TT&S 2024 Conference Rundown

Nice weather loading up on Monday... before wintery Tuesday.

169 attendees.

29 vendors.

25 sessions.

And all of this accomplished with yet another year of winter weather warning on Tuesday morning.

All ready for everyone, despite the wind and snow.

 

Tuesday Kick-off

Art Thompson, Executive Director of WSI

 
The conference started with a stirring keynote from Art Thompson, executive director of North Dakota's Workforce Safety & Insurance (WSI). He included statistics about North Dakota workplace injuries and fatalities, including the sobering fact that four out of the top five causes of workplace fatalities in North Dakota included a motor vehicle. Data shared also included how the most commonly injured group by far include those who have been on the job for less than a year (we'll stay off our soapbox after this, I promise, but here's the link to our post about how important new hire training is). He underlined the importance of workplace safety and that while safety may begin in a classroom with a training program, it doesn't end there. Mentorship programs, either formal or informal, are integral to helping new employees become acclimated to safety programs by showing them what safety protocols look like while on the actual job.

Dot Frank's "Spare Change"

 

Dot Frank was our second speaker, with her topic on how to anticipate and ultimately embrace change. She shared her experience with change in her life and explained some strategies to harness the positive elements of change rather than be defeated by it. She left us with an inspiring message that change can be an opportunity to learn and experience new things, and with this attitude we can find ourselves much more successful.

Attendees then were able to join the vendor social, which included door prizes, the tech wars competition, and the opportunity to meet, greet, and learn more about our great vendor lineup. SRT gained the prize and bragging rights this year for the tech wars!

First place Tech Wars Winners from SRT

 

Second place Tech Wars Winners from United Communications

Third place Tech Wars Winners from NDTC

Wednesday Sessions and Social

The next day attendees broke up into their preferred sessions, which included four different tracks. Sessions included many different topics, including:

- OTDR Testing
- Email Etiquette
- Enabling the IoT: A WLAN Security Crucial Conversations Wake-up Call
- Fiber Splicing and Troubleshooting
- Service Order Start to Finish - iVUE, Scheduler, and Appsuite
- Mapwise: Network Connectivity - That's Spliced How?

... and many more!

A spirited Andy Walding session

Jane Wigen presents a session on retirement

 

While this was going on, TT&S, along with the support of a group of member company volunteers, also offered local career academy and technical center high schoolers the opportunity to learn more about the broadband industry.

 

Student swag bag member company donations

Student swag bag contents from DRN

Their agenda included a session with Andy Walding about the how the Internet actually works, a question and answer session with industry HR professionals and field professionals, and a hands-on portion with Sean Kelly from Light Brigade and Steve Wolles from AFL. We're excited about this new addition to the conference, as in future years this will allow member companies to sponsor local high schoolers to attend, perhaps igniting the spark that leads them to seek out an internship or job with their local broadband co-op down the line.

 

Sean Kelly's hands-on demonstration for students

We also held a recognition luncheon where we had the opportunity to thank all the wonderful board members, vendors, volunteers, and everyone else who came together to make the conference and TT&S in general a success.

Recognition luncheon

 

Wednesday evening saw another vendor social, as well as more door prizes and the cornhole tournament. The winners this year were from Venture Communications, and second place went to a team from Consolidated.

First place cornhole winners

 

Second place cornhole winners

 

Thursday Morning Speakers

On Thursday morning TT&S introduced a couple of excellent speakers. Luke Kapella with the ND Bureau of Criminal Investigation along with his sidekick General Lee (a very well-behaved black lab) gave a fantastic presentation on illicit drugs in North Dakota and what techs should watch out for when going into private residences. He especially noted that some substances, especially fentanyl, could even be fatal if touched, so techs need to be wary of these substances and watch out for these clues.

Luke Kapella's presentation

 

General Lee stealing the show in the background

The second speaker, Beth Warford, founder of Pretty Loaded, gave a presentation on self-defense and on how to carry yourself to avoid confrontation. She gave practical information that anyone can use to help keep themselves safe.

 

Beth Warford's contact info

Overall, the conference was a success, and it was absolutely great to get everyone together again for another year, despite the weather not cooperating... as usual. Thanks to everyone who helped us to coordinate the conference, attended, or simply provided moral support from afar. We appreciate you all!