The following transcript has been edited for length and readability. Listen to the entire discussion here on The Broadband Bunch. The Broadband Bunch is sponsored by ETI Software.
Pete Pizzutillo:
This episode of the Broadband Bunch is sponsored by ETI Software and VETRO FiberMap.
Joe Coldebella:
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Broadband Bunch. We are at Fiber Connect 2023 in Orlando, Florida. Along with my co-host, Pete Pizzutillo, I’m Joe Coldebella. Joining us is Jacki Miskimins, Director of Marketing at Vantage Point Solutions. Jacki, welcome to the Broadband Bunch.
Jacki Miskimins:
Thanks so much for having me, guys.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Thanks for joining us. How was the event?
Jacki Miskimins:
It’s been a great show. This is my second year at Fiber Connect, and it’s an event that I enjoy. I think that the Fiber Connect committee does a great job of putting together the different speaking tracks and the different panels. This year in particular, I have heard great feedback about a lot of the content especially some of the new tracks and features or focus areas that they’ve had.
A couple of really great reactions in particular around the middle mile and some of the tribal interest, and a lot that we’re hearing around partnerships and consortiums and things too. So I’ve heard great things about the content and of course, the networking is always a highlight for me. Great traffic there at the expo, and it was great running into old friends and meeting new friends. It’s been a great time to get the industry together.
Joe Coldebella:
So before we go deeper, could you just give a little background on yourself in terms of where you are and what your role is at Vantage Point?
Jacki Miskimins:
Absolutely. So my title at Vantage Point Solutions is the Director of Marketing, although I often say that is awfully misleading. But I came to telecom about six and a half years ago, previously having worked in economic development, tourism, and higher education. And so all of those, when you think about them, have these huge components around broadband and connectivity, especially in rural areas. So I always told people I never left economic development, I just changed how I did it. And that’s through working at Vantage Point.
So Vantage Point is an engineering consulting firm. We design networks both fiber and wireless. Obviously, there is a lot of fiber these days at Fiber Connect, but we do engineering consulting around that. Everything from business plans and feasibility studies and grant funding to network design, cybersecurity, environmental permitting, regulatory consulting, and data networking. There’s just a whole bunch of stuff that we do. So my role at Vantage Point is to help explain that to other folks and just help make connections across people who might be able to help or people who may just be good to know each other.
Pete Pizzutillo:
And what markets are you focused on?
Jacki Miskimins:
If you’re deploying fiber, we’ll help you out. So we’ve worked a lot with your traditional rural telephone companies. Obviously, they’re more technology companies anymore, but we work a great deal with electric co-ops. We’ve worked with municipalities, a number of various tribes and tribally owned companies, and then some of the really big guys too. Some folks are doing innovative things with fiber and just trying to find those pockets of opportunity. So we are pretty non-discriminatory. If you’re good people to work with and you’re doing good stuff, for the most part, we’ll have a conversation with you.
Pete Pizzutillo:
That’s good. So getting back to the show, any surprises? One surprise besides the food?
Jacki Miskimins:
I think one of the surprises I had was the growth. Last year at Fiber Connect, it really felt like we were almost coming out of this drought. Everyone was still travel-restricted, and Fiber Connect last year seemed like the one great, “We’re back.” And it was huge, and it was a fantastic show.
So then to come this year and see that they’ve grown another thousand people, the size and the growth of that. And really what’s been fun for me, especially as I’ve been talking to various Fiber Connect associate members, the vendor community, everyone’s just really excited about Fiber Broadband Association and about Fiber Connect. This is a real area of growth, and this is really going to be a focus of the future. And so seeing that growth has been really fun.
Joe Coldebella:
I was talking to Gary yesterday. And I told him, “Dude, you guys are going to need a bigger boat.” I think that it’s just going to keep growing. It’s amazing.
Jacki Miskimins:
Well, one of the things that I love about Fiber Connect and Fiber Broadband Association broadly is you have people who are coming from that traditional telco background. And you have people who come from electric co-ops and statewide networks and people who are interested in the middle mile. You have people who are municipalities who are just kicking tires and trying to figure out which way is up in some ways. And all of them get to be here and learn from each other and get exposure to the same information. And I love that cross-market education collaboration and networking. That’s something that’s really fun for us to see.
Pete Pizzutillo:
And just ignore the side-eye between Joe and me. We’re just trying to figure out who not to step on next. It’s a little dance we got going on here.
Jacki Miskimins:
It’s intimidating to watch. I’m like, “What are they thinking?”
