An Emotional WLPC
Everyone was brought to tears twice. You don’t usually see this kind of display of emotion at a tech conference. It warmed my heart as WLPC marks 2024 as their 10 year anniversary.
I was tearing up when Keith Parsons was surprised by all his kids showing up during the 10 year anniversary party. They even had wonderful words to say about him. And the second time was at the end of the conference, Keith said his final words and choked up. It got us pretty good.
I almost didn’t make it to WLPC Phoenix, having pulled the trigger for a conference ticket on December 29th.
So far, I’ve attended four WLPC conferences and I’d like to offer reasons why WLPC is one of the best ones to attend.
Connecting with Friends
Over time and over various tech conferences, you make friends. Keith Parsons has mentioned WLPC is like your high school reunion. Once a year, you meet up with your fellow Wi-Fi peers you may communicate often via social media but see in the flesh at WLPC.
You get to know them, sit next to them for the duration of the conference, have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, a couple of drinks, and maybe hang out after the conference. It’s a fun time in addition to learning from a day’s worth of presentations.
Smaller Event
Some tech conferences have thousands and thousands of attendees. It can get overwhelming very quickly. But WLPC is a much smaller event. A niche within IT focusing on Wi-Fi. The community is much smaller.
You’re able to connect with new people easily. You’ll leave the conference with a few contacts.
Maybe that’s what made this year’s WLPC that much more memorable.
Connecting with Listeners of Clear To Send
I’m humbled to be approached by people who know so much about me because of the Clear To Send podcast. Many people have came up to me mentioning how we’ve helped them in their career or helped with their CWNP certifications. We’re with them on their commute or mowing the lawn.
Community-Selected Topics
Anyone can submit a topic for the WLPC conference. But it’s up to the community vote on what they want to see. These are presentations from the community, although a lot of the presenters do represent the vendor they work with.
If you’re up for the challenge, submit a topic that you’ve had some experience in. Whether it is something you learned from the Wi-Fi protocol or data you’ve collected from a recent deployment.
Presenting on stage is a great way to grow professionally. I’ve been brave enough to do it a few times.
Presentations to look out for
There are so many presentations to watch but these presenters stuck out to me:
- Wes Pervis on Wi-Fi 6E and AFC
- Tom Carpenter on OFDMA
- David Coleman on AFC
- JJ Minela on WPA3
- Dennis Burrell on invisible antennas but in the style of Cat in the Hat
- Mike Pennacchi on wiring
- François Vergès on MCS math
- Jim Palmer’s experience with Wi-Fi 7
Be sure to look out for when these videos hit on YouTube.
