WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) today issued a Call for Presentation Proposals, launching a new initiative as part of the annual CIO.IT track for Chief Information Officers and Information Technology (IT) executives at The Cable Show 2010 in Los Angeles May 11-13, 2010.

The Cable Show 2010, NCTA’s 59th Annual Convention and International Exposition, will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Vendors and suppliers to the cable IT community are invited to make a bid to participate in the first-ever panel-based competition within CIO.IT, dubbed “CIO.IT | Competition 2010.”

NCTA is calling for proposals for presentations that would be scheduled as part of panel discussions at CIO.IT, in which vendors and suppliers would compete to help identify unique solutions to any of a wide variety of cable IT challenges.

Proposals can be submitted online through Friday, February 5.  From the proposals that are submitted, a blue-ribbon panel of cable CIOs will select a handful of finalists to make their presentations during the CIO.IT program.  The presentations made at the Show will be evaluated onsite by a jury of cable industry CIOs, who would identify their favorite ideas as winners.

“Cable IT is an increasingly dynamic environment, and the number of challenges and issues we are managing has increased exponentially in recent years,” said Frank Boncimino, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Time Warner Cable, and chair of the industry committee that oversees the CIO.IT program.  “What better way to find some breakthroughs than to ask our very robust vendor community to help us address some of the issues we face.  We’re looking for this CIO.IT activity to be a wide-open competition for ideas to further improve cable IT, and ultimately, the customer experience.”

According to the Call for Proposals, cable IT vendors and partners are invited to submit presentation proposals not to exceed 500 words, for brief, targeted, non-product-specific presentations that offer solutions to any of the industry’s major IT issues.  Those that are awarded a presentation slot will enjoy a 10-15 minute opportunity to present their solution in a competitive format during panel presentations for CIO.IT track attendees during the two-day program.  Cable industry CIOs will comprise a board of reactors, pose questions of the presenters, provide feedback, and choose their favorite presentations.  Based on the success of their actual presentations, panel presenters may have the opportunity to meet further with cable industry CIOs and IT executives to discuss their ideas in more detail.

Potential presenters are encouraged to look broadly at cable IT challenges.  The Call for Proposal suggests a variety of subject areas that might be addressed in presentations, including – but not limited to – applications for improving customer care, e-commerce, network operations, advertising, internal IT, architecture solutions, and content management.

Presentations may be submitted online only at submissions.miracd.com/CIOIT.  The deadline for submissions is 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Friday, February 5.

For registration information for the CIO.IT program, and for a more complete explanation of CIO.IT | Competition 2010, visit the official website of The Cable Show.

Additional, up-to-the-minute information for The Cable Show is available via the official web site (www.thecableshow.com) or from NCTA’s Department of Industry Affairs, at 202/222-2430.

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