Growth & Transformation

Track Sponsor

In order to thrive in the next generation of connectivity, the industry must transform to seize untapped growth and generate new value.

This track will explore how the evolution of business models, new offerings and target customers, and harnessing the benefits of emerging technologies can unlock opportunities for growth and differentiation. Hear from the experts what the next big opportunities are for industry evolution, and how to capitalize on what’s to come.

Track Speakers

Shamim Akhtar

Global Network Architecture & Technology Strategy
Apple

Rob Alderfer

Vice President of Technology Policy
Charter Communications

Cesar Amaro

Sr. Program Manager IT Security & Compliance
Liberty Latin America

Chris Anderson

Principal Advisor, National Security & Emergency Preparedness
Lumen Technologies

Richard Anderson

National Sales Manager for Data Centers
Siemens

Richard Anderson

Siemens

Dr. Jennifer Andreoli-Fang

Sr. Manager Solutions Architecture
AWS

Josh Angotti

VP of Product
Uniti

Don Annett

Principal Strategist
Rogers Communications

Carol Ansley

Senior Lead Architect
Cox Communications

Josh Arensberg

CTO M&E
Verizon Business

Ladi Astrab

Head of Pre Sales
Incognito

Mike Baldino

SVP, Data and Infrastructure Solutions
Charter Communications

Ramneek Bali

Senior Director, Emerging Technology, R&D
Charter Communications

Chris Bastian

Independent Consultant

Brad Baumann

President
Sellenriek Construction and Anderson Underground

Will Berger

Vice President of Telemetry Development
Charter Communications

Nitin Bhargava

VP, Business Development
Looking Glass Factory

Harshita Bhatt

Engineer 3: Data & Network Evolution
Comcast

Dana Blair

Journalist, Producer, TV Personality

Chantal Blake

Technical Program Manager
Comcast

Dr. Veronica Bloom

Vice President Data Science
Charter Communications

Douglas Blue

Business Development - North America
Nokia

Brock Bose

Vice President Data Science
Charter Communications

Andy Boyce

Sr. Principal DOCSIS Engineer
Comcast

Ed Boyd

VP of PON R&D
Ciena

Mark Bridges

Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer
CableLabs

Paul Broadhurst

Founder, President and Group Chief Executive Officer
Technetix

Ralph Brown

GridVisibility

Sean Buckley

Editor in Chief
Lightwave

Track Sessions​

Growth & Transformation ​

Headliners | Shaping the Future: Strategy Executive Perspectives

9:00 am – 10:30 am • September 25
Damian Poltz
Senior Vice President,
Wireline Networks,
Rogers Communications
Jim Ryan
SVP and Chief Strategy Officer,
Liberty Global
Ray Collins
SVP, Infrastructure and Corporate Strategy,
Liberty Latin America
Moderator: Ron Reuss
Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer,
CableLabs
Agenda Tabs

Light Reading Breakfast: Smart AMPS, Smarter Networks

7:30 AM
- 9:00 AM
Jeff Heyen
Vice President, Broadband Access & Home Networking
Dell'Oro
Nader Foroughi
Distinguished Engineer
Comcast
Steve Pederson
Chief Product Officer
AOI
Steve Williams
GVP, Access Network Engineering
Charter Communications
Scott Weinstein
Vice President, ANS Product Management
CommScope
Hanno Narjus
Senior Fellow
Teleste Networks

Headliners

8:45 AM
- 10:30 AM
Maria Popo
President & Chief Executive Officer
SCTE
Elad Nafshi
Executive Vice President, Chief Network Officer
Comcast
Tom Monaghan
Executive Vice President, Field Operations
Charter Communications
Justin Colwell
Executive Vice President, Technology Strategy & Innovation
Charter Communications
JR Walden
CTO & SVP
Mediacom Communications
Damian Poltz
Senior Vice President, Wireline Network and PMO
Rogers Communications
Mark Bridges
Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer
CableLabs
Brett Guthrie
Second Congressional District, Kentucky
U.S. House of Representatives