Pete Pizzutillo:
No, we’re not judging you. We’re judging each other, but we’re not judging you.
One of the surprises that I’ve heard is there are a lot of new players here. So not only is the audience bigger, but the number of vendors, new vendors, there’s some realignment of vendors out here, which is really interesting because money brings new people running towards the money. But I totally agree. The energy is interesting.
Also, because of the BEAD money starting to come out in July, there’s a lot of preparation and planning and there was that pregnant pause for a bunch of time. And I feel like it’s just starting to break. I know there are all the challenges process, but there’s a lot of private money that’s moving. So people are coming to the table with some real pain in the operational deployment side rather than the “what should we do” side. Also in terms of growth, we’ve heard that the Women in Fiber session was 300 women.
Jacki Miskimins:
It was a packed room. It was great.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Is that your first time going to that luncheon?
Jacki Miskimins:
It’s my second time. I was able to attend last year as well. And I know this is going to sound terrible, but last year I was actually a little surprised at how much I enjoyed the Women in Fiber Luncheon. It was one of those, “Well, I don’t know. I feel like I should go. It’ll be something new.” All of my male colleagues weren’t going to go, so I was like, “Well, I’ll be a Vantage Point person in the room.”
And I loved it. From a work standpoint and a Vantage Point standpoint, it was a great networking and a great opportunity. And it was this casual but still intimate environment to get to know other people. And you’ve got to make a point to sit by someone you don’t know, that’s how you make new friends. But then just personally, it was very touching to be in that room and to be part of that community.
And then the lunch breaks and everybody goes out and gets the picture. And on the one hand, you’re almost like, “Really? A big group picture? We’re doing this?”
But you look back on it when they post it later and you’re like, “I was part of that,” and that was really great. So being able to come back this year and go to the luncheon was very much a similar experience. Sit by someone you don’t know. Or in this case, a couple of people I’d just met, and that was great too. But you sit by people, you get to know them a little bit.
The committee, you can tell put a lot of heart and a lot of work into that and a lot of thought into what they want that Women in Fiber group to be. I mean the luncheon has a spot on the agenda and people get to see that. But what people don’t see is that the Women in Fiber group does a really nice job throughout the year of trying to bring women together and bring that community and build that. And so there’s group chats and LinkedIn groups, and they really do focus on building that community. They have some very strong leadership. I’m not involved with any of the organization pieces, but I get to reap the benefits. And I really appreciate the work that they’ve done.
Joe Coldebella:
Well the amazing thing about the event, it was sold out to 300 people. I was considering, “Maybe I should see about scalping some tickets.
Jacki Miskimins:
Allies are always welcome.
Joe Coldebella:
But the amazing thing about it. It’s growing every year exponentially. Hopefully, next year it will grow even more. I know that there were some women that wanted to go but were unable to get tickets. It sounded like a great event.
Jacki Miskimins:
I think on the one hand, it’s very unfortunate there were some people left standing out. That’s also a good problem to have, that there’s so much demand for that. I think that’s a real signal that they’re doing something well. Something that I really like about the Women in Fiber, they don’t shy away from the hard conversations. I mean yesterday’s keynote was very interesting, but it was tough stuff to chew on. To look diversity, equity, and inclusion in the eye and say, “What are the impacts? And how does this actually affect us as an industry? How does this affect us as individuals as well?”
Those aren’t really easy conversations to have, but they found a forum to have that discussion. They found a forum to really drive those conversations across people. That’s not an easy trick to pull off, and I think they did a great job. I think they do that really well with the community in general.
Joe Coldebella:
I talked to Alexa Edens and Holly Ruser, and one of the things that they’re doing is that they brought in some at-risk young ladies yesterday to walk the show floor and show them that there is opportunity out there. I mean, I think it’s awesome that they took the time to bring these young ladies in to say, “You’ve got opportunity in this world.”
Jacki Miskimins:
I missed the girls walking through, but that exposure to seeing what those possibilities are I think is incredible, especially for youth. I always tell people that our industry is invisible unless you’re in it. For a lot of the population, they go home, flick the lights on, and it works. They go home, open their laptop, and the Wi-Fi is just there. Well, we know the Wi-Fi isn’t just there. There’s a lot of work that went into making that happen. But until you know this industry is here and all the work and all the great community that brings that Wi-Fi to fruition, it can be invisible. And so I think that exposure is huge.
