Gigabit Networks Featured at Kansas City Broadband Conference This Week and Next

January 12, 2015 – Gigabit Networks will be a featured discussion and two Kansas City- based broadband conference this week and next week.

“Gigabit City Summit” will take place in Kansas City, Missouri, from Tuesday, January 13 through Thursday, January 15. “The State of Broadband – And the Road Ahead” will take place in Kansas City suburb Overland Park, Kansas, from Tuesday, January 20 through Wednesday, January 21.

Both conferences highlight broadband’s impact in society and in today’s economy. The Gigabit City Summit will feature the mayors of the two Kansas Cities — Sly James on the Missouri side, and Mark Holland on the Kansas side —  while highlight the national conversation around Gigabit Fiber Networks.

“Though communities that light up fiber of the next five years will still be on the early end of the adoption curve, we must remember that infrastructure isn’t the end game,” writes Aaron Deacon, managing director of KC Digital Drive, which is hosting the conference.

“Just as Gigabit Internet has taken its place in the zeitgeist, we’ve seen a rise of tech startups and the innovation economy in pop culture. We’ve seen ideas like civic hacking and open data start to transform city governance. And we’re starting to see the idea of the ‘smart city’ seep into our national consciousness.”

Among the speakers at the Kansas City, Missouri, conference include Blair Levin, Metropolitan Policy Program Fellow at the Bookings Institute and former director of the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan;  Susan Crawford, a professor at Harvard Law School and the author of The Responsive City; Heather Burnett Gold, CEO of the Fiber to the Home Council; and Lev Gonick, CEO of the non-profit OneCommunity based in northeast Ohio.

Registration is available at http://www.gigabitcitysummit.com/register/

The “State of Broadband” conference is hosted by the Kansas Statewide Broadband Initiative, in partnership with the Washington-based Schools, Health and Broadband Library Coalition.

“The conference is very focused on broadband issues for local and state stakeholders, particularly building upon the service provider and community stakeholder engagement work we have undertaken over the past five years,” said Stanley Adams, director of the Kansas State Broadband Initiative. “We anticipate our conference will draw from beyond the state, particularly given our partnership and that we will be highlighting best practices and lessons learned from the State Broadband Initiative program.”

Among the speakers at the Overland Park, Kansas, conference include Jonathan Chambers of the FCC; Jennifer Findley of the Kansas Hospital Association; and Tony Russell from the Kansas Fiber Network.

Registration is available at http://www.kansasbroadbandconference.org/registration/

Drew Clark is the Chairman of the Broadband Breakfast Club. He tracks the development of Gigabit Networks, broadband usage, the universal service fund and wireless policy @BroadbandCensus. He is also Of Counsel with the firm of Kirton McConkie, based in Salt City City, Utah. You can find him on LinkedIN, Google+ and Twitter. The articles and posts on BroadbandBreakfast.com  and affiliated social media are not legal advice or legal services, do not constitute the creation of an attorney-client privilege, and represent the views of their respective authors. Clark brings experts and practitioners together to advance the benefits provided by broadband: job creation, telemedicine, online learning, public safety, energy, transportation and eGovernment.