CenturyLink Hosts RVA Tech on Tap
“No drink, no ink” – that’s the classic line of an old-school journalist meeting a source at the local bar. So full disclosure up front: I did have a beer at the RVA Tech on Tap gathering on Aug 16, at the Three Notch’d Brewing Co and Collab House. But I paid $10 to attend. That makes my drink mostly a wash between me and the event’s sponsor, CenturyLink. CenturyLink is still interesting enough to write about for one simple reason: Over the past decade, this company has transformed itself. It reminds me of Bell Atlantic, which acquired...
read moreBlog Series Wins PRSA Award of Merit
A series of blog articles that JT Consulting helped create won an Award of Merit in the 71st Annual Virginia Public Relations Awards competition. The Richmond Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) hosted the related ceremony. Held at the Jefferson Hotel on May 24, the evening was a sparkling mixture of drinks, dinner, conversation – and awards. Our award resulted from our collaboration with Wireside Communications, an independent PR agency that focuses on high-tech B-to-B communications. Moreover, they derived from...
read moreIntel Pitches Optane for Content Delivery
The Content Delivery Summit, hosted by StreamingMedia.com in New York City on May 7, provided a stage for chip maker Intel to discuss a storage technology that it developed several years ago with Micron and later branded as Optane. The pitch was a head-turner for a few reasons. First, let’s underscore a point. Intel was talking memory and storage, not micro-processing or CPUs, with which is it more popularly associated. Second, maybe you already knew about the 3D XPoint (crosspoint) technology that Intel and Micron announced back in...
read moreCable-Tec Expo: A Mile High and 18 Years Deep
This year’s SCTE•ISBE’s Cable-Tec Expo in Denver was my 18th. To old-timers, that still makes me a rookie. Yes, the cable industry can be tight-knit and self-referential. But it is also welcoming, open to change and attentive to innovation. And mile-high Denver was the place to go this fall to tap into the industry’s forward-looking execs. Joining the big blue bear at the Denver Convention Center on the opening day were the CEOs of Charter, Comcast Cable, ARRIS and Liberty Global. Mike Fries of Liberty Global was a notable addition. I’d heard...
read moreIBC 2017: VR, Big Data and Other Trends
IBC 2017, Amsterdam. That should have been the dateline. But the night before I was supposed to leave, I checked my passport. Surely it hadn’t expired. Arghh…it had. After an hour of checking on a quick renewal, I cut my losses and canceled. (Thank you, Expedia travel insurance.) So no Schiphol Airport or time at the RAI Convention Center. Too bad. But live and learn. And you can still learn, covering a show from afar. Leaning on a few trusted sources and an award-winning IBC conference paper, I’ve pulled together these takeaways on virtual...
read morePitch to the Press: 8 Tips from RVA TechJam
How to pitch news to the press. That was the topic of a panel on the final day of Tech/Jam week (July 24-28) in Richmond, Virginia. (Venue: the historic Main Street Station.) Moderated by local news anchor Juan Conde, the panel consisted of four practicing journalists. As the former editor of a trade journal, I like hearing from those in the trenches and thought the advice delivered on this panel was spot on. It included the following tips: Get personal. “Remember when you’re pitching, you’re speaking to a person,” said Mallory Noe-Payne, a...
read moreAn Early DOCSIS Memoir: Roads Taken and Not
Most engineers have other things to do than write. Those who have the time and skill to draft their own conference papers or help marketing with white papers are rare finds. Fewer still are able – or willing – to shift from tech writing to historical narrative. But that’s what we see in Robert Cruickshank’s self-published e-book, The Souls of DOCSIS. Part industry history and part personal memoir, this PDF document came out in 2015, roughly two decades after the events it narrates. Associated with a Cable Center initiative that celebrates the...
read moreNAB 2017: UHD, IP and Workflows
The week after my trip to San Diego, I flew west again. Once in Las Vegas, I checked in to Circus Circus. Cheap and within walking distance of the Convention Center. And not without some aging charm. From my window, I had a good view of the dome that caps the hotel’s amusement park. A few days is long enough to take the pulse of an industry. It was also enough time to catch up with clients, both my own and those I serve through a partner firm, Xpresso Communications. As for big themes at NAB 2017, no surprises. I sensed momentum and...
read moreSales, San Diego and a Hat Tip to Zig Ziglar
Credentialed professionals tend to disdain those in sales. (Having grown up in an academic family, I’m somewhat familiar with this syndrome.) Salespersons often defend their role by talking about how everyone sells something. A lot rides on the terms. I like how one old sales pro defined them. “I have always said that everyone is in sales,” wrote motivational speaker and celebrated sales trainer Zig Ziglar. “Maybe you don’t hold the title of salesperson, but if the business you are in requires you to deal with people, you, my friend,...
read moreThe Mind-Mapping Writer
On occasion, I write about writing. In this post from late 2015, I focused Scrivener, a powerful “content-generation tool,” which is part of how I research and create every first draft. A related tool is mind mapping. I first learned about this technique from David Allen, who discusses it in chapter 3 of his 2001 book Getting Things Done. (See here for a podcast on GTD and mind mapping.) But it was not until I encountered writing coach Daphne Gray-Grant that I really grasped how well it applies to writing. Her little e-book on the...
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