Launching the Industry’s Most Innovative vCMTS – How Entra vCMTS Advancements Benefit the Industry’s Transition to DOCSIS 3.1+, Unified DOCSIS, and DOCSIS 4.0

11:30 AM
- 11:50 AM
Krista Thompson
Regional VP, Tier 1 Operators
Vecima
Ken Kerwin
Group Vice President and General Manager
Vecima
Tech Policy

Artificial Intelligence and Policy: Guardrails for Innovation

11:30 AM
- 12:30 PM
Mike Baldino
SVP, Data and Infrastructure Solutions
Charter Communications
Rick Rioboli
EVP & CTO
Comcast

TechConnect Program Graduation Luncheon

12:00 PM
- 2:00 PM

Advancing Coherent Pluggables: The Road Ahead

12:00 PM
- 12:20 PM
Tim Doiron
Vice President, Solution Marketing
Nokia
Venk Mutalik
Fellow
Comcast
Wireline

Track Keynote

12:30 PM
- 1:00 PM
Elad Nafshi
Executive Vice President, Chief Network Officer
Comcast
Wireless & Convergence

Converging Networks, Expanding Horizons

12:30 PM
- 1:45 PM
Moderator
Chris Stengrim
VP, Technology Strategy
CableLabs
Dr. Hans Geerdes
Principal Strategist
CableLabs
Filip Liharik
VP, Wireless Strategy & Product Planning
Comcast
Simon Clement
Director, Technology Strategy
Liberty Global
Roy Williams
Integrator
Rogers Communications

Broadband Forum BASe – The Proactive Broadband Provider: Leveraging AI for Exceptional Network Performance and Customer Experiences

12:30 PM
- 1:15 PM
Josh Angotti
VP of Product
Uniti
Ladi Astrab
Head of Pre Sales
Incognito
Randy Van Buren
Senior Solutions Engineer
Motive
StreamTech

Futureproofing Your Tech Stack

12:30 PM
- 1:45 PM
Weidong Mao
Senior Fellow
Comcast
Josh Arensberg
CTO M&E
Verizon Business
Operations, Network Planning & Construction

Disaster Resilience and Power Continuity for Broadband Infrastructure

12:30 PM
- 1:45 PM
Moderator
Derek DiGiacomo
Senior Director, Energy Management Programs and Business Continuity
SCTE
Victor Valentine Davis
Deputy Executive Assistant Director, Emergency Communications Division
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
Chris Anderson
Principal Advisor, National Security & Emergency Preparedness
Lumen Technologies
Joe Viens
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs
Charter Communications
Alexander Falcon
Senior Product Manager
Comcast
Kevin Domer
National Security/ Emergency Preparedness Manager
Comcast
AI & Automation

AI-Powered Fiber Observability

12:30 PM
- 1:45 PM
Moderator
Curtis Knittle
VP, Wired Technologies
CableLabs
Maryam Niknamfar
Distinguished Engineer
Charter Communications
Douglas Blue
Business Development - North America
Nokia
Robert Gaydos
Comcast Fellow
Comcast
Karthik Choutagunta
Principal Architect
CableLabs

PACE Planning for Critical Infrastructure Broadband Providers and SCTE 239

12:30 PM
- 1:15 PM
Moderator
Derek DiGiacomo
Senior Director, Energy Management Programs and Business Continuity
SCTE
Victor Valentine Davis
Deputy Executive Assistant Director, Emergency Communications Division
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
Chris Anderson
Principal Advisor, National Security & Emergency Preparedness
Lumen Technologies
Joe Viens
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs
Charter Communications
Kevin Domer
National Security/ Emergency Preparedness Manager
Comcast

Advances in Distributed Acoustic Sensing: Transformative Applications for Cable’s Next-Gen Resilient Fiber Networks

