C5 Spring 2022 Conference
After a long hiatus, the Senior Fellows and newly-minted President and CEO, Diane Christman, welcomed C5ers to The Cable Center (TCC) for our first, in-person event since Fall 2019. The C5 Spring 2022 Conference took place in Denver, CO, on May 3 & 4, 2022.
The event was proudly supported by our new Silver Partner, Statflo (represented by Scott McArthur, and Doug McCrabb), along with guest speakers from J.D. Power (represented by Ian Greenblatt and David Zierman) and the Colorado Rockies (represented by Kevin Kahn and Walker Monfort).
We acknowledge the support from our C5 Executive Chairs (Eric Burton, Jon Coscia, Suzanne Foy, Kimberly Gibson, and Simón Tadeo) and The Cable Center Leadership (Diane Christman), who provide invaluable help in shaping the Conference Agenda. Not to mention the terrific behind-the-scenes work by The Cable Center crew—Mary Yacovetta, Cindy Shoemaker, and Veronica Java-Nishida—plus a big shout-out to Brian Kenny who gave a tour of the Center and historyof the cable industry on almost no notice! There were several first-timers to TCC, so it was good to see their interest in the beautiful building and the many contributions to the industry.
A total of thirty delegates attended the conference. Twenty-five C5ers were present, representing ten MSOs (Blue Ridge, Claro Brasil, Comcast, Cox, GCI, Liberty Global, MCTV, Midco, Telecom Argentina, and Vyve) and all three industry associations (CableLabs, CTAM, NCTA), with apologies from C5ers at Mediacom and Sparklight. We welcomed Chris Lammers, who moderated the Fireside Chat, along with two representatives from J.D. Power and Statflo respectively.
This welcome-back conference carried on with our ongoing approach of Inside-Outside Learning, sharing best practice, knowledge, and insights from inside and outside the industry. With a theme of “Factors Impacting the Telecommunications Competitive Landscape,” the event featured the following sessions:
- FIRESIDE CHAT with Phil McKinney, President & CEO of CableLabs, and moderated by Chris Lammers, Emeritus COO & Senior Executive Advisor, CableLabs. In this Fireside Chat, Chris guided the discussion with Phil on “The Impact of Technology on Today’s Competitive Landscape in the Broadband Industry,” providing thought leadership on the complex competitive landscape and the technologies that are impacting and shaping the cable/telecommunications industry. Taking into consideration trends and changes in consumer needs—such as high-speed internet/ broadband, cloud-based infrastructure, artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, 5G, cyber security—Phil described future scenarios for life, work, learning, and play.
- KEYNOTE ADDRESS. We were extremely privileged to welcome two guests from J.D. Power to share their knowledge, expertise, and data-driven insights about competitors in the Network Reliability space, and the role of effective and proactive outage communications. The keynote presentation, “ISP Subs Most Satisfied When It Just Works” galvanized “Learning from the Outside” as Ian Greenblatt and David Zierman shared their insights from the latest J.D. Power “U.S. Internet Service Provider” study.
- CX SOLUTIONS THROUGH TECHNOLOGY. Scott McArthur and Doug McCrabb, both of Statflo, C5’s new Silver Partner, explained how one-to-one messaging can provide seamless and personalized interactions with customers and improve their experience. As the only fully compliant enterprise-grade customer engagement platform designed exclusively for front-line teams, Statflo helps companies harness communications with customers through personalized messaging on their preferred medium. By way of use case examples, C5ers learned how targeted, one-to-one messaging can increase NPS, improve First Contact Resolution, boost response and conversion rates—while creating a positive customer experience.
- “SPOTLIGHT ON…CTAM” Mark Snow shared key findings from a recent CTAM research project. The research about how consumers perceive our broadband service vs. how they see fiber, provided valuable insights on the latest consumer trends and public opinion, as well as information on competition vis-a-vis both fiber and fixed wireless broadband.
- EGG-TIMER KNOWLEDGE-EXCHANGE. John Del Viscio (Blue Ridge) and Simón Tadeo (Telecom Argentina) chaired the two sessions taking place of the entire morning on Day 1. During this session, C5 MSOs shared their stories on the latest CX-related challenges and/or initiatives. Presentations were provided by John Del Viscio (Blue Ridge), Eric Burton (Comcast), Suzanne Foy (Cox), Rodrigo Duclos (Claro Brasil), Maureen Moore (GCI), Bob Bartelt (Midco), Katherine Gessner (MCTV), and Jill Arbet (Vyve).
