TCWLIVE! Agenda

Welcome & Registration

Arrival, registration, and networking.

Registration sponsored by:

Customer Growth & Success Learning Lab: Connectbase Best Practices Masterclasses

Dive into the Customer Growth & Success Learning Lab, created exclusively for current Connectbase customers.

Through hands-on Connectbase Best Practices Training Masterclasses, current customers can explore practical ways to maximize the value of the Connectbase platform. These interactive sessions offer expert guidance, helpful tips, and real-world applications to support greater efficiency, accuracy, and collaboration across connectivity ecosystems.

Participants will leave with actionable insights to help enhance their day-to-day workflows and support stronger business outcomes.

Trainings Led By – Heidi Juarez, Vice President, Customer Growth & Success at Connectbase

Training Sessions & Overview

1. Seller Success Foundations: Best Practices for Digital Marketplace Growth

Audience: Sellers

Learn how to set up, optimize, and maintain your Connectbase profile for maximum visibility and accuracy.

Key topics:
Data hygiene and location accuracy
Product catalog setup and standardization
Leveraging APIs for automated updates
Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

Data Autonomy

2. Seller Masterclass: Turning Connectivity Data into Revenue

Audience: Network Sellers

A deep dive into how sellers can use Connectbase to identify demand, price competitively, and accelerate quoting.

Key topics:
Reaching target buyers and new opportunities
Dynamic pricing and quote automation
Managing buyer connection requests efficiently (Linkbase)
Tracking performance and conversion metrics using advanced analytics

3. Buyer Masterclass: Connectbase Bid Management (CBM)

Audience: Network Buyers

Learn how CBM automates and governs the activities, communications and approvals required to move quotes from automated pricing to final/orderable outcomes.

Key topics:
Automating the Quote Lifecycle
Supplier Engagement & Negotiation

Workflow Governance & Approvals

Driving Faster, Orderable Outcomes

4. Buyer Success Foundations: Turning Connectivity Data into Revenue

Audience: Buyers

A deep dive into how buyers can identify suppliers, accelerate quoting, automate terms and conditions, and improve overall sales efficiency.

Key topics:
Becoming Pre-authorized automating and managing all supplier connection types (Linkbase)
Using location intelligence to uncover new opportunities

Quote turnaround

Pricing alternatives and quote automation

5. Seller Masterclass: Connectbase Bid Management (CBM)

Audience: Network Sellers / Resellers

Learn how to configure users to respond to your connected buyers manual pricing requests sent through CBM leveraging the supplier response dashboard.

Key topics:
Configuring users for supplier engagement.

Managing pricing requests with the response dashboard

Responding to pricing exceptions & Negotiations

Maximizing revenue through timely supplier responses

Panel Discussion: Inside Connectbase — The Visionaries Powering the Future of Global Connectivity

Step into the world of Connectbase and meet the leaders redefining how the world connects. This dynamic session introduces the executive team driving innovation, growth, and transformation across the connectivity industry.

Discover their vision for the future, the strategies shaping industry evolution, and the leadership mindset that keeps Connectbase at the forefront of the connected world.

Connectbase Panelists: Ben Edmond, CEO & Founder | Shivani York, Chief Operating Officer | Trey Willis, Chief Technology Officer

Kickoff Reception – Showroom Food Hall, Marriott Marquis Chicago

Flip the switch and power up The Connected World LIVE! 2026 with an electrifying evening of networking. Join peers, partners, and industry leaders as the event comes online with energy, excitement, and connection. Enjoy lively conversation, great music, and the perfect spark to ignite days of collaboration and innovation ahead.

Registration & Networking Breakfast

Kick off the day with coffee, conversation, and connections before diving into a full day of insights and collaboration.

Breakfast sponsored by:

Registration sponsored by:

From Connectivity to Commerce: Reimagining the Provider Role

Connectivity is no longer just infrastructure—it is the foundation of a new era of commerce. In this opening keynote, Connectbase Founder & CEO Ben Edmond explores how the industry is evolving from traditional network transactions to dynamic digital ecosystems that accelerate growth, unlock new revenue streams, and create competitive advantage. Discover what is driving this transformation, how leading providers are adapting, and what it takes to succeed in the connected economy.

