Market research and analysis firm CRU Group has announced it will hold the 8th CRU World Optical Fibre & Cable Conference November 7-9, 2022, at Meliá Milano in Milan. This year’s event marks the show’s debut in Europe as well as a return to live form after two years of virtual-only formats.
Prysmian will host this year’s CRU World Optical Fibre & Cable Conference, which will feature both conference and exhibition components. The conference will cover a wide range of topics related to the fiber and cable market, from demand to supply and pricing, and is expected to appeal to both manufacturers and network operators alike.
Conference highlights of the first day begin with a leadership panel, moderated by CRU Head of Wire and Cable Michael Finch, that will provide a foundation for the rest of the event’s discussions. Speakers will include:
- Philippe Vanhille, executive vice president, Telecom Division, Prysmian Group
- Jan Bongaerts, senior vice president, YOFC
- John McGirr, senior vice president and general manager, Optical Fiber and Cable, Corning Inc.
- Zhuang Dan, executive director and president, YOFC
Another key Day 1 session will see CRU analysts share and discuss their research into optical fiber and cable markets. Other sessions will cover network operator fiber and cable requirements, overcoming inhibitors for growth in global connectivity, and emerging applications for fiber and cable such as network sensing.
Day 2 will shine the spotlight on the North American and Chinese markets. In addition, a representative from Verizon will discuss the impact of 5G and edge computing on Industry 4.0, followed by a presentation from Open Fiber on the rapidly evolving broadband network landscape in Italy.
A series of technology-focused presentations will follow, with the conference concluding with sessions focused on fiber and sustainability as well as high-volume manufacturing.
In addition to those highlighted above, confirmed speakers include:
- Yunbo Li , senior engineer (professor) and deputy director of optical transmission network, China Mobile Research Institute
- Guangzhe Wu, senior project manager, State Grid Information & Telecommunication Group
- Guangquan Wang, chief engineer, China Unicom Research Institute
- Anna Marciszewska-Jankowska, director for international trade affairs, Optomer
- Massimo Arciulo, CEO, Linkem
- Seán Adam, vice president, market strategy and innovation, AFL
- Mohamed Nasr, deputy ICT minister for information infrastructure, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Egypt
- Vincent Garnier, director general, FTTH Council Europe
- Volker Wendt, secretary general, Europacable
- Alain Giraud, director of sales and marketing, Rosendahl Nextrom SA
- Patrick Breinessl, product manager, fiber in metal tubes and fiber-optic cables, NBG
- Peter A. Weimann, CTO, optical fiber cable, HFCL Inc.
- Adrian Amezcua Correa, global technical sales support director, Telecom Business, Prysmian Group
Additional speakers are expected to join this list; the agenda can be found on the event website. CRU is offering both live and virtual attendance options, also outlined on the site.
As CI&M's Endeavor Business Media sibling publication Lightwave is a media partner for this event, that site's readers can receive a 10% discount on the registration fee by using the promo code LW10.
"Despite robust growth for optical cable demand over the coming five years, the industry faces a number of significant challenges threatening to disrupt the rapid scale of growth and ability to meet this demand,” commented CRU’s Finch in describing the backdrop for these discussions. “The persistent issue of a tight labor market is now beginning to constrain cable deployment in the U.S., which may also rollover to the European market in the coming quarters. Other challenges relate to raw material supply constraints, rising input costs and elevated deployment costs – again all acting as notable headwinds when it comes to the speed of both private and public network construction."