The GVF webinar series will shortly enter into its fourth year. The 46th event in the series (not including additional online panels staged for inclusion in the virtual programs of major satellite industry events impacted by Covid-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions) will take place on Thursday, 25 May 2023 @ 3:00 pm UK time/10:00 am US Eastern time. ‘Connecting Antennas and Satellites: The Critical Link?’ will examine how satellite communications, in fulfilling unique business connectivity needs, presents solutions providers with significant network challenges.
These challenges necessitate that satellite network solutions companies provide products and services to ensure that satellite communications are efficient, secure, reliable and optimized for their intended purpose. The objective of this webinar is to examine in detail how solutions providers meet the complexities of these challenges and how their products and services are transforming as the antennas and modems on the ground and spacecraft in orbit are transforming. More details about this Zoomed dialogue will feature soon on https://gvf.org/webinars/.
In stark contrast to this topic, our 45th webinar was “all about the money”. Panelists from investment institutions, an established LEO satellite operator and a New Space start-up undertook a detailed examination of space sector investment, looking at ‘How to Access Capital in 2023’.
Moderated by Dara Panahy, Partner at the Transportation & Space Group of Milbank LLP – an international law firm with decades of experience in the space industry – this webinar’s panelists – Akshay Patel, Managing Director, PJT Partners; Joakim Espeland, CEO, QuadSAT; Peter Kossakowski, Executive Director of Strategic Planning, Iridium; Noel Rimalovski, Managing Director, GH Partners – undertook a detailed examination of space sector investment.
The webinar began with an introductory overview looking at macro trends in terms of availability of capital and investments in the space sector – especially in the context of high interest rates and declining stock prices. Following the overview, panelists spoke to how today’s capital investors are increasingly focused on business fundamentals rather than just ideas and unproven technologies. The panelists went on to explore topics such as variations on the archetypal capital raising processes for space start-ups, key takeaways and lessons learned from SPAC vehicles and de-SPAC transactions, the nature of the effect on investor perceptions of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank for the space industries, the impact of Virgin Orbit having filed for bankruptcy, and the role of strategic/corporate-linked investment funds such as Lockheed Martin Ventures, Airbus Ventures and the former Boeing HorizonX venture arm. You can watch the recording of this event in the GVF webinar archive at https://gvf.org/webinar/how-to-access-capital-in-2023/.
Sandwiched between these two webinars is CABSAT 2023, 16-17 May. Providing exhibition attendees with a value-added and free to attend opportunity to listen to, and engage with, expert analysis of a range of topics high on the satellite industry agenda is the CABSAT 2023 SatExpo Summit, for which GVF will be providing content support on 16 May.
A total of four GVF panel sessions will explore the following themes:
Satellite & HAPS: Transformational Technology Disruption, Service Resilience
As I wrote in my previous column, the concept of disruptive evolution is central to the space and satellite industry lexicon and will be the focus of the panel discussion on the theme of satellite and HAPS in relation to ‘Transformational Technology Disruption, Service Resilience’. Contributing to this dialogue will be Arabsat, Integrasys, Intelsat, and Quika (part of Talia); and I will moderate.
Arabsat will be represented by Dr Badr Nasser M. Alsuwaidan, Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer; Alvaro Sanchez, the Chief Executive Officer of Integrasys will also contribute; along with Greg Ewert, Vice President Strategy & Business Development at Intelsat; and Jack Buechler, Chief Commercial Officer at Quika (Talia).
Into the Blue: Flying and Sailing with Satcoms
This panel will also be moderated by me, and I will be joined by Hani El Arja, Vice President Connectivity Sales, MENA & Central Asia, Eutelsat; Abdulaziz Aldhaher, Country Director, ST Engineering iDirect; and Joakim Espeland, Chief Executive Officer, QuadSAT. The core theme here will be that when mobile aboard an aircraft, a ship, a train, or in a car we share in common the expectation that, no matter the location, there should be no limitation to broadband access to streaming, social media, and bandwidth hungry work applications. This session will investigate the space and ground segment evolution supporting today’s expanding mobility markets.
The Digital Cloud in Orbit
Examining this topic, with me again moderating, will be representatives of Gilat Satellite Networks, Kratos, and SES. From Gilat we will have Gil Elizov, Vice President Products; from Kratos, Mark Lambert, President UK; and from SES, Sergy Mummert, Senior Vice President, Global Cloud Sales and Strategic Partnerships. The session will investigate all facets of the satellite business-Cloud interface, including virtualization and edge-computing. In the context of the ‘network of networks’, important questions are, “What is the nature of maximizing satellite’s interoperability with telcos and MNOs?” and “Is the Cloud a monolith, or really a series of fragmented, siloed, and differentiated Cloud infrastructures?”
Connectivity: What the Underserved Want, What the Underserved Get
As moderator for this session exploring the long-standing challenges of the digital divide, we welcome Isabelle Mauro, the new Director General of GSOA. Comprising the panel will be Rhys Morgan, General Manager, EMEA Media and Networks Sales, Intelsat Ventures Sarl; Hamid Nawaz, General Manager, Enterprise & Cloud, MECA, SES; Rami Al-Wazani, System Design Engineer, SpaceBridge; and, James Trevelyan, Senior Vice President, Enterprise & Emerging Markets, Speedcast. There is not only a digital divide between developed nations and countries with generally poorly developed broadband capacities; but also, between well-served urban and suburban areas and underserved rural and remote regions. The satellite industry’s ongoing objective of bridging these divides must be premised upon how our understanding of the true nature of the dynamics of the digital divide changing, because this is what drives the search for new initiatives to develop new solutions.
Mastering the Business of Space
“SpaceX does most of its hiring from colleges and universities. We find it to be the best way to find candidates… with the excitement and ambition to rise to seemingly impossible challenges.”
– SSPI Industry Hall of Fame inductee and SpaceX COO, Gwynne Shotwell.
The complexities and many paths to hiring a space qualified employee is revealed in an SSPI publication entitled, ‘Making Leaders – How to Recruit College and University Students’. This very useful read for space and satellite company HR personnel highlights the range of places and approaches for hiring and securing talent.
To quote from its introduction:
“…Most companies in the industry prefer to hire from a pool of experienced candidates typically poached from competing firms, according to SSPI’s 2016 workforce study Launch Failure. That has produced an age distribution in which those experienced workers ages 45-54 make up 42% of employees in the industry. It is a practice whose limits are clear. As one hiring manager told us, “We are all competing for the same talent, and there is only a limited amount of it to go around.”
“There is no question that it is easier to hire veterans than it is to create internships then hire, onboard and train graduate and undergraduate students.”
“In the long term, it is obvious that a fast-moving technology industry needs a steady influx of people with different experiences, new kinds of expertise and a fundamentally different outlook.”
It is to address such complexities in the recruitment environment that GVF and SSPI and SatProf partnered to develop SBQ the Space Business Qualified certification. SBQ is an additional and an invaluable tool in the HR toolbox, enabling mastery of the fundamentals of the business of space, filling a critical gap for people who are new to the space and satellite industry. Read more at www.spacebq.org. -------------------------------------
Martin Jarrold is Vice-President of International Program Development of GVF. He can be reached at: martin.jarold@gvf.org