Presenter: Ben Edmond, CEO & Founder, Connectbase

Connectbase and AT&T Partner Exchange | Announcement

Diamond Sponsor – LB Networks – The Off-Net Blind Spot

See how the Off-Net challenge has been solved: Managing Off-Net as On-Net. Combine this with the new carrier-to-carrier Service Exchange and discover how quickly and beneficially, carrier business engagements are being transformed.

Presenter: Raymond Chiu, CEO & Co-Founder, LB Networks

Sponsored by:

Keynote Speaker – Dr. Sanjay Basu, Oracle- Designing AI Factories for Inference

In his keynote, Dr. Sanjay Basu, Senior Director of GPU & Gen AI Solutions & Services – Cloud Engineering at Oracle, will explore the evolution of next-generation data center design and the connectivity architectures required to support AI at unprecedented scale. He will explain why the next major challenge in data center infrastructure is no longer simply a compute or networking problem but a token economics problem—in which the cost, speed, and efficiency of generating AI tokens become the defining metrics of infrastructure performance.

The session will examine the industry’s transition from the AI training era (2021–2024), when data centers were optimized to build increasingly large foundation models, to the AI inference era (2025 onward). Unlike training workloads, inference demands always-on, latency-sensitive infrastructure operating 24×7, where utilization is measured in milliseconds rather than hours or days. As AI applications scale globally, data center architectures must evolve to deliver lower latency, higher network efficiency, and economically optimized inference at massive scale.

Presenter: Dr. Sanjay Basu, Senior Director of GPU & Gen AI Solutions & Services – Cloud Engineering, Oracle

Fireside Chat – The Future of AI Infrastructure

Sanjay’s keynote will be followed by a fireside chat with Pete Coticchia, Global Head of Business Development and Go-to-Market (GTM) for Oracle Cloud at NVIDIA, who will explore the evolution of NVIDIA’s AI computing platforms and the future of AI infrastructure.

Together, Dr. Basu and Coticchia will examine the evolution of NVIDIA’s AI chip architectures—from Hopper (2022) and Hopper Refresh (2023) to Blackwell (2024), Blackwell Ultra (2025), Vera Rubin (2026), Rubin Ultra (2027), and Feynman (2028)—and discuss how each generation is transforming data center architecture, networking, connectivity, power, cooling, and the design of next-generation AI factories.

The conversation will also look ahead to the future of AI infrastructure, exploring how advances in compute, networking, interconnects, and system architecture will redefine scalable, high-performance, and economically efficient AI inference. Attendees will gain insights into the infrastructure innovations required to support the next generation of AI workloads and digital infrastructure at global scale.

Panelists: Dr. Sanjay Basu, Senior Director of GPU & Gen AI Solutions & Services – Cloud Engineering, Oracle & Pete Coticchia, Global Head of Business Development & Go-to-Market (GTM) for Oracle Cloud, NVIDIA

Moderator: Vinay Nagpal, IG Group

The New Digital Infrastructure Arms Race For AI Compute: Data Center Providers, Hyperscalers, and Neocloud Provider

This panel brings together leaders from across the infrastructure stack to examine how business models are evolving, where competitive lines are being drawn — and broken — and what the next wave of infrastructure investment looks like for builders, operators, and enterprise buyers alike.

Panelists:  Clint Heiden, Chief Commercial Officer, EdgeCore Digital Infrastructure | Pete Coticchia, Global Head of Business Development & Go-to-Market (GTM) for Oracle Cloud, NVIDIA | Dr. Sanjay Basu, Senior Director of GPU & Gen AI Solutions & Services – Cloud Engineering, Oracle

Moderator: Vinay Nagpal, CEO, IG Group

Coffee Break

Coffee sponsored by:

Building The Connected World: Product Vision to Platform Reality

The future of connected commerce is taking shape now. Join Connectbase for an executive look at how The Connected World is helping providers identify opportunities faster, automate transactions, streamline operations, and accelerate profitable growth. From Presence and Bid Management to Orderbase, APIs, automation, and intelligence, see how innovation is translating strategy into measurable business outcomes.