12:30 PM
- 1:45 PM
Karthik Choutagunta
Principal Architect
CableLabs

The Role of AI in the Streaming Tech Stack

12:30 PM
- 1:00 PM
Weidong Mao
Senior Fellow
Comcast

Pushing the Streaming Architecture to the Edge

12:30 PM
- 1:45 PM
Robert Gaydos
Comcast Fellow
Comcast
Sanjay Mishra
Associate Fellow
Verizon
Dan Newman
CTO Content Delivery Platform
Viasat
Glenn Deen
Distinguished Engineer
Comcast

Optimizing Wireless and Broadband with Anyhaul over Passive Optical Networks (PON)

12:30 PM
- 1:45 PM
Roy Williams
Integrator
Rogers Communications
Tech Policy

Connecting for Resilience: Broadband’s Role in Disaster Recovery and Response

12:40 PM
- 1:20 PM
Justin Cain
Division Chief, Operations & Emergency Management Division
FCC
Mike Matson
SVP of Field Operations
Spectrum
Wally Mealiea
Senior Director, Preparedness & Recovery Policy
Edison Electric Institute

Case Study: Maximizing streaming quality through embedded caching

12:50 PM
- 1:45 PM
Wireline

The Future of FTTx: How Does PON Fit Into the Equation?

1:00 PM
- 2:00 PM
Moderator
Belal Hamzeh
Vice President, Technology and Systems Engineering
Comcast
Jason Combs
Network Engineer
Comcast
Hy Huynh
Vice President, Fiber Products
Harmonic
Ed Boyd
VP of PON R&D
Ciena
Israel Madiedo
Innovation and Technology Director
izzi (Televisa Group)

The Future of FTTx: How Does PON Fit Into the Equation?

1:00 PM
- 1:45 PM
Moderator
Belal Hamzeh
Vice President, Technology and Systems Engineering
Comcast
Jason Combs
Network Engineer
Comcast
Hy Huynh
Vice President, Fiber Products
Harmonic
Ed Boyd
VP of PON R&D
Ciena
Israel Madiedo
Innovation and Technology Director
izzi (Televisa Group)

Make The Passive Optical Distribution Network Observable Using AI-powered Insights

1:00 PM
- 1:45 PM
Moderator
Curtis Knittle
VP, Wired Technologies
CableLabs
Douglas Blue
Business Development - North America
Nokia
Robert Gaydos
Comcast Fellow
Comcast
Maryam Niknamfar
Distinguished Engineer
Charter Communications

E.T. Phone Home: Converging Opportunities from Earth to Space

1:00 PM
- 1:45 PM
Moderator
Chris Stengrim
VP, Technology Strategy
CableLabs
Dr. Hans Geerdes
Principal Strategist
CableLabs
Filip Liharik
VP, Wireless Strategy & Product Planning
Comcast
Simon Clement
Director, Technology Strategy
Liberty Global

Portable Generator Management for Disaster Recovery

1:25 PM
- 1:45 PM
Alexander Falcon
Senior Product Manager
Comcast
Tech Policy

Under Attack: Protecting America’s Communications Networks from Criminal Threats

1:30 PM
- 2:10 PM
Andrew Cordiner
Unit Chief, Counterintelligence, Critical Infrastructure
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Jane Rhodes
SVP, Corporate Physical Security
Charter Communications
Alex Minard
Vice President & Lead Legislative Counsel
NCTA

Networking Break

1:45 PM
- 2:00 PM
Operations, Network Planning & Construction

PNM Live! 2025: Proactive Maintenance Makes Reliable Networks

2:00 PM
- 3:15 PM
Moderator
Brady Volpe
Chief Product Officer
Open Vault
Jason Rupe
Distinguished Technologist
CableLabs
Larry Wolcott
Engineering Fellow
Comcast
Mike O’Dell
Distinguished Engineer
Comcast
Foad Towfiq
CEO
Promptlink
James Medlock
Founder & CEO
Akleza
Arni Lundale
NFT Lead Hand, Niagara Region
Cogeco Connexion
Mark Trudeau
CEO
OpenVault
StreamTech

