WISPAPALOOZA 2022 Recap
In the Preseem world, October means it’s time for fall sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, and WISPAPALOOZA, the annual flagship trade show of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA).
This year, we flew a team of 11 to sunny Las Vegas for a week of all things fixed wireless and networking with 2,200 of our closest friends at the Bally’s and Paris hotels.
Day 1 – Monday, October 3rd
After arriving safely on Sunday and taking in a few of the sights on the Strip, our team got straight to work during the conference’s Master Monday, assembling our spacious booth in record time.
With Booth 435 in tip-top condition for the conference’s official opening the following day, we gathered in the Palace 3 room at Bally’s for the Preseem 101 and Networking event.
This was a chance for us to meet with customers, prospects, and old friends in an informal setting (with open bar – *clink*) before the hectic schedule of conference sessions and exhibit hall hours began.
More than 85 people registered for our wee get-together, and we had a great time chatting and catching up with everyone during our time together. Thanks for coming, everyone!
Day 2 – Tuesday, October 4th
Tuesday is the official opening day of WISPAPALOOZA and it began with the State of WISPA address and breakfast in the Grand Ballroom at Bally’s, with remarks delivered by WISPA CEO David Zumwalt.
The annual “speed dating” event followed, leading to the 2022 WISPA Awards Luncheon in the same venue. Though our three-year run as Service of the Year winners sadly came to an end, it was an honor to be nominated once again. Congratulations to all the winners!
After the opening ceremonies, it was time for us to head to the exhibit hall and welcome visitors to our booth for discussions, demos, or even just to give away our fancy new pens and other Preseem swag 🙂
The first panel sessions of the event began when the exhibit hall closed at 3 p.m., including a discussion of Universal Access Architecture with Adaptive Cloud Networking moderated by our very own Dan Siemon.
Which reminds us, make sure to check out the new Preseem Podcast co-hosted by Dan and our Senior Product Manager Jeremy Austin for a lively discussion on all things WISP and network-related!
Days 3 & 4 – Wednesday, October 5th & Thursday, October 6th
Day 3 began with the Women of WISPA (WoW) breakfast in the Bronze 3 room at Bally’s. Preseem’s Director of Marketing Alison Vreeswyk is a co-founder of WoW and was part of an enlightening panel discussion on the group’s vision to encourage, inspire, and connect women and female entrepreneurs in the fixed wireless industry.
Alison was also joined by her fellow WoW co-founders Georgette Lopez-Aguado of Sonar Software and Susan Myers of Eastern Carolina Broadband. Also on the panel were Abbi Hubler of TekWav and Martha Huizenga of DC Access, with opening remarks delivered via video by US senator Marsha Blackburn.
More than 100 women and men attended the growing group’s second-ever session that also served as the launch of Pink Day at the conference in support of breast cancer awareness and nonprofit METAvivor.
The remainder of Days 3 and 4 were dominated by informative panel sessions and exhibit hall hours. The Preseem team was a strong presence during the sessions, sitting on panels that discussed topics such as Resiliency and Reliability in WISP Networks, Troubleshooting Fiber, and Network/Traffic Engineering.
After that, it was time for us to pack up the booth and head home for some cooler weather and a relaxing Canadian Thanksgiving.
If you were in Las Vegas this year, we hope your experience was as productive and fun as ours, and that you’ve enjoyed this WISPAPALOOZA 2022 recap. It was great to see everyone again and we can’t wait to catch up at the WISPAMERICA event in Louisville, Kentucky next March. See you then!