So at Vantage Point, we have several really phenomenal women leaders, Carmen O’Neill, Kristy Szabo, and others. And my daughter is vaguely interested in engineering. I’ve always called her my little architect, my little engineer. And she was walking through the halls at Vantage Point one day. And she’s like, “Carmen, she’s a girl?” And I’m like, “Yeah, she’s a girl. She’s a licensed professional engineer. She is just totally hardcore. She’s great.” And it was, “Oh, okay. I can be that. It’s not cool that mom works there, but Carmen works there and that’s really cool.”
But it’s my son who sees that too. And so going back to those girls walking the floor. That exposure, once you can see it, you can see it in yourself. And I think that’s a phenomenal opportunity.
Pete Pizzutillo:
How old is your daughter?
Jacki Miskimins:
Now she’s 11.
Pete Pizzutillo:
So the problem we have now is, are there enough women to help solve the problem at hand right now that we can start pulling into the workforce?
Jacki Miskimins:
Do you want to pivot to the workforce?
Pete Pizzutillo:
Yeah.
Jacki Miskimins:
You have to ask the hard questions, Pete.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Let’s put it to practice.
Jacki Miskimins:
You didn’t warn me about that.
Joe Coldebella:
I’m the comedy, he asks the tough questions.
Jacki Miskimins:
Do I think that there are enough skilled workers across the country? I think that if there were, FBA wouldn’t be putting out some of the workforce development toolkits that they’ve been working on. And I had a great conversation last week with a number of rural telecom executives. I asked the question, of all the tools in the world, what’s helping? And they’re saying that we need people in rural communities. That’s what we need.
Those executives in particular are in these very rural communities. And so for a few thousand people, it’s hard to find skilled technicians. It’s hard to find skilled splicers, or even those that can really speak the regulatory language. And so I don’t know if I’m going to answer your question here, Pete. I know that the workforce is an absolute challenge. And I know that we’ve got some great things that are going to take time.
I mentioned earlier that I previously worked in economic development, and my focus was actually on rural workforce development. And so you’d think that I would have some answers around here, but it’s hard. So many of the elements that we focused on back when I worked in that role were around education and exposure. Students can’t go into careers they don’t know exist.
Joe Coldebella:
100%. That’s it exactly.
Jacki Miskimins:
And so it was in that case, getting our local industries into the school systems and bringing the students in for tours and that thing. I think that’s great, and I think that that’s something all of the FBA members have opportunities to do somehow. There is some Girl Scout troop that is looking for a technology badge, I promise you. And you can find those groups. It doesn’t help anybody immediately, but it absolutely helps us long-term. It generates that visibility; it generates that interest. And it’s like, “Do you want to work communications? You can work in a whole bunch of different areas.”
I chose to work in communications in the telecommunications industry, but there are careers all up and down. We need accountants, people who want to work in the fields, people who are great with business plans, and engineers. You can do those careers in any industry. Come into ours. We need to build that visibility, I think.
Pete Pizzutillo:
And so the workforce development stuff and the training programs that a lot of the industry associations are putting together are fantastic starts, and they’re reaching into community colleges and even universities. But something Joe and I talk about is just being better advocates for the industry to steal talent from other industries. I mean, how many Amazon truck drivers are there?
Joe Coldebella:
And that’s a job.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Absolutely. I’m not busting on it, but it’s not a career.
Joe Coldebella:
Exactly. I think that’s the struggle, like you said, nobody knows about it. We expect the internet to work, but how is that done? And then if you actually look underneath the sheets, you go, “Wow, there’s a lot of things that go on to bring everybody internet.”
Jacki Miskimins:
It’s great. And I mean, going back to the Amazon truck drivers, it’s a bit of a numbers game. We just need people.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Correct.
Jacki Miskimins:
This community and industry are so welcoming. Everybody is willing to reach out and say, “Let me show you this. Let me explain. Do you have a question? We want to guide you.” It’s a very welcoming industry, which has been something great that I’ve really enjoyed. We just need more people to get into it. Get in the tent.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Well, this past year has been really interesting because the Barbie movie came out. And Taylor Swift has changed the world, what’s her target market?
Jacki Miskimins:
Did she change the rule? Is she ruling the world? I don’t know.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Both. But her target market is the exact people that we’re talking about. It’s anywhere from preteens to 30 to 40-year-old women.
Joe Coldebella:
So are you saying we need to get Taylor Swift as the keynote speaker next year?
Pete Pizzutillo:
I would say yes.
Jacki Miskimins:
At the evening entertainment, the networking. I think we’re onto something here, Joe.
