Making Britain Fit for the Future
Our highly regarded annual conference heads north for 2017, to the great city of Newcastle upon Tyne. Our venue for the event is the Crown Plaza Hotel, located in the heart of the city.
We are delighted that the Minister for Digital, Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP will give the keynote speech. Matt will be joined by leading figures from the altnet sector giving updates on progress in the year since INCA published the Building Gigabit Britain report, which was followed by government commitments to action.
Delegates at the conference will get the latest info on nearly £2bn of new funding initiatives including the Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund, Local Full Fibre Networks, plus 5G Testbeds and Trials. We will debate projects to reduce the costs of deploying new networks, schemes to extend rural broadband coverage and new initiatives to support the altnet sector.
The agenda is being designed with plans for a pair of half-day technical and finance workshops on the 15th, followed by the full conference on November 16th. Please get in touch if you want to get involved.
INCA Conference is a great opportunity to promote your products and services to an informed audience of managers and senior officials. For information about sponsorship and other promotional opportunities please contact Gill.
15th November - Two Half Day Workshops
Our plans include two parallel half day workshops on 15th November, followed by a dinner. The workshop themes are Network Design, Build & Operations and Funding & Investment. Full details of the seminar programme are here.
We are designing these sessions to provide an opportunity for in-depth discussion of some of the key issues faced by altnets, their suppliers and funders.
We are welcoming stand-alone participants to these seminars. So even if you can't make the main conference, you can still take advantage of one of these half-day seminars on Wednesday November 15.
16th November - INCA Conference
The main Conference will run as a one day event with a series of plenary sessions, interspersed with parallel workshops and panel discussions.
Conference Programme
| 09:00 - 09:10 | Welcome and Introduction
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| 09:10 - 09:20 | Altnets Forging Ahead Malcolm Corbett, CEO of INCA will provide a short intro to the conference, the altnets and with Oliver Johnson of Point Topic outline a new partnership to gather information about the growth of the sector.
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| 09:20 - 09:30 | Digital Infrastructure – Costs and Benefits Update from the NIC
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| 09:30 - 10:00 | Building Gigabit Britain - One Year On Last year INCA published the Building Gigabit Britain report. A year on, this session showcases leading providers Hyperoptic & Gigaclear.
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| 10:00 - 10:30 | From Superfast to Ultrafast Challenger to Openreach, CityFibre and new entrant Truespeed provide a snapshot of the growth strategies of new ultrafast networks.
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| 10:30 - 10:45 | New Digital Networks – the US Experience Progress, challenges and expectations of new digital network development in the USA.
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| 10:45 - 11:15 | Networking & Refreshments |
| 11:15 - 12:15 | Workshop Session I |
| Workshop 1: Managing Networks of the Future What role can SDN and NFV play in helping new networks to succeed? Hear from leading organisations in the sector?
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| Workshop 2: Local Full Fibre & 5G The Government has announced a series of pilot areas for LFFN networks and the new business voucher scheme. This workshop will discuss the programme, plus local authority and Altnet sector responses
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| Workshop 3: Mind The Gap - Connecting the Unconnected Many people living and working in rural areas are still not able to get decent broadband services. This workshop will discuss BDUK’s programme, government plans for the Broadband USO and successful rural projects delivering high speed broadband services.
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| 12:15 - 12:45 | Boosting the UK's Digital Infrastructure Government policy plays a big role in encouraging investment in new digital infrastructure. Will the altnets continue to get ministerial backing?
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| 12:45 - 13:15 | Panel Discussion: Government Policy & Funding
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| 13:15 - 14:15 | Lunch break |
| 14:15 - 14:35 | Digital Infrastructure – How the UK Compares to Europe & The World For many years the UK has failed to get on the FTTH Council league table for fibre connections. Is our position improving?
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| 14:35 - 15:20 | Workshops II |
| Workshop 4: Collaborative Interconnections New networks need to interconnect. This workshop discusses the development of new Digital Exchanges and processes that aggregate public sector networks, alternative digital infrastructure and service providers.
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| Workshop 5: Regulating for Competitive Investment The Altnets have succeeded at getting onto the policy agenda and creating attractive investment cases. This workshop will discuss what further measures we need in policy and regulatory terms that can help accelerate the sector’s growth.
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| Workshop 6: Future Wireless Networks Fixed wireless broadband operators serve communities and businesses in rural and some urban areas. With the emphasis on new high speed 5G networks, this workshop will discuss the measures needed to help wireless operators compete successfully.
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| 15:20 - 15:45 | Networking & Refreshments |
| 15:45 - 16:30 | Panel Discussion: Service Providers & the New Networks Openreach sees CPs as crucial to their plans for 10m fibre connections. How can service providers help the altnets to succeed?
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| 16:30 - 16:45 | Collaborating for Success Openreach has big plans for FTTP and is improving access to its passive infrastructure for the altnets.
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| 16:45 - 17:00 | Regulating for a Full Fibre Future
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| 17:00 - 17:15 | INCA's Key Priorities for 2018 INCA lobbies for the Altnets and develops collaborative projects led by members. This session will discuss INCA's priorities for 2018
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| 17:15-17:30 | Conference Closing Speech Chi Onwurah is Labour MP for Newcastle Central, Shadow Minister for Industrial Strategy, Science & Innovation and a former official at Ofcom.
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| 17:30-18:30 | Drinks Reception - Sponsored by PPC Fiber Broadband
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Conference Fees
Standard Conference Delegate: £240 ex VAT (£288 inc. VAT)
INCA Member Delegate (Tier One and Two members only*): £192 ex. VAT (£230.40 inc. VAT)
The optional seminars on the afternoon of Nov 15 are charged at just £60 per person (plus VAT).
As ever, INCA will reserve a small number of free places at our conference on Nov 16 to enable the participation of unfunded community broadband projects who would otherwise be unable to afford to attend.
Free Conference Passes for Tier One and Tier Two Members
INCA members with a current Tier One (Gold) or Tier Two (Silver) membership are eligible for free passes. Tier One members can claim 2 free passes and Tier Two members can claim 1 free pass for the main conference on Nov 16. To claim your free passes for the conference please contact Gill Williams. It's an ideal time to upgrade your membership to Tier One or Two and take full advantage of this great conference offer.
If your organisation has been considering membership of INCA but hasn't yet made the commitment, now is the time. Join today at our Tier One or Two levels and enjoy a free conference pass or two, as well as a range of other valuable benefits. Contact Gill for the details.
*NB: The member discount options are only available to members at our Tier One (formerly Gold) and Tier Two (formerly Silver) levels. Other member organisations wishing to avail themselves of the discount rates and free pass options should contact Gill Williams to arrange an upgrade of their membership to either Tier One or Two.
Eve-of-Conference Dinner
We are organising an optional dinner on the evening of the 15th, also at the Crowne Plaza, offering a more informal setting for socialising and networking. Further information and registration for the dinner can be found here.
Conference Sponsors
The support provided by our sponsors enables INCA to keep conference fees low, broadening participation. Contact Gill Williams for details.
Photo from Wikipedia by Wilka Hudson.
Hawthorn Square
Forth Street
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 3SA
United Kingdom
| Conference fees | |
| Standard delegate fee (£240 + VAT) | £ 288.00 |
| INCA Member fee (£192 + VAT) | £ 230.40 |
| FOC | £ 0.00 |
| Nov 15 seminar options (£60 + VAT) | |
| Finance option | £ 72.00 |
| Technical option | £ 72.00 |
| FOC (half day) | £ 0.00 |
