There’s a First Time for Everything…Reflections on my first WLPC

I’m as excited as a kid going to summer camp

I must admit, I wasn’t sure what to expect when coming in for the WLPC. I heard this was a great event, but I was curious what set it apart from every other wireless industry event. It became abundantly clear as soon as I arrived… Our industry has a ton of incredibly smart, personable, and eager to learn professionals and they all convene in one place: WLPC. But not the stuffy suit and tie types you get at most conferences, just honest to goodness engineers who want to make the industry better.

These professionals are hungry to learn about what is coming that will change the way we all work. For the most part, partisan company politics get checked at the door because this is about the technology and the people serving that technology. Sure, there are a few people who get a shameless plug in for their products, and they would be silly not to sitting in front of this group of decision makers. However, this is not the reason for the event, which is incredibly refreshing.

Rigorous debate happens during this event, creating an atmosphere of truly changing things for the better. The debate on the dual 5 GHz radio starting to emerge, was valuable. To see engineers from both camps (it’s great vs. it is going to suck!) voice their opinions and debate it, without a personal agenda or discounting someone else’s experience, made this event worth the price of admission. As everyone knows wireless is not a perfect science, it is an art, and watching how other artists paint their canvases with Blake Krone (@blakekrone) is the best form of education. Learning what others do in situations similar to yours can really get your creative juices going.

The Ten Talks were outstanding. They are short, sweet, to the point, and incredibly informational because, again, they come from people that live and breathe this material daily. A few notable Ten Talks that lit up the room from my perspective include, of course, The Art of Antenna Design by none other than AccelTex’s finest, Rich Hummel (@accelhummel), Gathering Requirements Before You Design by Lee Badman (@wirednot) and Building the tools you want through 3D printing by Robert Boardman (@robb_404) was excellent, and THANK YOU for our Baby Smitty! He will be with us always and forever…

How Machine Learning has Evolved to transform the WLAN experience by Sudheer Matta (@sudheermatta) was eye opening. BLE Technology and Mist have the ability to change the game in real time data.

The makers’ sessions were awesome as well. Hands on learning is how most engineers process things most efficiently, so this was a great idea. The main sessions also had very dynamic speakers with very valuable information. I am pretty sure my brain is still trying to process the week. But I walked into work on Monday morning feeling like a BOSS!

The creation of the Wireless Advisory Board is paramount to our industry’s success. Thank you Alan Blake (@papageordy) and Rick Murphy (@RickMurphyWiTS) for spearheading this initiative.

I’d also like to thank Alan Blake (@papageordy), Shaun Bender (@welles), Timo Sass (@dot11_de), Robert Boardman (@robb_404), Brennan Martin (@CdnBeacon), Ian Beyer (@ianbeyer), Mitch Dickey (@badger_fi), Stewart Goumans (@wirelessStew), Brian Smith (@elonsmitty), Rich Hummel (@accelhummel) and Shaun Neal (@sv_neal) for the fantastic evenings and introducing me to more IPA’s than I thought imaginable. My liver is still sore…

Lastly, a HUGE THANK YOU to Keith Parsons (@KeithRParsons) and your team, for a home run on planning and execution of this top notch event.

Great times everyone, and looking forward to seeing you all next year!
Jason Rinaldi (@jasonmrinaldi1)