“The main value of history is to provide context. When you know where you’ve been, it becomes exponentially easier to figure out where you want to go next.”
Brian Kenny has been working in the Barco Library at Syndeo Institute at The Cable Center for nearly twenty years, and if there’s anyone who understands what it takes to keep tabs on decades of books, archives, and important relics, it’s him. As part of the continued celebration of our 40th Anniversary, we’re sitting in conversation with Syndeo Institute leaders who have helped shape the legacy of our industry and its preservation. When it comes to that legacy, Brian Kenny, Director of the Barco Library is one of the chief experts. We recently spoke with him about his work in preserving the stories and history of the cable and connectivity industry, as well as his insight into the milestones of the past 40 years of Syndeo Institute.
Brian began his career at Syndeo Institute in 2007 after a decade-long career with Denver Public Libraries, and many years in an academic library setting before that. He laughs when he tells us that he didn’t know a lot about the industry before coming to work here. “I knew nothing about cable at all when I started, but I’d been a librarian for a long time. In library speak, this is what we call a ‘special library’, and I found that part intriguing. Now, these 18 years of working at Syndeo Institute have been more exciting and interesting than I ever thought they could be. This industry has an amazing story, and the people who work in cable and connectivity really love it, which becomes apparent to someone from the outside.” Brian may have been on the outside at the beginning, but his years of meticulous care for the traditional book collection, equipment archive, photos, memorabilia, manuscripts, personal papers of industry figures and engineers, and much more have turned him into a true industry insider.
Because of that important inside perspective, we also asked Brian about some of the milestones that Syndeo Institute is highlighting as part of the 40th anniversary celebration. Here are his top selections:
1974: Ben Conroy proposes the creation of a cable TV source library, laying the groundwork for a dedicated center to document the industry’s history.
1985: The National Cable Television Center and Museum (NCTCM) is established in collaboration with The Pennsylvania State University, serving as a hub for education and inspiration in the cable industry.
1995: NCTCM relocates to Denver, Colorado, positioning itself in the “Cable Capitol” to better serve the industry.
2001: The Alan Gerry Cable Center Building officially opens on the University of Denver campus, providing a dedicated space for the organization’s mission.
2002: NCTCM rebrands as The Cable Center, reflecting a forward-looking mission to support education, training, and mentorship in the cable and connectivity industry.
2017: The Intrapreneurship Academy is launched, offering leadership development courses to empower industry professionals and drive innovation within their organizations.
2023: Syndeo Institute is launched as the operating brand of The Cable Center, serving as a modern hub for leadership development, education, and collaboration in the connectivity, media, entertainment, and technology industries.
2025: Syndeo Institute at The Cable Center celebrates 40 years of progress.
By leveraging this learning model, employees are immersed in role-based training whether in field operations, customer operations, sales, or other roles. This approach increases agility for our business units to quickly train employees on specific tools or skills as needs evolve, while our corporate function supports enterprise-wide tools, processes, and leadership programs for the broader organization’s needs.
By investing in the long-term development of our employees, we are not only enhancing the work experience for our team, but also ensuring that our customers receive the best possible service. Each customer interaction is a chance to make a positive connection and put the company in a different light which is the keystone of what we do every day. If as an industry we look to ‘Empower Every Experience,’ we must never forget that the quality of the customer experience, is a direct result of the quality of our workforce.
One thing Brian loves about Syndeo Institute is the continuity of its mission. “When this organization was founded at Penn State in 1985, we said we were going to do three things: we’re going to have a library, we’re going to do oral histories, and we’re going to hold training sessions for the industry. We still do all three of those things today. The mission is still relevant, even in all the forms it’s taken over the years. For example, the Intrapreneurship Academy is the latest manifestation of the education side of the mission we’ve had since day one. It’s pretty amazing to not lose focus over the course of 40 years.” He tells us that the Intrapreneurship Academy has been a key catalyst in Syndeo Institute being recognized as a true player in the educational space and how the Barco Library provides framework for what is taught. “The library and the educational side of our mission can seem separate, but every oral history, every piece of memorabilia, and every piece of equipment in the museum provide context for what we teach about the future. When you can map where the industry has been, innovation-wise and people-wise, you get a clearer picture of what’s possible in the future.
Speaking of that future, there are several projects coming up that Brian is looking forward to.
“There are so many initiatives and projects on the docket. One that is particularly exciting is a video documentary we’re working on. It’s a tech-based documentary about the entire innovation history of the industry, how it went from three channels to hundreds, how it went from TV to phones and broadband and so much more. We’re also working on two new collections, the archived history of the CX Collaborative (CXC), group which shows how the industry made customer service better through unprecedented collaboration between competitors, as well as a Women of Cable archive that focuses on women industry leaders and trailblazers. We already have many women in the archive, but this is a chance to highlight them and how they have been such a big part of industry history.” In addition to those new initiatives, like every other organization, the future of the Barco Library also involves a foray into AI, in this case as a tool to index the oral histories and other archives, making them easily accessible. Brian learned early in his career that librarianship is about building collections and then making them as accessible as possible. AI will allow Syndeo Institute to do exactly that.
Brian talks about the oral histories in the Barco Library as if they were told by old friends. He has favorite pieces of memorabilia, industry stories that move him, and a total connection to the history of an industry that has beaten the odds and adapted over and again. When he was first hired at Syndeo Institute as the person in charge of photo digitization, he had no idea that he’d soon become immersed in the history of such a special sector of commerce. We wanted to know what keeps him motivated, and what he told us didn’t disappoint. “What I hope the Barco Library does at its core is provide the materials that will faithfully tell the history of the many periods of our industry. From the start, bringing cable to rural areas that previously could not access it, to providing expanded choices in analog channels to the digital transition to telephone service to the current broadband sector, where we are now providing that service to more than two thirds of homes in the country. It’s basically the history of world connectivity. We’ve documented it all and continued to pass it forward, and we’ve done it for 40 years. I’m hoping we can keep doing it for the next 40 years, too.” With dedication like Brian’s, another forty years doesn’t seem like too lofty a goal.