Pete Pizzutillo:
If you’re in the industry and you’re trying to create awareness, why wouldn’t the FBA think about that stuff? How do you sponsor Taylor Swift local tickets or the Barbie movie premier showing or that stuff? I mean, if you really want to start tackling that problem, you need to go to where the target market is, and then start connecting those dots. I mean now, bolts and boards aren’t very highly technical engineering stuff. We’re still putting the same information in front of the same people. So you got to break that mold and think a little bit differently.
Joe Coldebella:
The point that you raised there, which is great, is that I think that people need to be more creative in terms of how they reach out to folks. As an example, I’ve actually used it a few times on the podcast. The Vetro guys that interviewed at Mountain Connect said that they had a shortage of workers. They went to the local football team and asked the coach which guys weren’t going to college in order to reach out to them and tell them that this was an opportunity for a great career. That’s a super brilliant idea.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Well, every ISP could have a Barbie showing. And I mean you could totally connect broadband to an outdoor movie showing thing.
Jacki Miskimins:
How is this broadcast? How did this reach you?
Pete Pizzutillo:
Yeah. And that’s interesting just watching at a macro level how there’s some women empowerment coming. And the question is timing, but we have to make up some ground.
Jacki Miskimins:
Again, a few years out here, but one of my daughter’s teachers at the middle school put out a call on Facebook. She goes, “I’ve got kids that just aren’t interested in reading books. If you have magazines, could you bring them in? We just want them reading different stuff.”
And so I’m sitting there in my office when I get this email, I’m like, “I’ve got the rural Pennsylvania Electric Co-op Association monthly magazine. I’ve got the Fiber Forward Magazine. I love what they do there. It is a publication of FBA.
I’ve got others from the industry. I’m like, “I’m just going to take these down to the middle school. Let them read about 5G; let them read about the fiber revolution. And let them read about the economics and what is going to happen here.” It doesn’t mean anything to them when they’re in middle school, but it’s exposure. And they’re going to start building at least a little bit of that awareness. And it cost me the extra five minutes to think about sending them with my daughter to school.
Pete Pizzutillo:
My daughter’s 13. I make her listen to Joe’s podcast every day.
Jacki Miskimins:
Is that when she’s grounded?
Pete Pizzutillo:
Going to sleep.
Joe Coldebella:
Geez, Pete. That’s not good at all.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Thank you for all that. So you’re coming back next year, I’m assuming?
Jacki Miskimins:
That is the plan. And I think we’re headed back to Nashville next year, right?
Joe Coldebella:
That is correct. Isn’t that her home state?
Jacki Miskimins:
I think we probably planned this around Taylor Swift being our keynote there in Nashville.
Pete Pizzutillo:
She’s from Pennsylvania, by the way.
Jacki Miskimins:
I think she claims Nashville. I don’t know. We’ll ask her next year when she’s there.
Pete Pizzutillo:
She’s an Eagles fan, and she’s from Pennsylvania. She’s from, as my daughter says, Reading, Pennsylvania.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s from Monopoly, right?
Pete Pizzutillo:
No, it’s an actual place.
Joe Coldebella:
I don’t know. I would always land on that square.
Pete Pizzutillo:
What do you mean it’s from Monopoly?
Jacki Miskimins:
Pennsylvania Railroad, right?
Pete Pizzutillo:
You’re right, Pennsylvania railroad. It’s Reading, Pennsylvania.
Jacki Miskimins:
I was terrible at Monopoly.
Joe Coldebella:
I wanted to ask you. So you’ve got boots on the ground and folks doing all the cool things out there in the field. How is the funding rolling out for you now? Or is it still one of those things where we haven’t released the hounds yet?
Jacki Miskimins:
Funding and BEAD, in particular, as Pete mentioned, it’s this big pregnant pause that everybody’s waiting for the BEAD funding. Vantage Point has a few things that we’re telling folks. The first is BEAD isn’t the only game in town, and there are other funding opportunities, whether it’s state programs, RUS programs, or tribal grants coming out. And so on the one hand, BEAD is not the only game in town, so don’t sleep on these other programs and these other opportunities.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Great point.
Jacki Miskimins:
The other thing is, and we have preached this for years, that if you are waiting until the money is available, you are so far behind. Literally now, this week, today, as you are listening to this podcast is when you should be sitting down with your teams, your partners, and your potential partners and saying, “What is it we actually want to do?” If you wait until you know all the details, you’re going to be too late. It’s not going to be able to be a competitive application. You’re simply just going to be too far behind.
