever at every level.
But PTC remains unique in its openness, breadth, and
internationally-relevant strategic purpose. Above all, it
is a membership-driven organization—rare in the ICT
community these days—where members give of their
time and resources to advance the common interest.
Networks—in both ICT and people terms—are extremely
important here. As noted recently by Joe Weinman, a
PTC’17 Program Advisor, industry executive, and the
author of Cloudonomics, “networks and networking
are critical to the fabric of modern civilization and
enable applications ranging across areas as diverse as
telemedicine, collaboration, remote mining and offshore
drilling, social networking, fintech, micro-loans and
micro-payments, online courseware, video streaming
and broadcasting, and beyond.”
THE OPEN NETWORK
In these changes, PTC enables people to network as
well, with opportunities available to everyone without
distinction or restriction. The community has multiple
interests and recognizes it needs a broad, open dialogue
frequently involving industry, academic, and regulatory
interests. We often see many issues emerge as
significant—and even controversial—outside of the ICT
industry. Concerns such as “broadband as a human right”
and “net neutrality” to spectrum auctions and whitespace
allocations all impact social and political debate and
policymaking as well as investment decisions.
The emerging ICT environment has become a highly
complex one; PTC provides a rich dialogue and debate
to inform and educate everyone involved. This level of
ongoing dialogue, in turn, further enriches PTC’s own
development and standing as a member-driven, member-
focused organization.
MEETING THE ICT MEGATRENDS
PTC is at the nexus of two critical megatrends facing the
ICT world and its leaders today: the rise of the networked
digital society, and the near-exponential economic growth
now experienced in the Asia-Pacific region, as PTC CEO
Sharon Nakama notes. Each of these is making a global
impact, and each megatrend is interacting with the other
in new and unexpected ways.
“Asia-Pacific region is the most heterogeneous
area in the telecom world. Some countries
are really information societies, but others are
the so-called least connectedcountries (LCCs).
The Asia Pacific region is both an epicenter
of growth and a microcosm of the changing
realities faced all around the globe. Our
history in this region will set the stage for
a future of growth and understanding of
the challenges ahead.“
Sharon Nakama, CEO, Pacific Telecommunications Council
Our members, speakers, and attendees are committed
to ensuring this impact is both positive and sustained. In
turn, we at PTC are committed to ensuring they have the
highest quality of resources for the global ICT journey—
and its remarkable reality-changing experience — ahead.
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