I’m looking forward to attending two great conferences this week. The first is the BCNET conference, which takes place April 30 through May 1st in Vancouver, British Columbia. At the conference, I will have the opportunity to connect again with our Canadian R&E colleagues after their recent attendance of our Quilt Winter Member Meeting in La Jolla, Calif. While at the BCNET conference, I’ll be participating in a panel on U.S. R&E networks along with Sherilyn Evans from the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California(CENIC) and Amy Philipson from Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP)

Later this week, the Schools, Health, and Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition hosts itsannual conference in Washington, DC. The group advocates for the deployment of affordable, open, high-capacity broadband networks and faster Internet services for schools, libraries, health care providers and other community anchor institutions.

The title of this year’s gathering, which runs May 1 through May 3, is “Getting to Gigabit: The Future of Broadband for Anchor Institutions and Their Communities.” As a member of the conference’s program committee, I’m confident that this will be the best one yet, with a top-notch group of speakers and attendees including several federal and state policymakers, BTOP/BIP awardees, national educational leaders, as well as leaders from our Quilt member organizations.