Next Generation Linear Channel Assembly: Scale FAST, Stream Smarter, Earn More

2:00 PM
- 3:00 PM
Wireless & Convergence

Seamless by Design: Innovative Paths to Scalable, Always-On Networks

2:00 PM
- 3:15 PM
Moderator
Dr. Hans Geerdes
Principal Strategist
CableLabs
Moderator
Sanjay Patel
Sr. Director Strategy
CableLabs
Moderator
David Debrecht
VP, Wireless Technologies
CableLabs
Don Annett
Principal Strategist
Rogers Communications
Madalina Suceveanu
Managing Director – Mobile and Cloud
Liberty Global
Ramneek Bali
Senior Director, Emerging Technology, R&D
Charter Communications
Tommy Fad
Vice President, WiFi
Charter Communications

Building Influence Without Authority: Guidance from Senior Leaders to Help You Lead Anywhere

2:00 PM
- 2:50 PM
Tom Monaghan
Executive Vice President, Field Operations
Charter Communications
Debbie Fitzgerald
Distinguished Technologist and Director
CableLabs
Kristell Janusz
SVP, Network Engineering
Astound Broadband
Wireline

From Tap to CPE: Strategies to Unlock DOCSIS 4.0 Performance at Scale

2:00 PM
- 3:15 PM
Eric Nachtigall
Lead RF Engineer
CableLabs
Stephane Raimbault
Sr. Manager, DOCSIS Engineering Operations
Rogers Communications
Matthew Olfert
Principal Network Architect
Rogers Communications
AI & Automation

Operational Intelligence at Scale

2:00 PM
- 3:15 PM
Moderator
Todd Musat
Director, Critical Infrastructure
Rogers Communications
Ryan Capone
VP, Network Facilities & Energy
Comcast
Ken Nickel
Vice President
Quest Controls
Mike Glaser
Principal Architect, Critical Facilities
Cox Communications
Bill Leslie
Chief AI Acceleration Oficer
Nrby
Gavin Mitchell
VP Product Operations and Quality
Altice USA

Leveraging HFC for Dense Mobile Coverage

2:00 PM
- 3:15 PM
Moderator
Dr. Hans Geerdes
Principal Strategist
CableLabs
Moderator
David Debrecht
VP, Wireless Technologies
CableLabs
Don Annett
Principal Strategist
Rogers Communications
Ramneek Bali
Senior Director, Emerging Technology, R&D
Charter Communications

Seamless Connectivity Service

2:00 PM
- 3:15 PM
Moderator
David Debrecht
VP, Wireless Technologies
CableLabs
Moderator
Sanjay Patel
Sr. Director Strategy
CableLabs
Madalina Suceveanu
Managing Director – Mobile and Cloud
Liberty Global
Tommy Fad
Vice President, WiFi
Charter Communications

PNM for Capacity Additions – Methods to Support DOCSIS 4.0 Deployments and Beyond

2:00 PM
- 2:20 PM
Matthew Olfert
Principal Network Architect
Rogers Communications
Tech Policy

Beyond the Last Mile: Building the Customer Experience Across Ecosystems

2:20 PM
- 2:50 PM
Moderator
Paul Fonte
Sr. Director, Future Infrastructure Group
CableLabs
Sundeep Singatwaria
Distinguished Wi-Fi Systems Engineer
Meta
Shamim Akhtar
Global Network Architecture & Technology Strategy
Apple
Differentiated Services

From Pipes to Platforms: Lessons from the F1 Enterprise Experience

2:30 PM
- 3:15 PM
Moderator
Massimo Disabato
VP, Marketing Strategy and Investor Relations
Commscope
Gary Foote
Chief Information Officer
MoneyGram Haas F1 Racing Team
Joey Krek
IT Manager
Circuit of The Americas
Christian Nascimento
SVP, Commerical Business
Comcast
Tim Dyer
VP of Market Development
RUCKUS

