2023 Highlights

Welcome to #ECOC23! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 pic.twitter.com/2gcJkKOrGO

— ECOC Exhibition (@ECOC_Exhibition) October 2, 2023

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DAY 1: GLASGOW GLOWS UNDER OPTIC SPOTLIGHT ON DAY ONE

As hundreds of visitors and exhibitors made their way past the Armadillo building and into the Exhibition hall, they were treated to a stirring bagpipe performance at the entrance to kick off the day.

The bagpiper walked through the concourse, past the many food stalls and features of the venue as onlookers admired the unique and iconic instrument and recorded it on their phones.

This wasn’t to be the only attraction to draw the crowds in Glasgow for ECOC Exhibition’s 2023 event. From a model F1 can on Infinera’s booth, to multiple VR headsets, to baristas on one or two of the larger stands and, fittingly, cans of Irn-Bru and Tunnocks bars on others, there was plenty to get excited about.

But what drew the largest crowds were the features that make ECOC Exhibition what it is. The Market Focus theatre which is larger and more open this year in response to its demand and popularity, was overflowing throughout the day as presentations from Lightwave Logic, Omdia, Viavi and Cisco. Market Focus (sponsored by Acacia, now part of Cisco), remains a key staple of the event.

DAY 2: AWARD WINNERS, MP SPEECHES AND NEW ECOC FEATURES FILL UP TUESDAY

Day Two at ECOC was aptly initiated by a talk from Carol Monaghan MP – a local graduate of Laser Physics and Optoelectronics and the SNP spokesperson for Science, Innovation, Technology and Education – who noted the importance of our host city for innovation. Glasgow is only second to San Francisco as the city with most satellites manufactured, she said.

Innovation – and recognition of that innovation – was found across the ECOC Exhibition halls as companies hosted partners and customers on their booths and the Market and Product focus sessions were continued to draw crowds. The spotlight was centred on the winners of the ECOC Industry Award winners from late morning and into midday though as Michael Lebby, of Lightwave Logic, presented the deserving companies with their trophies.

At Market Focus, Coherent CTO Julie Eng talked to overflowing crowds of spectators about Advances in Components for Datacom and Telecom Transceivers. Her talk, at the midday point, was surrounded by other enticing presentations on the Components/IC/PIC/Fiber topics from her peers including Thorsten Mayer, CEO of Vanguard Automation GmbH and Ron Heron, Lead Technology Strategist, Nokia who spoke about the PON evolution for the next decade

The Open XR forum will also take place in Product Focus was a major attraction,

featuring the latest transceiver specifications, including thermal mechanical form factor and electro-optical characteristics. The symposium also highlighted multi-vendor use cases.

It was a successful inauguration for the Demo Focus too as attendees got a close up look at the workings of optical network technology.

Tomorrow, make sure you don’t miss EPIC’s special Techwatch Product Focus session that will cover topics from vector photonics, networking, and 3D micro-manufacturing.

The Market Focus theatre also promises even more insightful sessions from Ciena, Voyant, Lumentum, Coherent, and Cignal AI, among others.

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As #ECOC23 draws to a close, make sure you mark next year’s plans in your diary… 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿➡️🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/ihre00qoNU

— ECOC Exhibition (@ECOC_Exhibition) October 4, 2023

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DAY 3: EUROPE’S LARGEST OPTICAL NETWORKING EVENT SIGNS OFF IN STYLE IN SCOTLAND

When talking to the attendees and exhibitors at ECOC Exhibition, there is a common theme amongst people when they talk about why they’re at the event and why it is undoubtedly marked in their calendars each year. It’s the meeting place for their colleagues, customers and partners thanks to quality of likeminded exhibitors’ booths, the convenience and draw of the host cities, and ability to hear about the latest developments in their industry.

Although Glasgow ’23 is drawing to a close, the conversations, connections and innovations will continue and the biggest, most influential and most ambitious companies in the industry will carry on driving optical networking forward.

Today at Market Focus, attendees had the opportunity to watch industry leaders discuss the future of optical networks – Ciena Director, Robert Keys, spoke about the Practical Considerations for Achieving Quantum-Secure Optical Networks, preceding Voyant’s Peter Stern, conducting an enthralling discussion on the Challenges and Advantages of PIC sensing for mobility applications. The day resumed with presentations from Brian Smith, Lumentum,, who spoke about Fibre Optic Communications, Coherent’s Chief Marketing Officer, Dr. Sanjay Parthasarathi, speaking on Network Disaggregation, and Scott Wilkinson, Lead Analyst at Cignal AI, who talked about the move to coherent inside the datacentre.

EPIC’s Techwatch sessions, which ran through a considerable part of the day, were the highlight of today’s Product Focus. Giving attendees further insight into the latest technologies developed and in development, these sessions were a hallmark of the final day of the event.

ECOC Exhibition will be back next year, in Frankfurt, Germany from 23-25 September, so make sure you don’t miss it and secure your booth space.

Thank you to all of the sponsors, attendees, exhibitors and staff for making #ECOC23 such a huge success and we can’t wait to see you again next year.

Make sure to follow us at ECOC Exhibition on LinkedIn, and @ECOC_Exhibition on Twitter and Instagram. Keep using the #ECOCExhibition and #ECOC23 hashtags so we can see what your experience during the show was like!

Across at the Product Focus theatre, sponsored by Open XR Forum, the interest was just as keen. A packed out schedule was led by IPEC which hosted a variety of speakers representing the group, with other presenters from Fujitsu and Samtec providing insights and developments for attendees.

As the day drew to a close, exhibitors reflected on the event’s success and caught up with colleagues and contacts new and old, the spotlight begins to turn to Day Two’s events. The ECOC Industry Awards will kick off with presenter Michael Lebby in the Product Focus theatre at 11.40 – make sure you get there early to save your spot!

The brand new Demo Focus will also start for the first time tomorrow from 10:30-12:00 in Hall 4. Make sure you check the timetables for all of the tracks for Day Two so you don’t miss anything.

Thanks for making Day One such a success and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

NEWS FROM OUR EXHIBITORS AT THE EVENT

• Source Photonics demonstrates industry’s first 800G 4x200G LR4 OSFP transcievers at ECOC 2023
• New from Corning Incorporated:  ClearCurve® OM3 XT and ClearCurve® OM4 XT multimode fibers for 400G and 800G data centers
• Quantifi Photonics unveils new oscilloscope platform at ECOC 2023
• OpenLight Partners with SparkPhotonics to Scale Design Services – read more
• LESSENGERS Begins VolumeProduction of 800G AOCs andTransceivers – Incorporating “DirectOptical Wiring” Technology – for AI/MLClusters and Hyperscale Data CenterOperations – read more
• VIAVI names its multiport high-speed ethernet testing solution ONE Lab Pro™ – read more
• TRUMPF and KDPOF to showcase the first 980NM multi-gigabit interconnect system for automotive – read more
• Coherent unveils industry’s first 140 GBaud optical subassembly to enable 800G in ultracompact pluggable form factors for optical communications networks – read more