From the Chief’s Corner: IWCE 2022 Reflections: Synergy, Belief, and Convergence

As I arrived in Las Vegas on March 20th in preparation for IWCE 2022 I had a lot of thoughts running through my mind. Who and how many would be attending? What would the key takeaways be? Would the information gleaned be relevant? Typical pre-event questions. 

As the week progressed, the who and how many would be attending could be quickly answered with a really simple term “a bunch”. But more importantly was the question of key takeaways, you know, those conclusions made based on presented facts or information we experienced or observed and of course the relevance of it all.

For me at the end of the week the takeaways and relevance could be summed up in three simple but impactful words, Synergy, Belief and Convergence. It’s a little ironic that those three words also make up the acronym SBC…

So, let's unpack this “SBC”.

Takeaway #1 Synergy: 

Synergy is defined as a mutually advantageous conjunction or compatibility of distinct business participants or elements. Let that sink in a minute, does that not truly reflect one of the core topics embraced at IWCE 2022. I’m talking about the synergy between solving for in-building coverage both cellular and land mobile radio. Solving for in-building coverage both the public and public safety regardless of what type of technology they may be using today or in the future.

Takeaway #2 Belief:

Belief is defined as something that is accepted, considered to be true or believed. Well, based on many of the interactions and conversations that took place during IWCE 2022 I found the belief to be that when the public or public safety responders enter a building, their ability to communicate regardless of the technology they may be using today or in the future should not be diminished to a point whereby their safety is placed in jeopardy 

Takeaway #3 Convergence:

Convergence is defined as the act of converging, moving toward union or uniformity. That was certainly a common theme at IWCE 2022. Note the fact that codes and standards now include other modulation technologies such as LTE, 5G, etc. for our first responders use. These additional tools in their toolboxes are paramount towards mitigating the incidents they respond to daily and oftentimes within the built environment within their communities.

Reflection Time:

As the week came to an end, I sat on the plane headed home reflecting on what I had just experienced, and a sense of fulfillment and gratitude filled my heart. Just a few short years ago it was difficult to get people interested in discussing in-building coverage in any concept unless it was related to large venues with a lot of cellular customers. And here we were at IWCE 2022 having industry leaders and cell company leaders talking about what needs to be, what should be and what will be for the benefit of our first responders and the public inside buildings. 

It reminded me of something I’ve written about before which is those eight simple words printed on the passenger side mirror of many cars, “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear”. Well, the object in this case is the importance of this Synergy, Belief and Convergence as it relates to in-building coverage and the relevance is the value it brings so that the public and public safety responders #feelsafeinside…