Pushing the HFC Frontier: Enabling 6 GHz Spectrum for the Next Generation of Connectivity

2:30 PM
- 3:15 PM
Eric Nachtigall
Lead RF Engineer
CableLabs

Efficient Resource Allocation for HFC Plant Repair Using ML-Driven Predictive Intelligence

2:30 PM
- 2:50 PM
Bill Leslie
Chief AI Acceleration Oficer
Nrby
Gavin Mitchell
VP Product Operations and Quality
Altice USA

Lost in the Lack of Capacity Fog – Clear Paths to Greater Capacity

2:40 PM
- 3:15 PM
Stephane Raimbault
Sr. Manager, DOCSIS Engineering Operations
Rogers Communications
Tech Policy

Cybersecurity Policy Priorities

3:00 PM
- 3:45 PM
Brian Scriber
Chief Information & Security Officer
CableLabs

Smarter Networks: AI Powered Intelligence from Access to Core

3:00 PM
- 3:50 PM
Moderator
Dr. Rob Thompson
System Architect
Sercomm Corporation
Will Berger
Vice President of Telemetry Development
Charter Communications
Jason Levy
Senior Director of Transport, PON, Performance & EON
Rogers Communications
Dan Rice
Vice President, Access Network Engineering
Comcast

Using AI and Automation to Optimize Critical Facility Operational Efficiency and Improve Reliability

3:00 PM
- 3:15 PM
Moderator
Todd Musat
Director, Critical Infrastructure
Rogers Communications
Ken Nickel
Vice President
Quest Controls
Mike Glaser
Principal Architect, Critical Facilities
Cox Communications
Ryan Capone
VP, Network Facilities & Energy
Comcast

Networking Break

3:15 PM
- 3:30 PM
Operations, Network Planning & Construction

Mastering Proactive Network Maintenance (PNM)

3:30 PM
- 4:45 PM
Moderator
Ron Hranac
Jason Rupe
Distinguished Technologist
CableLabs
Arni Lundale
NFT Lead Hand, Niagara Region
Cogeco Connexion
Alexander Podarevsky
Chief Technology Officer
Promptlink Communications
James Medlock
Founder & CEO
Akleza
Differentiated Services

The Programmable Network: Automation, Interoperability, and Intelligence

3:30 PM
- 4:45 PM
Andrii Vladyka
Vice President of Growth and Technologies
Harmonic
Greg White
Distinguished Engineer
CableLabs
Javier Hirschbein
Product Owner of Tech Core
Telecom Argentina
Ben Hepworth
Principal Architect
CableLabs
Dr. Sebnem Ozer
Distinguished Engineer
Charter Communications
StreamTech

Winning Cloud Models

3:30 PM
- 4:45 PM
Thomas Edwards
AWS
Wireline

DOCSIS Deep Dive: Mastering the MAC Layer and Full Duplex Architecture

3:30 PM
- 4:45 PM
Dr. Richard Prodan
Fellow
Comcast
Karthik Sundaresan
Distinguished Technologist & Director of HFC Solutions
CableLabs
Wireless & Convergence

Spectrum Innovation: Advancing Wireless Frontiers

3:30 PM
- 4:45 PM
Moderator
Rikin Thakker
Chief Technology Officer
NCTA
Lakhbir Singh
Principal Engineer III
Charter Communications
Rob Alderfer
Vice President of Technology Policy
Charter Communications

Mastering Proactive Network Maintenance (PNM)

3:30 PM
- 4:45 PM
Moderator
Ron Hranac
Alexander Podarevsky
Chief Technology Officer
Promptlink Communications
Arni Lundale
NFT Lead Hand, Niagara Region
Cogeco Connexion
James Medlock
Founder & CEO
Akleza
Jason Rupe
Distinguished Technologist
CableLabs

