It’s been a while since I’ve travelled for business. Last month, three events aligned in one week. I hit two of them: Satellite 2023 in Washington, DC, and the NTT Upgrade 2023 event in San Francisco. The closest I came to Light Reading’s Cable Next-Gen was a layover at the Denver International Airport. Sorry to have missed it.

After checking in at Satellite 2023, I did a quick tour of the exhibit floor. This show has several vibes. There’s an international flavor, no surprise, given what satellites do. The suits and ties and overall business attire speaks to the buttoned-down nature of the industry. And as a corollary to the suits, you notice the boots. More specifically, the military boots and uniforms walking the show floor, reminding you of satellite’s role in national defense.
 
I slipped out for lunch with my son, who works nearby, then returned and connected with a client. Satellites are integral to video transmission, an area I covered as editor of a cable industry trade journal. But my work for this client was a white paper about an architecture that integrates satellites ­into 5G networks. After another tour of the floor, I left the show and drove to see a friend near the Washington Cathedral. After that reunion, I headed to my hotel and then dinner with another friend in Old Town Alexandria.
 
An early flight from Reagan Washington National (DCA) took me to Denver International Airport (DIA), with its distinctive roof. (See above.) Then on to San Francisco for the NTT event. I arrived in time to get a good look around at the NTT Experience Center. The main theme was the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN), an optically centered initiative launched by NTT in 2019. (For more, see here and here.) At the evening reception, I met up with a few NTT executives and scientists and Wireside Communications team members.
 
Day 2 of Upgrade 2023 was a series of talks on basic research, innovation, and go-to-market strategies; data privacy, bio-digital twins, and optical computation; and a number of innovative NTT technologies and services. The talks from scientists at the NTT Research Physics & Informatics (PHI) Lab, Medical & Health Informatics (MEI) Lab, and Cryptography & Information Security (CIS) Lab were TED-worthy. Writing about these labs has been a fun and inspiring challenge over the past few years.
 
The next morning started with an early Uber to the airport. Another layover at DIA, then the second flight. On the homestretch, as we approached DCA from the north along the Potomac River, I saw the Washington Cathedral again. This time from the air, all 3-D and blockish, like something you might see in a VR headset. Which is in mind after these in-person events because of another paper I’ve just written. Maybe more on this later.