Presenter: Trey Willis, Chief Technology Officer, Connectbase

From API to Revenue: Activating Connected Commerce

Industry standards have enabled connectivity. The next frontier is commercializing it at scale. Learn how providers are turning interoperability into opportunity through automated discovery, real-time quoting, digital ordering, and lifecycle automation. This session explores how modern ecosystem frameworks are reducing friction, accelerating transactions, and creating new pathways to growth across multi-provider environments.

Panelists: Jonathan Moore, AVP Product Technology, AT&T Partner Solutions | Chris Huber, Director of Pricing and Procurement, Comcast Business- Nitel | Amy Artale, Vice President of Pricing & Vendor Management, Spectrotel | Bill Hager, Carrier Sales and Business Development, DQE Communications

Moderator: Steve Leavitt, Vice President of Strategic Accounts, Connectbase

Diamond Sponsor – MaiaEdge | Closing the Gap: How fiber operators are expanding reach and revenue in the connected world

Enterprise customers are showing up with requests that didn’t exist two years ago: massive bandwidth circuits, private cloud access, connectivity to distributed AI infrastructure. And they want it next week, not in 2 months.

For regional fiber operators, the gap between what customers are asking for and what you can deliver keeps growing. This session breaks down how to close it: expand reach without new fiber builds, turn “we don’t do that” into “no problem,” and get ahead of the AI connectivity wave.

MaiaEdge Co-Presenters: Abilash Menon, CEO & Co-Founder & Tim Ziemer, CRO & Co-Founder

Sponsored by:

Lunch & Networking

Lunch sponsored by:

Diamond Sponsor – SBA EDGE – Beyond Legacy Carrier Hotels: The Rise of Next-Generation Interconnect Hubs & Distributed AI Networks

For decades, the fiber universe has revolved around a handful of hyper-dense carrier hotels. But increasing real estate costs, power constraints, and the necessity for low-latency edge deployment are forcing network operators to look elsewhere. As inference workloads move out of centralized hyperscale campuses and closer to where data is created and consumed, rich fiber interconnection facilities become the critical enabler—the meeting point where carriers, cloud on-ramps, and edge compute converge.

This panel explores the rapid rise of alternative carrier hotels, including regional edge facilities, secondary-market carrier-neutral data centers, and decentralized interconnect points. We’ll look at how wholesale fiber operators are re-architecting their backhaul networks to tap into these new hubs, the economics of bypassing legacy facilities, and how to evaluate an alternative facility’s true ecosystem viability for the next generation of AI-ready edge infrastructure.

Sponsored by:

Panelists: Brian Etienne, Head of Real Estate Development, Available Infrastructure | Lorin Dorco, CTO , PowerBridge & CFive Digital

Moderator: Jared Benson, Director, Strategic Sales – Edge Infrastructure, SBA Edge

Experience Wins: Why Customer Simplicity Drives Growth

In a market where buyers expect speed, transparency, and simplicity, customer experience has become a powerful competitive advantage. Discover how providers are reducing complexity, simplifying engagement, and delivering frictionless buying experiences that improve conversion rates, strengthen loyalty, and drive long-term growth.

Panelists: Will Harvey, Chief Revenue Officer, Acuative, Jeanne Duca, CMO, BCN | Michael Brady, Chief Revenue Officer, Conterra Networks | Frederic Dickey, Senior Vice President of Product Management, Fusion Connect

Moderator: Shivani York, COO, Connectbase

Channel Connectivity Evolution: Trends, Ordering & Analytics

TCWLIVE! Channel Panel features TSD and Supplier leaders discussing channel connectivity, ordering, and analytics innovation. Explore emerging trends, smarter automation, removing friction in deal enablement and ordering, along with strategies driving growth across the connectivity ecosystem.

Panelists: Chris Alberding, Chief Product Officer, BCN | Michael Sterl, Chief Operations Officer, Bridgepointe Technologies | Michelle Kadlacek, Vice President of the Channel Partner Program, Spectrum Business | Ciera Broberg, Vice President of Back Office Operations, Telarus

Moderator: Ben Edmond, CEO & Founder, Connectbase

Beyond Bandwidth: Building Higher-Value Revenue Streams

Connectivity may open the door, but value creation drives growth. Learn how providers are expanding beyond traditional services through managed offerings, digital capabilities, ecosystem partnerships, and outcome-based solutions. Explore strategies for increasing customer lifetime value while creating new opportunities for differentiation and profitability.