DOCSIS MAC Layer Masterclass

3:30 PM
- 4:00 PM
Karthik Sundaresan
Distinguished Technologist & Director of HFC Solutions
CableLabs

The Challenges of Using (and Not Using) The Cloud in the Video Tech Stack

3:30 PM
- 4:45 PM
Thomas Edwards
AWS

Engineering Spectrum Efficiency: Innovation at the Network Edge

3:30 PM
- 4:45 PM
Moderator
Rikin Thakker
Chief Technology Officer
NCTA
Rob Alderfer
Vice President of Technology Policy
Charter Communications

Operator’s API Journey

3:30 PM
- 3:50 PM
Javier Hirschbein
Product Owner of Tech Core
Telecom Argentina

Case Study: Cloud migration: forward-looking strategies for effective streaming workflows and infrastructure

3:50 PM
- 4:45 PM

Optimizing DOCSIS 4.0 Upstream: RF Path Testing Techniques

4:00 PM
- 4:20 PM
Dan Coode
Vice President of Terrestrial Networks
Calian
AI & Automation

Harnessing AI for Experience and Efficiency

4:00 PM
- 5:15 PM
Moderator
Yvette Kanouff
Partner
JC2 Ventures
Megan Collins
Lead AI/ML Engineer
CableLabs
Brandy Riherd
Director, Data Science
Cox Communications
Amrit Shaswat
Manager, Data science
Cox Communications
Dr. Jennifer Andreoli-Fang
Sr. Manager Solutions Architecture
AWS
Bhanu Krishnamurthy
SVP Software and Engineering
Comcast
Tech Policy

The Future of Immersive Entertainment

4:00 PM
- 4:45 PM
Moderator
Dana Blair
Journalist, Producer, TV Personality
Nitin Bhargava
VP, Business Development
Looking Glass Factory
Dan O’Brien
President Americas
HTC VIVE
John Kuzin
SVP, Spectrum Policy and Regulatory Counsel
Qualcomm

Li-Fi (802.11bb) Technology and Potential Applications

4:00 PM
- 4:45 PM
Lakhbir Singh
Principal Engineer III
Charter Communications

Engineering the Future: Cloud, AI, and the Rise of Agentic Systems

4:00 PM
- 5:15 PM
Moderator
Yvette Kanouff
Partner
JC2 Ventures
Dr. Jennifer Andreoli-Fang
Sr. Manager Solutions Architecture
AWS
Bhanu Krishnamurthy
SVP Software and Engineering
Comcast
Megan Collins
Lead AI/ML Engineer
CableLabs

Overcoming Network-Application Paradoxes With Open, Interoperable, and Continuous Integration Systems

4:00 PM
- 4:20 PM
Dr. Sebnem Ozer
Distinguished Engineer
Charter Communications

AI-Based Intent Prediction for Improved Customer Experience & Cost Optimization

4:00 PM
- 5:15 PM
Brandy Riherd
Director, Data Science
Cox Communications
Amrit Shaswat
Manager, Data science
Cox Communications

Masterclass: DOCSIS 4.0 FDX

4:15 PM
- 4:45 PM
Dr. Richard Prodan
Fellow
Comcast

L4S: Real-Time Congestion Management at the Speed of Software

4:25 PM
- 4:45 PM
Andrii Vladyka
Vice President of Growth and Technologies
Harmonic
Ben Hepworth
Principal Architect
CableLabs
Greg White
Distinguished Engineer
CableLabs

Maintaining a Sustainable Competitive Advantage in Converged Service Offerings

5:00 PM
- 5:45 PM
Patrick McLaughlin
Group Editorial Director
Endeavor Business Media Digital Infrastructure Group
Barry Walton
Senior Broadband Solutions Advisor
Corning, Inc.
Sean Buckley
Editor in Chief
Lightwave

Expo Happy Hour

5:00 PM
- 6:00 PM
Energy 20/20 Summit

Energy 20/20 Summit Reception

6:30 PM
- 9:30 PM