MONT TREMBLANT – “Embrace change,” is one of the messages Canadian Communication Systems Alliance president and CEO Jay Thomson had for members at last week’s 24th annual CCSA Connect conference.
This could hardly have been more on display as the organization saw significant change to its board with two women – Donna Robertson of Novus Communications as chair and Angela Lawrence of Hay Communications as vice chair – elected to lead the group for the first time as chair Dave Baxter wraps up his term (although he remains on the board with Cable Cable’s Mike Fiorini, Access Communications’ Jim Deane, DERYTelecom’s Eric Banville, Execulink’s Ian Stevens, and CCAP’s Stephane Arsenault).
Significantly, the pair of women lead companies which are also not traditional cablecos, too.
That leads us to the second bit of change – the organization’s name has dropped “cable” in favour of “communications” to recognize that its members are cable, SILECs, CLECs, and IPTV providers, too.
The group also paid a fond farewell to a few familiar faces as well as Execulink’s Keith Stevens left the CCSA board as he has retired from an active operational role at his company in favour of his son Ian, who is CEO. Long-time CCSA consultant Harris Boyd – the Alliance’s “man in Ottawa” for so many years, was also honoured during the conference for his tireless work on behalf of the industry. Boyd was careful to say he wasn’t retiring and jovially urged anyone with work to do, to send some his way. As well, former CCSA vice-president Jennifer Salmon has decided to move on as well and the organization recognized her 10-plus years of service. She is now leading her own firm, Drexel Media.
The 300 or so delegates at the conference also heard some key messages from speakers, which included marketing guru Terry O’Reilly, who urged members not to regurgitate facts to impress customers, but to weave stories which they won’t forget – many of which were on display during the event’s Tuned In Canada awards presentation for excellence in service and community television.
As well, Jonathan Hurd of Altman Vilandrie and company shared some stark, eye-opening research his company recently did on the Canadian TV and broadband marketplace – which we will publish a detailed (and slightly scary) story about later this week.
The conference is always an educational good time – as you’ll see in the photos below. Click to enlarge. In the main photo above are all the award winners from the Tuned In Canada awards. From left, they are: Jay Thomson (CCSA), Dean Abbass (Seaside), Shane Ferguson (Seaside), Kelli Phillips (Hay Communications), Glenn Grubb (HuronTel), Adam Siefert (Wightman), Kristin Jilessen (Cable Cable) and Jayme Huges (Cable Cable).