Panelists: Chris Alberding, Chief Product Officer, BCN | Eric Sindelar, Executive Vice President of Business Development, PacketFabric | Darren Feder, CEO, Stratus Networks

Moderator: Trey Willis, CTO, Connectbase

Trailblazers of the Connected Future: Women Shaping the Next Era of Tech and Commerce

Join an inspiring conversation with leaders who are helping shape the future of connectivity, commerce, and innovation. Through personal stories, leadership lessons, and forward-looking perspectives, this panel celebrates the individuals driving change, fostering inclusion, and redefining what leadership looks like in a rapidly evolving industry.

Panelists: Tammy Cruise, Vice President, Carrier Sales, Spectrum Business | JoAnne Drexler, Senior Vice President, National Sales, Astound Business | Nikki Marsh, CRO, DQE Communications | Mercy Carcasses, Vice-President, Wholesale Business, Brightspeed Business

Moderator: Shivani York, COO, Connectbase

Session sponsored by:

Sponsor Flash – IOLITE | Using AI to optimize Connectbase Quotes in Salesforce

What does AI actually do — and how can it make your sales team smarter? This session starts with the fundamentals: how AI processes context, learns from history, and surfaces relevant insights rather than just returning search results. From there, we apply those principles to a real-world sales scenario — showing how AI can analyze an open opportunity, draw on patterns from similar historical deals, and recommend the optimal path forward. If you’ve ever wondered what “AI-powered” actually means in practice, this session will show you.

Presenter: Brian Hattaway, Founder, ProCore

Closing Remarks: From Connection to Commerce: Turning Ecosystems into Economic Engines

As Day 2 of The Connected World LIVE! 2026 comes to a close, this session brings together the key insights, themes, and strategies that have defined the event. Reflect on how the industry is moving from connectivity to true commercial orchestration—and what it takes to turn connected ecosystems into measurable, scalable sources of growth. Leave with a clear vision of the next steps for driving innovation, collaboration, and profitability in the connected economy.

Presenter: Ben Edmond, CEO & Founder, Connectbase

Registration & Networking Breakfast

Start your day fully charged! Grab a cup of coffee, plug into great conversations, and sync up with industry peers before the day’s sessions go live. It’s your chance to boost your signal, strengthen your network, and get bandwidth for a full day of high-voltage insights and collaboration.

Breakfast sponsored by:

From Vision to Execution – Operationalizing Connected Commerce

The future of connected commerce depends on execution. This keynote bridges strategy and action, exploring how providers can align technology, operations, and organizational priorities to create measurable business results. Learn what it takes to operationalize innovation and turn opportunity into impact.

Presenter: Ben Edmond, CEO & Founder, Connectbase

The Digital Wholesale Advantage: Building A Scalable, Predictable Growth Engine

The most successful organizations don’t just create growth—they create predictable growth. Discover how leading providers are using automation, qualification frameworks, ecosystem intelligence, and performance measurement to improve win rates, accelerate revenue cycles, and build repeatable commercial success. 

Panelists: Jourdan Lang, Principal Market Development, Partner Solutions, AT&T | Stephen Hartman, Director Carrier & Wireline Networks, SEGRA | Kiley Wynne, Director of Carrier Services, Sparklight Carrier| Brian Cancio, Director of Product Development, Uniti

Moderator: Brian Maggiacomo, Vice President of Global Sales, Connectbase

Milliseconds, not Gigawatts: The Inference Bottleneck and the Need for IXPs Across America

For thirty years we’ve funneled America’s internet through a few dozen carrier hotels — NYC, Ashburn, Dallas, the Bay Area, and right here in Chicago. That architecture was fine when “the network” meant email, web pages, and cached video. It breaks the instant you put inference and agentic AI on it, where a round trip of tens of milliseconds is the difference between a product that works and one that doesn’t.   

Here’s the uncomfortable part: the AI economy is being built as though the middle of the country doesn’t exist. Hundreds of tier II, tier III, and smaller metros have no carrier hotel, no IXP, no place for networks to actually meet — so data traffic trombones hundreds of miles to someone else’s city and back. They are, functionally, peering deserts. And no amount of data center capex fixes a routing problem.   

This panel makes the case for a different architecture: neutral, carrier-neutral regional IXPs as the centers of gravity where networks, clouds, and compute interconnect close to where users — and inference — actually live. We’ll get specific about the economics, the power, the physics of latency, and why the data center industry hasn’t caught up to reality. 

If you buy, sell, build, or route connectivity, this is the conversation about where the map redraws next. 

Panelists:  Hunter Newby, Newby Ventures / IXP.US | Brent Legg, Connected Nation / IXP.US | James Jun, TOWARDEX | Bryan Lubin, Moonshot Energy | Ed D’Agostino, DE-CIX 

Moderator:  Ben Edmond, CEO & Founder, Connectbase

Revenue in Motion: The Commercial Excellence Workshop

Turn insight into action during this interactive workshop focused on commercial performance. Using real-world scenarios and practical frameworks, participants will explore ways to uncover new opportunities, accelerate quoting, improve conversion rates, and strengthen revenue execution across the customer lifecycle.

Presenter: Ben Edmond, CEO & Founder, Connectbase

Coffee Break

Coffee sponsored by:

Global Connectivity Without Borders — The Next ERA of Buying, Selling & Partnership

Connectivity has become a global marketplace powered by collaboration. Join buyers, sellers, and ecosystem leaders for a dynamic discussion on the opportunities, partnerships, and business models shaping the future of international connectivity. Explore how organizations are navigating complexity while creating new pathways for growth across borders.

Panelists: Ande Hazard, Vice President – Wholesale Partner Solutions, AT&T Services, Inc.| Harold Alexanian, Head of Sales – International Carriers, Bouygues Telecom Wholesale | Matvei Beliaev, Manager – IT, Data & AI – Frontier Networks | Edgar Navarro is Director of Sales, Qoolize Global Internet

Moderator: Deric Vinyard, EVP of Sales, Connectbase

Sponsor Flash – Stratus Networks | Putting the “Total” in Total Addressable Market

For modern fiber builders and operators, it’s essential to work the entire TAM. Learn how Stratus has designed its sales motion and products to appeal to business customers from the largest Fortune 500 companies to the smallest of small businesses in order to maximize our return.

Presenter: Todd Kiehn, Vice President of Marketing & Product Solutions, Stratus Networks

Sponsor Flash – INDATEL Services – The Partnership Advantage: Why Rural Wins Together

Not all aggregators are built the same. Discover how INDATEL’s largest rural fiber network comprised of 37+ statewide middle mile providers delivers more than connectivity, it creates a partnership model that helps carriers, enterprises, and communities scale faster, reach farther, and succeed where others can’t.

Heather Martin, National Account Manager, INDATEL Services

Lunch & Networking

Lunch sponsored by:

Network Spend Intelligence: Connecting Revenue to Cost Across the Connected Ecosystem

Visibility into network inventory means nothing if you can’t connect it to cost and margin. This session showcases gpxcloud, Connectbase’s network spend intelligence solution, and how it gives service providers, TEMs, and MSPs a single system of record for telecom spend, invoice automation, and cost management. See how closing the loop from discovery to profitability — inside the Connectbase platform — drives smarter decisions, eliminates overpayment, and turns operational data into a competitive advantage.

Panelists: Wendy Hays, Head of Financial Operations, Pavlov Media | Chris Lee, SVP – Chief Product Officer, Connectbase 

Moderator: Deric Vinyard, EVP of Sales, Connectbase

Circuit Inventory Manager (CIM): Inventory Intelligence, Built Into Your Ecosystem

Your circuit data shouldn’t live in a spreadsheet. CIM brings your entire network inventory — circuits, vendors, contracts, capacity, and IP addresses — into the Connectbase platform, giving you a single source of truth that powers smarter buying, selling, and operational decisions across the connected ecosystem.

