SCTE PRESENTS
Brennan, President & CEO at Women in Cable Telecommunications, Lauren Trudeau, Vice President of Operations, OpenVault, and our own Melissa Cogavin, Editor of Broadband Journal explored this idea on the last panel of the day, “Four Global Women, One Powerful Conversation.” “I’m not saying that DEI IS important because half the population are women, but because it’s good for business,” Brennan told delegates, adding that “Only 22% of AI professionals globally are female, and only 15% of AI professionals in the UK are people of colour.” She added that it was important to have “a wide swath of demographic when you are serving a wide swath of consumer.” Covid had brought great changes to the workplace: “You can be yourself in the workplace now much more than you could be before,” said Trudeau. But she also pointed to changes between generations, describing a young colleague who was both flummoxed by a stapler, and where exactly on an envelope to put a stamp. Whether that is due to the two years of lockdowns or other, more institutional failings isn’t really clear, but it speaks to a wider disconnect between generations and general knowledge. Colleagues who need that extra push can benefit from mentoring or sponsoring. “The difference between mentoring and sponsoring is subtle but important,” Maria explained. “Mentoring is more like coaching, whereas sponsoring is a more supportive role, speaking up for people when they are not in the room, facilitating introductions and so on.” She added, that it was particularly important for younger people. The advice was to find your network and exploit it, rather than waiting for it to come to you. SCTE ® Presents: Across The Pond was a thorough exploration of the technical, commercial and social elements of our industry that are similar but different to those of North America, and a big thank you to the speakers whose expertise across all of these were both fascinating and valuable.
The problem is made worse by the fragmentation of devices – the more devices or operating systems, the greater the number of versions of each app will be required. El Gharbaoui warned that the number of connected TVs, rising to a predicted 2bn by 2030, all requiring constant updates and offering increasing amounts of content will see an onslaught of ‘shiftting bugs’, creating ‘monumental headaches.’ The antidote appears to be AI, where robots can learn to read and navigate menu structures or keyboards across platforms. “Instead of describing very small actions to navigate we can just have one global instruction asking the robot to recognise where you are and navigate to this sub menu itself, so the net result is the robot learns as it progresses, and the end user needs less time to perform validation.”
As streaming services take over from traditional broadcast TV, the load on broadband services was increasing.
Learning Experience
The conversation pivoted towards training. Cesar Ruiz, President & CEO, The Learning Alliance, based in Florida, surprised no one when he said that no young person actually wakes up and declares they want to be a cable engineer. His challenge is to convince them that it’s actually an important part of society. In the United States, Ruiz has focused in on those who have English as a second language, as well as US Veterans, who make up 80% of learners. “When they come out of the military they have nowhere to go,” Ruiz explains. Rather than traditional classroom learning, The Learning Alliance has created a 12-hour-a- day boot camp in Florida. It boasts a 86% retention rate after a year, double that of the industry as a whole. Ruiz’s shared his concerns, echoed by much of the industry in Europe that the engineering workforce is an aging demographic, and unless we act quickly, there is the potential “loss of a lot of knowledge.” DEI Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has been going through a tough time since the Trump administration arrived to Make America Great Again. While the term has shifted in meaning, the motivation behind the term remains unchanged. Maria
SAVE THE DATE Our next event, SCTE ® Presents: TV to IP - The Capacity Challenge takes place at One Great George Street on Wednesday October 8. Register at www.theSCTE.eu
www.theSCTE.eu
SEPTEMBER 2025 Volume 47 No.3
29
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker