IET enjoys Record Attendance at 2013’s largest European Optical Communications Conference

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), who played host to ECOC (European Conference on Optical Communications) 2013 this September, has today announced that attendance surpassed expectations. Over 1000 visitors attended two special symposiums, a variety of plenary speaker sessions and several workshops across the five day programme.

The conference held at the ExCel in London attracted over 1000 global industry professionals interested in the latest optical communications technology and solutions. Many of the top speakers within the conference addressed how optical communications are interconnected to our everyday lives and the scientific developments that need to take place to keep up with demand and form the next generation of telecommunication networks. The speakers at the conference came from a variety of business and science backgrounds and included the BBC’s General Manager of Research and Development and Stephen Baily BT’s Managing Director of Research and Innovation Dr Timothy Whitley.

Warren East, Former CEO of ARM UK and keynote speaker at the conference, said “The turn out this year at ECOC has been fantastic. Within the three broad topics discussed during the plenary sessions we have been able to show how engineering connects to the real world rather than just the technology sector. The connection with the IET enables us to do this and for that reason I will continue my support of the IET.”

Optical communications have allowed scientists to make many important advances in the telecommunication, mechanical and medical fields. The world of fibre optics has opened many possibilities for solving technological problems and has improved human civilisation; this is why the IET supports the fibre optic community to help people understand the impact it has on everyday life.

“The IET hosted the first ECOC event in 1975 and has supported the fibre optics community in its extensive growth over the past few years.  The key movers in fibre optics all congregate here and it’s fantastic to say that the IET has supported it from the start” commented Will Stewart, Chair of the IET Communication Policy Panel and co-Chair of the conference.

Simon Blows, IET Group Manager of Event Services said “With over 153,000 members worldwide, the IET has an extensive membership base which makes us an ideal platform to support ECOC. We have grown with the event and are very much looking forward to getting involved again in the future.”
 
The IET is focussed on sharing, developing and advancing knowledge to enhance the lives of people all over the world and by hosting ECOC it gives a platform for people to understand that optical communications plays a huge part in our everyday lives.

The plenary sessions can also be viewed again by visiting http://tv.theiet.org/