I spent the last few days mulling over what to talk about for my part in the opening submarine cable session at PTC ’16.

I am normally quite happy to sit quietly in the audience and listen to others opine about our industry, and learn a few things in the process.  But instead, around Halloween, the estimable Paul McCann contacted me and asked if I would be willing to participate in the session.  I thought about it for a while and then that I would accept before he could revoke the invitation. Then I proceeded to forget about the commitment until sometime after Christmas.

So, the new year came and went, and I returned to the office that Monday from the end-of-year sabbatical from that day-job, and to the unwritten presentation that I had still not really started.

But a funny thing happened.

One of the benefits of being the titular SubTel Forum head is that I get to see articles in their draft stage, and, low and behold, a couple of articles from a couple of really smart guys came through the door.  It wasn’t that they wrote the presentation for me, but instead enhanced a thought I had been having, thus allowing me to go in the direction I wanted.  And of course, accreditations abound within.

So what you might ask did I conclude as an outlook for the industry?

That, as Dr. Seuss once opined, “You’re in pretty good shape for the shape you are in.”