As we close our 40th Anniversary year here at Syndeo Institute, we conclude a year of honoring four decades of innovation, leadership, and impact in the connectivity industry. The milestone year has been both retrospective and forward-looking, honoring the industry pioneers who built the foundation for our global connectivity and investing in the intrapreneurs who will drive the next era of progress.
I want to take this opportunity to spotlight the key achievements and stories that defined the 40th year and reinforce Syndeo Institute’s mission to empower intrapreneurs and foster innovation. I’ll also preview what’s next and how we’re continuing our momentum into 2026 and beyond to power the next 40 years of progress.
Twenty years ago, when I joined The Cable Center, we were at a crossroads. We had to make difficult decisions about our programs and our path forward. We asked ourselves hard questions: What is our purpose? How can we serve the industry better? Those questions led us to streamline our focus, deepen our partnerships, and truly listen to what our constituents needed from us.
Today, I’m proud to say we’re in an incredibly strong position. We’re delivering on the vision that was set forth forty years ago, stewarding the industry’s legacy through our archives and storytelling while educating and preparing the next generation of leaders. The work we’ve accomplished over the past twenty years, and especially the past decade, has built genuine and trusting relationships with our people, partners, and supporters. Those relationships are the foundation that will help us continue to adapt as the industry evolves.
Throughout my tenure at Syndeo Institute, I’ve heard one consistent refrain: nobody knows the true story of cable. This year, we’re finally changing that narrative through our most ambitious storytelling project yet, the Hotwired documentary.
Think about America’s great connectivity milestones. The railroads transformed the country in the 19th century, and their story has been documented extensively. The telephone, aviation, the Interstate highway system—all have been chronicled and celebrated. Yet the infrastructure that enabled the digital revolution, the connectivity backbone that powers modern life, has gone largely untold.
The cable broadband story is fundamental to understanding how America and the rest of the world became connected. In less than 80 years, this technology transformed how we work, learn, communicate, and experience the world. It’s a story of visionaries whose drive to connect people has forever changed the way we live.
And the timing is right. When I talk about this project at board meetings or with industry leaders, the response is always the same: “It’s about time.” Many wish we had done this ten years ago. But we’re doing it now, and we’re doing it right. This documentary will create a historic record that educates audiences outside our industry and ensures this essential chapter of American innovation is finally told.
Our storytelling efforts extend well beyond the documentary. This year marked significant progress in making our vast collection more accessible:
- AI Oral History Project: We’re beginning to plan the transformation of 400 oral histories into a searchable, AI-powered repository that captures the evolution of the connectivity industry. By blending advanced technology with storytelling, we’re preserving the industry’s legacy while keeping it relevant and inspiring for future generations.
- Barco Library Digitization: For years, we’ve worked to digitize our collection, but now we’re accelerating this effort with urgency. As a special library, our aim is twofold: preserve our collection and make it as widely accessible as possible. When materials exist only in one physical location, access is inherently limited.
Digitization solves this challenge, allowing researchers, students, and industry professionals around the world to explore our archives. But there’s another critical factor driving our timeline: some of our materials exist in analog formats like Beta and VHS. The equipment needed to digitize these formats becomes harder to find with each passing year. We’re in a race to preserve these materials before the technology to access them disappears entirely. - New Archives: We’re adding significant new collections that will expand the breadth and depth of our holdings, ensuring we continue to capture the industry’s ongoing evolution. Most notable among these are the Women’s Archive and the CX Archive.
When we launched Intrapreneurship Academy in 2018, we were solving for recruitment and retention challenges. That need hasn’t disappeared, but the industry’s challenges have evolved and intensified. Consolidation, market shifts, and rapid technological change have created a fundamentally different landscape for developing leaders.
These changes have given us an impetus to really focus on listening. Through our alignment project, we’ve gone directly to our partners and constituents to ask: What do you need from us? How can we serve you better? This approach mirrors what we did when we developed Vision 2025—we didn’t sit in a conference room assuming we knew the answers. We asked, we listened, and sometimes what we heard was challenging. But that feedback is essential. We can’t improve without understanding what our partners truly need.
The insights we’re gathering are shaping significant investments in our Intrapreneurship Academy curriculum for 2026. The future leaders we’re preparing will face different challenges than those of even a few years ago. Our responsibility is ensuring our curriculum reflects those evolving needs and equips intrapreneurs with the mindset, tools, and connections to thrive in a rapidly changing environment.
Our CX Collaborative continues to demonstrate the power of bringing people together around shared challenges. This year, we learned something important: our members told us their priority isn’t recruitment and retention. It’s retention and recruitment. That subtle shift in emphasis matters enormously. It reflects the reality of an industry that’s contracting and the critical importance of keeping great people engaged and growing within their organizations.
The CX Collaborative serves as a unifying force, helping organizations recognize that customer experience isn’t the responsibility of one team or department. Instead, it’s a shared journey requiring alignment across the entire organization. Through knowledge sharing, collaborative problem-solving, and meaningful connections, we’re helping our members navigate industry challenges together.
For years, we’ve discussed international expansion, taking measured steps to build relationships beyond U.S. borders. In 2025, we made this a concentrated, strategic effort. Now, as we enter 2026, we’re seeing exciting momentum.
Leaders in the UK and Europe are telling us they want to be part of the Syndeo Institute mission. They want their stories told and preserved. They want their innovators recognized through the Cable Hall of Fame. The coursework we offer through Intrapreneurship Academy resonates strongly with international audiences, and the CX Collaborative’s learnings and best practices have universal application.
This isn’t about growth for growth’s sake. It’s about recognizing that connectivity infrastructure and innovation are global phenomena, and the lessons, leadership development, and community we’ve built have value far beyond one market. As we expand our reach, we’re staying true to our mission while ensuring more voices are included in the legacy we’re building.
As we move into the next phase of our strategic plan, I’m energized by what’s ahead. We have ambitious goals for our special projects: completing the documentary in 2026, fully committing to the AI Oral History Project, and accelerating our digitization efforts. Each of these initiatives requires significant resources and community support.
I want to be clear about something important: Syndeo Institute was built through the significant, generous, and impressive support of industry leaders who believed in this mission. We’re fortunate to have that foundation. But to accomplish the meaningful work ahead—the projects that will preserve our industry’s story, educate future leaders, and create lasting impact—we need our community’s continued partnership.
Over the past twenty years, but especially in the past decade, we’ve worked hard to build genuine, trusting relationships with our partners. We don’t take that trust for granted. When we ask for support for these special projects, it’s because we know they matter to you. They matter to the industry. And they matter to ensuring the next 40 years of progress.
The connectivity industry is evolving more rapidly than ever, and the pace of change feels exponential. To navigate this transformation successfully, we need to stay deeply connected to our partners, continue asking the right questions, and evolve together.
I believe we’re exceptionally well-positioned for what’s ahead. Not because we have all the answers, but because we’ve built a culture of listening, learning, and genuine partnership. We’re not having conversations about the future in isolation—we’re having them with you.
As we close this milestone 40th year and step into 2026, I’m filled with pride in what we’ve accomplished together and excitement for what we’ll build next. The innovations ahead will come from collaboration, courage, and deep commitment to progress.
Thank you for being part of this journey. The next 40 years of innovation start now, and I’m excited to build them together.
To learn more about supporting Syndeo Institute’s special projects, including the Hotwired documentary, AI Oral History Project, library digitization, new archives, and Intrapreneurship Academy, please visit syndeoinstitute.org or contact us directly. Together, we’re preserving the past and empowering the future.
