The 2024 IQGeo Americas Meetup in Denver on October 9th – 11th was bigger and better than ever. With nearly 300 customers, partners and IQGeo staff we were pushing the limits of the downtown Le Meridian conference center. It was a real pleasure to see so many familiar faces and be introduced to many more new people, all passionate and focused on delivering broadband digital equity and building a greener energy future.
The event program was expanded this year with three software training sessions on Day 1, an impressive list of keynote and customer speakers on Day 2, and three industry Working Groups on Day 3 that included a new session on software technology. The energy level throughout the event was fantastic, with real excitement about the challenges and opportunities we face in transforming our communication and utility infrastructure for the future.
Workflow Manager immersive training session
If I was asked to pick one overriding theme that emerged out of this years’ event, it would be “investment”. Not simply financial capital, although there is a great deal of money being poured into network modernization, but more importantly the human and intellectual capital that is being invested. I was struck by the personal commitment of the individuals attending the Meetup in their daunting mission to design, build, and maintain next-generation communication and energy solutions.
Jay Cadman, Senior Vice President, IQGeo
Our keynote speakers did an amazing job setting the scene with presentations from our CEO, Richard Petti, the President and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association, Gary Bolton, and John D’Agostino, who is the Global Industry Leader for Power at ERM.
Gary reminded us of the more than $60billion in BEAD and related funding being directed into broadband by the government and private investors and the role fiber plans in enabling emerging technologies like the Metaverse, Quantum Computing, and Artificial Intelligence. Against a backdrop of workforce shortages with too few fiber engineers, there is still a great deal of work to be done in our mission to achieve universal broadband. Doing more with less resources won’t be easy, but this is where software automation from IQGeo will play a strategic role.
Gary Bolton, President and CEO, Fiber Broadband Association
John explained how the current electric grid in the US has taken 100 years to build, and the fact that we’ll need to double our transmission line capacity in the next decade to meet future demands. Achieving in a decade what has taken a century is a daunting task and will involve changing the public’s perception of electric utility grids. If you love the idea of a greener energy future, we will all have to learn to embrace the grid infrastructure that will make this a reality. His session provided a fascinating overview of the processes and administration required to expand our electric grid, from planning and permits, to archaeology, and community engagement.
John D’Agostino, Global Industry Leader for Power, ERM
Richard brought us up to speed on IQGeo’s own journey over the last five years, from a small player in 2019 with a new brand, to an industry leader with major financial backing from our current investors KKR and Kestrel Partners. He outlined IQGeo’s ambitions and how we will be investing in technology, partnerships, and resources to play an even bigger part in broadband adoption and grid modernization.
IQGeo’s investment priorities:
Reduce technology friction
Support the entire lifecycle
Enable the IQGeo ecosystem
Grow the organization
IQGeo will focus on streamlining all aspects of the use of our software so our customers can easily install, configure, and integrate our solutions. We will enhance our existing applications and create new use cases to expand support for the network lifecycle. Recognizing the size and scope of the challenge ahead, we will be actively investing in our partner ecosystem to embrace new technology from other innovative solution providers.
David Cottingham, CTO, IQGeo |
James Wheatley, Head of Product Management, IQGeo |
And to achieve all this, IQGeo will be recruiting new talent to grow the organization. It’s an exciting time for IQGeo and our entire team is committed to achieving our ambitious objectives.
Stefan Schneider, Product Manager, IQGeo |
Jeroen Vanhaverbeke, Product Manager, IQGeo |
Jonas Verstuyft, Product Manager, IQGeo |
One of the highlights of every Meetup is our customer keynote sessions when company’s share their own challenges and achievements and this year we had some compelling stories to share.
Portland General Electric (PGE) explained their progressive vision for a net-zero electric grid and how the IQGeo software is helping to enable their objectives in the field and in the office. PGE has a focused technology strategy that is improving process performance across their grid lifecycle from maintenance and operations to disaster and outage response.
Bridger Miller, IT Manager Field Application Support, PGE |
Pixie Ulmen, Senior Enterprise Program Manager, PGE |
Bolivar Energy Authority, a smaller rural electric cooperative, has used our software to achieve amazing operational efficiency improvements with their field crews and contractors. It has helped them go paperless, eliminated the need for extra software, and provides instant access to network information. Bolivar is also a great example of the increasing convergence of broadband and electric utility industries as they are also rolling out fiber for their communities.
Hallee Childress, Electrical Engineer, Bolivar Energy Authority
Cox Communications is one of our longest-standing customers with thousands of IQGeo software users and has impressive plans for the evolution of their technology strategy. One area of particular focus for Cox is the acceleration of network connections and the use of IQGeo’s Network Revenue Optimizer software to maximize network revenue potential.
At the end of our Day-2 we also presented our 6th annual IQGeo Customer and Partner Innovation Awards, and this years’ worthy recipients were Bolivar Energy Authority, Conterra Networks, Cox Communications, Fibersmith, LG&E and KU, and Lightpath. Check out our press release on these awards to read the full story behind all the winners.
The 2024 IQGeo Customer and Partner Innovation award winners
Investing in partners
IQGeo recognizes the strategic importance of partnering with other technology and service providers to meet the once-in-a-generation network transformation challenge we face and this year we were very pleased to have eight partners join us with demonstration pods: Arcadis, Central Service Association, Deepomatic, EXFO, Fibersmith, Hexatronic, Inorsa, and VIAVI.
Partner pods
The importance of these relationships cannot be understated and supporting and expanding this partner ecosystem is one of the four key pillars of investment for IQGeo going forward. The demonstration pods with our partners were extremely busy during networking sessions and many of the partners participated in presentations during our Friday Working Group sessions.
One of our partners and innovation award winners, Fibersmith, also agreed to give a presentation, focusing on how their location-based Vision software is using IQGeo’s APIs to improve operational processes with enhanced physical plant records.
Our three-day Meetup was concluded on Friday with three detailed Working Groups focused on Technology, Telecom, and Utility topics. These sessions offered a chance to explore in greater depth the topics introduced during the keynotes and featured presentations from Xcel Energy, Fortis BC, Bolivar Energy Authority, Hexatronic, Deepomatic, EXFO, and Xtensible.
This year it included a more detailed Technical Working Group where topics like API integrations and FME data conversion were discussed. A big hit with our delegates, these small Working Groups were highly interactive and gave participants the opportunity to dig deeper into topics they know and explore new areas of IQGeo and partner technology.
There is no question that the challenges facing the telecom and electric utility industries are complex and daunting, but at the same time, the positive energy and pride in the current accomplishments was clear for all to see at this years’ Meetup. Those engaged in our industries have the right to be proud of what they have achieved and excited about what lies ahead.
Delegates at the IQGeo Americas Meetup 2024
Investment is streaming into our industries in many forms and from many directions and it will take all of our combined creativity to ensure success. Financial, process, technical, and human capital will all be required to meet our vision of broadband equity and a greener energy future. IQGeo is proud of the key role that our global Meetups are playing in this important mission, and we look forward to hosting them again in 2025.
Our growing list of customers includes some of the world's most innovative telecommunication, fiber, and utility network operators. Visit our customer stories page to hear why they chose IQGeo.