Hood River, Oregon | October 28 – 30, 2025

Setting Up in Hood River

It was also a pleasure meeting my co-attendee George Burne, WiLine’s CTO, who made the long drive from California with his wife. After hours on the road, he was rewarded with a warm welcome — and a batch of freshly baked gluten-free cookies courtesy of my wife.

During setup I met Scott Ivy from ICE-Quip, a company that manufactures durable enclosures and racks. He’s an incredibly genuine person, and we had a great conversation about family and field deployments. I can easily see future opportunities for partnership with ICE-Quip as we expand our rooftop and multi-site deployments.

Another early highlight was meeting Levi Manselle, Director of Sales & Business Development at Fort Rock Data Center in southern Oregon. We talked about WiLine’s expanding presence in the region and possible synergies between our edge-networking ambitions and Fort Rock’s regional data infrastructure. Levi also won the unofficial prize for “most unforgettable booth backdrop” — a towering wall easily twice the width of his table.

The event staff were gracious and organized, helping us sort out every small detail. Once our booth was dialed in, we wrapped for the evening, heading back to rest up for an early start the next morning.

Day 1 — Breakfast, Booth Demos & Conversations

Bright and early on Wednesday, October 29, I hit the road again at 5 a.m. to arrive before the 7 a.m. breakfast kickoff. WiLine was proud to serve as one of the conference’s breakfast sponsors , and the morning began with a spread of DIY breakfast burritos and great conversation.

After a quick setup check, we powered up our live SD-WAN demo, connecting dual 5G radios through a Ubiquiti firewall to a desk phone and two laptops — all displaying our products in real time through a shared WiLine connection. Despite being a “show-floor install,” the setup performed flawlessly.

Our display featured:
• A tower of 10 Gbps 8010 Siklu, Inseego Outdoor 5G radio, and Ubiquiti AirFiber radios.
• Real-time demonstrations of WiLine’s SD-WAN Portal, UCaaS voice + video app, call-queue admin portal, and mobile + web integration.
• Seamless transitions between devices, showcasing our link resiliency and managed-network capabilities.

The response was overwhelmingly positive — attendees appreciated seeing our technology in action instead of just reading about it.

As the day went on, we connected with many industry peers and potential partners:
• Seemas Kadri, Founder & President of CacheWave, shared insights into AI-driven edge caching and compute — a potential complement to our edge-connectivity strategy.
• I re-introduced Scott Ivy (ICE-Quip) to George Burne, WiLine’s CTO, reinforcing our shared interest in field-ready enclosure solutions.
• Greg Khanzadian of Luck Grove discussed field-resource capabilities that could enhance upcoming deployments.
• Matt Updenkelder, VP of Infrastructure at Astound Business Solutions, and I reconnected after years — we had worked together back when Astound (then Wave Broadband) partnered with LS Networks to extend fiber to US Cellular, Verizon, and AT&T towers. It was great to reflect on those early days and see how far the region’s networks have come.
• Leif Hansen, CTO at LS Networks, and Bob Schmidt, LS Networks’ sales lead, both stopped by — familiar faces who continue to drive innovation across the Northwest fiber ecosystem.
• Corey Dodd of Genexis Broadband showcased a compact 10 Gb CPE design that immediately caught our attention.
• Todd Houser (VP of Sales) and Rob Payton (Senior Account Manager) from Titan Telecom shared insights on new supply-chain models and proximity advantages — we’re already discussing potential collaboration.
• We also connected with representatives from Ashland Fiber Network and the City of Ashland. They were particularly impressed with WiLine’s voice and UCaaS solutions and expressed interest in revisiting an upgrade to their voice systems in the coming year. It’s a conversation we plan to continue — and I’m confident our ever-improving voice platform will make an even stronger impression next time.

Later in the evening, George Burne (WiLine CTO) and I were joined by his wife Mary, along with Kevin Gavin from WiLine Marketing. It was great chance to unwind, share a few laughs, and continue conversations with prospective partners after hours.

We also were served a great dinner by our hosts.

By 8 p.m., I was back in my hotel room — exhausted but energized by a day full of promising discussions.

Day 2 — Partnerships & Closing Conversations

Thursday, October 30, began with an early checkout and a return to the booth for the final morning. Though foot traffic was lighter, the quality of conversations more than made up for it.

Our hosts also treated us to a great breakfast, of which WiLine was a sponsor of, great bacon!

Another valuable discussion came with Marcus Penhale from Ziply Fiber. Ziply’s robust and expanding backbone network across the Northwest is impressive, and it’s clear they’ll play an important role in future regional builds. There’s real potential alignment between Ziply’s transport infrastructure and WiLine’s enterprise-connectivity model.

Finally, we closed the show with a great meeting with Shayne Burnem, Sr. Network Specialist at Alaska Communications. George Burne (WiLine CTO) and I had an engaging conversation with Shayne about possible partnerships to extend WiLine’s SD-WAN and wireless-edge solutions into Alaska’s unique and challenging terrain.

As the event wound down, George even won a soft outdoor blanket in the prize raffle — a fittingly warm send-off to cap a productive week.

By 12:30 p.m., the gear was packed into our vehicles, and we were on the road — tired but inspired by the energy, relationships, and opportunities that emerged throughout the event.

Conference Insights & Themes

While I spent most of my time at the booth, George Burne, WiLine’s CTO, attended several panels and shared key takeaways that resonated with WiLine’s mission:
• Funding & Public-Private Partnerships – Collaborative models and realistic funding expectations are vital for sustainable broadband expansion.
• Middle-Mile Infrastructure – Fiber densification, dark-fiber vs. lit services, and ring architectures continue to define how regional networks scale.
• Network Innovation & Hybrid Connectivity – Wireless, 5G/6G, and SD-WAN convergence are accelerating; those investing now will define the next decade of connectivity.
• Digital Equity & Community Engagement – Meaningful broadband access isn’t just about speed — it’s about inclusion and affordability.
• Vendor Strategy & Monetization – Multi-tenant portals, managed-service bundling, and value-added security features remain key differentiators.

Looking Ahead

The Oregon Connections Conference once again proved why it’s one of the Northwest’s most valuable gatherings for telecom professionals. We reconnected with longtime partners, forged new relationships, and reinforced WiLine’s reputation as a company that builds, innovates, and delivers — not just talks about it.

As we follow up with the many new contacts from CacheWave, ICE-Quip, Luck Grove, Titan Telecom, Ashland Fiber, Ziply Fiber, Fort Rock Data Center, Alaska Communications, and others, I’m confident that the collaborations sparked here will continue to grow through 2026 and beyond.

Here’s to another successful year of partnerships, progress, and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in broadband connectivity.