Presenter: Gabe Venturi, SVP Marketing and Product Operations, Connectbase

From Fiber to Revenue: Connectbase and Nasc Technologies Close the Gap Between Operations and Monetization

Fiber operators have the network — but turning physical infrastructure into quote-ready, revenue-generating inventory requires more than good field data. In this session, Connectbase and Nasc Technologies demonstrate how their joint workflow connects STREAMLINE Fibre’s physical network intelligence directly into CIM and The Connected World Platform — eliminating manual handoffs and moving deployed fiber from operations into serviceability, quoting, and sales without replacing existing systems.

Presenter: Desmond Keary, CEO, Nasc Technologies Ltd

The Profitability Equation: Winning in the Connected Economy

Growth alone is no longer enough. The providers that lead tomorrow will be those that combine scale with efficiency. Explore how automation, ecosystem participation, operational intelligence, and digital commerce are helping organizations increase margins, reduce costs, and create sustainable competitive advantage in an increasingly connected marketplace.

Panelists: AJ Moul, Chief Commercial Officer, GeoLinks | Jeff Sanders, Director of Wholesale, Midco | Bill Lean, VP Wholesale, Indirect Channel, Solution Architecture, Summit Broadband

Moderator: Brian Maggiacomo, Vice President of Global Sales, Connectbase

Intelligent Networks or Dumb Pipes — How Telcos Position and Win in the Age of AI Inference

As AI reshapes the digital economy, telecom providers face a defining strategic opportunity. Will they remain infrastructure providers—or become essential enablers of AI-driven innovation? This thought-provoking session examines how AI inference, edge computing, and network proximity are redefining value creation and competitive positioning across the industry.

Panelists: Adam Noll, Founder, Edgeology LLC | Babur Siddique, Sr. Access Architect Manager, Great Plains Communications | Abilash Menon, CEO & Co-Founder, MaiaEdge | Scott Charter, Head of GTM Data Center , Physical Superintelligence 

Moderator: James Grant, SVP Strategic Initiatives & Special Projects, Connectbase

Sponsored by:

Beyond Delivery: Operational Excellence From Order to Assurance

Exceptional customer experiences are built on operational excellence. Learn how leading providers are improving visibility across inventory, fulfillment, service assurance, and lifecycle management while reducing fallout, increasing accountability, and delivering consistently high-quality outcomes.

Presenter: Ben Edmond, CEO & Founder, Connectbase

Did You Know? — Ben Edmond

Evening Social — Connections in Motion

Join us for an exclusive evening of elevated connection and conversation at Evening Social: Connections in Motion at Taste 222 Chicago. By invitation only, this refined gathering offers an elegant atmosphere, curated light bites, and meaningful conversation with industry peers. It’s the perfect setting to unwind, reconnect, and celebrate the momentum of the event in a sophisticated setting.

Sponsored by:

Connectbase Ecosystem Awards Breakfast — Honoring the Forces Driving the Connected Future

A morning dedicated to the customers and partners powering the Connectbase ecosystem. The Connectbase Ecosystem Awards honor the innovators, collaborators, and execution leaders redefining what’s possible in connected commerce. This celebration recognizes those turning connectivity into opportunity — building stronger networks, deeper partnerships, and a more dynamic connected economy.

Connectbase Co-Hosts: Shivani York, COO | Steve Leavitt, Vice President, Strategic Accounts | Heidi Juarez, VP, Customer Growth & Success, Americas,

Breakfast sponsored by:

The Power Shift — Building the Providers That Will Own the Next Decade

The balance of power in connected commerce is shifting. The organizations that lead the next decade will be those that simplify transactions, embrace automation, and make connectivity easier to buy, sell, and deliver. In this closing keynote, Ben Edmond shares the defining characteristics of tomorrow’s market leaders and the strategies that will shape the future of the connected economy.

Presenter: Ben Edmond, CEO & Founder, Connectbase

Closing Message: The Future of Connectivity — From Networks to the Connected Economy

Connectivity is evolving beyond speed and scale — it’s becoming the foundation of a new digital economy. The future belongs to providers who commercialize connectivity, power ecosystem collaboration, lead with experience, and execute with precision. This closing message brings TCWLIVE! 2026 full circle, marking the moment where the connected world transforms into a truly connected economy — intelligent, integrated, and built for growth.

Presenter: Ben Edmond, CEO & Founder, Connectbase