PTC 2021 and Beyond

SubTel Forum Feature
January 19, 2021

What started in 1978 (incorporated in 1980) as a forum for the interchange of ideas regarding telecommunications by several University of Hawaii professors along with others in the US, Japan and Mexico in particular, has grown into a conference with over 8000 participants each year attending from all corners of the globe. Achieving continuous significant growth over the past years, PTC has always remained true to its non-profit core and its members.

As we move beyond COVID-19 and what has been and, unfortunately, continues to be a very challenging environment for our friends and colleagues in the industry, we at PTC are planning for the future and are in the midst of refining our five-year vision.

COVID-19 has obviously presented the PTC Secretariat with challenges in the context of delivering a valuable PTC’21 experience; however, it also provides us with some key learnings and an opportunity for reflection upon what our members see as the core deliverables and values that PTC offers to its members and the wider telecommunications ecosystem in general.

As we look beyond 2021, the key elements of PTC that are being fine-tuned can largely be broken down into the following four areas: outreach, education, connections, and expansion. Before we talk about our key future focus areas, it is worth mentioning some of the foundational attributes at the core of the Pacific Telecommunications Council, which remain constant and very strong.

PTC’s intrinsic values include diversity and gender equality in the Secretariat, the Board of Governors, and the Advisory Council. PTC has and will always encourage future leaders who can bring vitality to the organization to get involved via the various avenues that have been created to enable member’s voices to be heard, such as participation in committees, the Advisory Council and the Board of Governors. As an organization whose leadership is made up of its members, these leadership teams certainly provide a unique opportunity for those who are interested in helping to shape the future of the organization.

One of PTC's major strengths has always been the experience of the Secretariat and CEO, combined with the guidance from its strong, diverse leadership team. It makes perfect sense. An organization managed by its members for the Members will always have nothing but the best interests of its Members at heart. Coupling the above with PTC’s non-profit status ensures that the focus is squarely on delivering benefits for its members and the broader community.

Beyond 2021, there are some focus areas that have been identified as key in ensuring our continued success as the preeminent membership organization in our space. These include membership benefits, which are currently being evaluated with the aim of adding additional value where possible including new membership categories; outreach programs, expanding the now accredited PTC Academy format to a broader audience and in varying formats (in person and virtual); the PTC Projects program offering the opportunity to develop and implement projects that promote the use of telecommunications and ICT to improve the quality of life in the Asia-Pacific region; the new monthly webinar series led by industry leaders who address key issues and breakthrough ideas and emerging innovation and lastly, revamping the Young Scholar Program. Continuing to make improvements on the overall conference experience, such as offering a broader range of industry speakers from congruent industries, and finally, expanding the ecosystem of organizations that engage with PTC by incentivizing organizations involved in the mobile, content, cloud, PE, M&A, and start-up space to get involved.  A unique feature of PTC’s membership and the ecosystem is the involvement of research and academia.  All of these initiatives will most certainly ensure that value is being consistently delivered to our members.

To continue reading the rest of this article, please read it in Issue 116 of the SubTel Forum Magazine on page 20 or on our archive site here.