About the Author: Eric recently joined Cisco in 2016 to cover manufacturing and energy vertical marketing. He was previously the Director of Marketing at Belden where he led strategic programs and digital marketing efforts for Industrial Networking and Connectivity, Enterprise Connectivity, and Cybersecurity business units.

I have attended UTC Telecom & Technology for many years but this was my first event with Cisco and it's been interesting to see how the issues have evolved throughout the year. Presenters and thought leaders tackled many compelling issues impacting IT and telecom initiatives in the water, electric, and gas utility industries. What were the prevailing themes at UTC 2016? We'll be discussing this and other questions during our next#CiscoChat on Wednesday, May 25th, 2016, 9AM PST/12PM EST.

Meet our Hosts

Moderator: @CiscoUtilities

Panelists: Bob Lockhart (@BobLockhartUTC), Eric Ehlers (@egehlers), Rick Geiger (@ciscobtxenergy), Peter Granger (@PGrangerCISCO), and Jenny Gomez (@JRGoGreen).

Join the Chat!

We invite you to join us in discussing these questions:

• What themes did you hear at#UTC2016?
• One big trend is that compliance is not enough to thwart cyber threats -what are your thoughts on this?
• Where do you think utilities are going in IT/OT convergence?
• What approaches are you seeing companies take when it comes to cyber & physical security in Utilities?
• What's the future of the grid?
• What's the value of Digitization?

How To Participate:

• Make sure you're logged into your Twitter account.
• Search for the#CiscoChat hashtag and click on the "Live" tab in the middle of the page. Be sure to follow this hashtag to follow the conversation and participate.
• The Chat moderator @CiscoUtilities will begin welcoming guests at 9AM PST/12PM EST and will start questions after intros are done. Introduce yourself to us and the other attendees! Funny memes and photos from the event are encouraged.
• Be sure to use the#CiscoChat hashtag at the end of each tweet, so that others can find your contributions to the discussion. Refresh the page over the course of the chat to see all the responses.
• Preface each tweet with "1A, 2A," etc. in order to make it easier for others to follow along with the conversation.
• For @ replies to specific participants in the discussion, please use a ".@" at the beginning of the tweet, so that your question or comment will appear in your public twitter feed.
• Prepare any links or images you want to share during the discussion in advance of the chat

Be sure to bring your own questions to the discussion as well. See you there!

Follow us at @CiscoUtilties and view our past Ciscochats here and here.