So on the one hand, you have to plan. You must be planning in this era of uncertainty before everything comes out and just fine-tune as things become clearer. That’s tricky. I think I have empathy for providers who have locations in multiple states or growth areas in multiple states. They could be functioning on two completely different timelines depending on when states are going to release things. And what we’re hearing is that state broadband offices are definitely coordinating and communicating, but they’re not coordinating their exact timelines. They’ve got to do what is best for their state. They have to do that, and I fully respect that. But it’s going to be a lot of fun.
I don’t know if that’s the word that everybody’s going to use, but it’s going to be a lot of fun. We’re going to get some great stuff done. So that’s really what we are saying. First, don’t sleep on all the other funding programs. Keep your eyes open. And if you are waiting for certainty, just sit down. You’ve got to start planning now. You’ve got to have these conversations.
Joe Coldebella:
I think that’s a great point. It never goes according to plan. But if you don’t have a plan, you’re in a dark room looking for the light switch. And you’re not going to find it.
Jacki Miskimins:
Our engineers say this all the time, “No battle plan survives first contact.” But if you’re not planning now, you aren’t even on the battlefield. You’re somewhere in the stadiums, and you’re going to watch this opportunity pass you by. So that is something that we are really encouraging people to do. Start those conversations. Look at the map. Where do you want to go? How is it you want to get there? Who’s on your team? Are you looking at partnerships? Are you looking at your neighbors and saying, “What could we do together?”
Sometimes those neighbors are the local telephone company, the local electric co-op, or the local municipality. But sometimes it’s your local economic development organization or the tribal council next door. Who’s local to you? At least have that conversation because the last thing you want to do is start competing with each other and then have somebody else sideswipe you out.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s a great point in terms of collaboration. You don’t know who’s going to be on your team unless you reach out to them. It’s really a great point. It’s one of the things that seems to be a theme with everybody. You don’t know who’s going to help you score the touchdown, so do not be afraid to reach out to everybody.
Jacki Miskimins:
We say that a lot. A cup of coffee is one of the most powerful tools in the industry. Just sit down and talk to them. What is it you’re thinking? What is it you’re planning? And what is it you’re trying to accomplish? I think of Jo-Carroll Energy in northwestern Illinois. I got to get my geography right here. Geography is not my strong suit. He’s in Illinois.
But Jesse Shekleton there is a friend of mine, and we get to work with him quite a lot. And he’s done a tremendous job of being proactive in reaching out to his county commissioners and his local economic development agencies and saying, “This is what we’re trying to do. What are you trying to do? How can we help you accomplish that? What is it that you might be able to bring the table for us?” And building those relationships. And it’s great.
You sit down and you talk to their county commissioners. They rave about what Jo-Carroll Energy is doing for their area. It started with a cup of coffee, one of the most powerful tools we have.
Pete Pizzutillo:
That’s great. Thank you for that. So how can our listeners learn more about you and Vantage Point?
Jacki Miskimins:
Well, I’m not particularly interesting, but Vantage Point —
Pete Pizzutillo:
I disagree.
Jacki Miskimins:
Vantagepnt.com is obviously a great place to start. And then I’d really encourage people to follow Vantage Point on LinkedIn. We post a lot of information there around regulatory updates, memos, things going on in the industry, and new announcements of things that we’re seeing. And then I am not disciplined enough to have a regular podcast like you guys are, but every couple of weeks I try to hop on a video and just share what it is we’re seeing in anything that is new. And that’s become a really fun way to interact with the community as well.
Pete Pizzutillo:
You’re great. Keep doing those, please.
Jacki Miskimins:
You guys keep sharing them. I’ll see what I can do. Give you guys a shout-out, for sure.
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome. Jacki, we can’t thank you enough for coming on and sharing all your knowledge. We really appreciate the time. Hopefully, we have you as an ambassador, and we would love to use you at different events just because your perspective is awesome.
Jacki Miskimins:
Thank you so much. I love what you guys are doing here for the industry. The way that you are finding these unique angles. And sometimes it’s technical and sometimes it’s a case study and sometimes it’s, “Wait. Let’s dig in on this issue.” I think you guys just have an awesome audience that you’re building and a great repertoire of the questions you ask. Joe’s the funny one, I guess. Pete’s over here with the hard questions. But I love what you guys are building here, and I love what you’re doing for our industry to bring those stories to life.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Very kind. Thank you for that.
Jacki Miskimins:
Absolutely. Thanks so much for the time, guys. This has been great.
Pete Pizzutillo:
Have a safe trip home.
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome. Well, that’s going to wrap up this episode of the Broadband Bunch. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you guys later.
