Our team attended Satellite 2016 recently at the Gaylord National Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. While this year was closer to our home in Frederick, Maryland, members of the ACDi team have been attending this show for the last four years, and have found it to be very informative for those in the industry.
The show’s exhibitors consisted mainly of companies in support of DoD and communications, with many overlaps between the two. The major focus of this year’s show appeared to be mobility. Our team noticed that many of the exhibitors have been focusing their efforts on development of mobile, compact and satellites, which offer quick setup, providing the ability to act and react quickly. Many of our business partners exhibit at the Satellite show as well and the team mentioned that the products being showcased tended to be more customized with very few COTS products being displayed. While these are ruggedized products suited for varying environmental conditions in appearance and function, there is also a great deal of sophistication involved in not only the manufacture of, but also the operation of these satellites and supporting products.
“The show is a very reasonable size, not overwhelmingly large, but big enough to meet with many current partners and new contacts,” said AK Mishra, ACDi’s Director of Engineering Services. With 350 exhibitors and 12,643 registrants, there is no shortage of creativity in the room, from the booth displays, to the products being showcased.
Our team polled attendees as well as each other on the differences between this location and the previous D.C. Convention Center (where it will return next year), off of the Mount Vernon Metro stop. They discovered that more people seemed to prefer the D.C. Convention Center. That being said, the layout of this venue was easy to navigate with all exhibitors in one hall. While the area is beautiful to walk around, and the parking was convenient, our team found that parking in most cases was much more expensive than the metro ride to the D.C. Convention Center.
This continues to be one of our favorite shows to attend, year over year, where we are able to see the latest updates from many of our partners in the industry. See you at #Satellite2017!