Telecom group changes name
The Denver Business Journal - August 27, 2007 by Greg Avery
The Denver Telecom Professionals networking and professional development group has officially hung up on its old name.
To reflect an era in which people communicate through their cable television systems, over satellites and from wireless devices, the 2,500-member organization has renamed itself Communications Technology Professionals (CTP).
The change is meant to reflect the increasingly diverse technologies its members sell.
The group started nine years ago to give the Denver area's thousands of telecommunications workers a place to meet, learn industry trends that could help their careers and acknowledge each other's accomplishments. But the past few years, more members were taking jobs in the area's cable and satellite television outfits, joining wireless companies or helping with new media start-ups bringing more content to hand-held devices.
The association wasn't turning them away, but non-members had no way of knowing that the group's evening seminars, lunch workshops and annual awards banquet were open to people whose industry didn't begin with the "tele" prefix.
"It just wasn't apparent in our name," said Sue Wyman, chairman of the organization.
The group's evolution was foreshadowed in March when it awarded Comcast's local leader, Scott Binder, its 2006 executive of the year honor. The Community Technology Professionals completed its re-branding with the official launch of
The Denver area has the highest concentration of workers in communications industries among major U.S. cities. Nearly 28,000 people worked in the industry statewide in 2006 in 803 companies, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
CTP's members work for companies that compete intensely for business, but that tends not to filter into the group's functions.
"At this stage, they're offering the same solutions to their end users," Wyman said. "While our members are often competitive, there's still a lot in common for them to learn."
Group founder Gary Gaessler has expended its educational focus to include sessions on satellite and cable industry issues, wireless technology and portable video technology.
Consumers don't differentiate what kind of communications provider they use, and professionals in the industry increasingly can't afford to , he said.
"Everything is coming down to having your communication -- voice, video, data -- come to you on a hand-held device," he said.