- ASSOCIATION UPDATE. Wyatt Barnett (NCTA) provided an update on the latest implications coming out of Capitol Hill, focusing on what infrastructure spending means for MSOs, along with a virtual tour of NCTS’s newly-renovated, public advocacy space. Mickie Calkins (CableLabs) presented the five hot-topics at CableLabs: (1) Envision Mobility & Wireless Event, (2) 10G Showcase – D4.0 Readiness, (3) 5G Challenge – CableLabs as National 5G test Lab, (4) 10G Challenge – Applications being accepted, and (5) CX Digital Transformation.
- METRICS MATTERS. Shaping CX Using Customer Data. Moderated by Suzanne Foy (Cox), this session explored how in-home connectivity data can shape the customer experience. Looking at use cases (next best actions) coming out of KPI insights, Chris Simmonds (Liberty Global), Simón Tadeo (Telecom Argentina), Eric Burton (Comcast), discussed utilization of these data points to influence Product NPS (pNPS), calls, and truck rolls.
- INNOVATION SHOWCASE. Leveraging Customer Experience. In 2021, The Cable Center introduced a new course to its line-up at the Intraprenuership Academy—Leverage Customer Experience (LCX). The capstone project and integrating feature for the course is a CX Maturity Audit—a proprietary method to assess where organizations are in the CX maturity and what action steps they need to take to move up the Curve. Two LCX alums, Nicole Wininger (Blue Ridge), and Andrew Michaletz (Midco) shared their experiences in the course and how they have used, or plan to use, the Audit outcomes within their respective organizations. Katherine Gessner (MCTV) also shared her intentions to elevate CX priorities at MCTV, starting with an LCX audit.
- C5 RESEARCH COMMITTEE UPDATE. A report was provided on the duties and goals of the newly-formed C5 Research Committee, along with the plan to conduct one research project in 2022. Three research topics were proposed by MSO Committee Members: Bob Bartelt (on behalf of Cory Limberg, Midco), Simón Tadeo (Telecom Argentina), Nicole Wininger (Blue Ridge) and C5ers were invited to rank their preferences and ability to provide data for the following topics: (1) “Support Channel Effectiveness, (2) “Drivers of (Broadband) Product Experience Satisfaction,” (3) “Satisfaction Drivers of Employee Engagement/ Experience.” Next steps concluded the session. C5ers provide feedback on preferences for the research topic, the SFs work with the Research Committee to shape the research goals and questions, then conduct the research and report findings at C5 Fall 2022 Conference.
- C5 STRATEGY DISCUSSION. The C5 Leadership Team met on May 2, 2022, to discuss the effective use of resources to meet the Consortium’s goals and objectives, along with initiatives to enhance the value proposition for members. C5ers were brought up to date on the strategy discussions and implications for C5, including plans for C5 Fall 2022 (November 9 & 10, 2002) hosted by Kimberly Gibson and her team at Sparklight/CableOne in Phoenix, Arizona.
- UPDATE FROM THE CABLE CENTER. As the newly-appointed President and CEO, Diane Christman described her plans for The Cable Center (TCC), with a primary goal to accelerate the Center’s “Vision 2025” plan. Diane’s focus—to create an expanded and more innovation-focused organization—includes choregraphing thought leadership and expansion of the Center’s Intrapreneur-ship Academy (IA) leadership program. As Chief Business Development Officer, Susie Tomenchok engages with the Center’s constituents—including C5 members—to identify key learning needs and opportunities for TCC to contribute to further development of the industry.
- C5 SPECIAL EVENT AT THE ROCKIES. For this special event, everyone was taken to a Rockies baseball game at Coors Field. Before the first pitch was thrown—between the Colorado Rockies vs. the Washington Nationals—C5ers received another “Outside Learning” opportunity. As part of this event, Kevin Kahn, VP/Chief Customer Officer – Ballpark Ops, and Walker Monfort, VP, Corporate Partnerships (both of the Colorado Rockies), shared insights on how the Rockies manage the fan experience, including what it takes to create the best experience at the ballpark.
- The full agenda and other conference information is available in the
C5 Spring 2022 Program Booklet (5.4 MB).
