Henderson hasn’t let a little thing like a global pandemic slow her down. When the Colorado Convention Center closed last year and converted into a COVID emergency facility, it left Cable-Tec Expo without a venue. Henderson quickly pivoted and led her team through a seamless transition into an all-virtual show, all within a five-month window. The result: twice as many attendees as the year before and international attendance growth from 69 countries to 104. Thinking fast and outside of the box is Henderson’s specialty. It’s an expertise she’ll display again with SCTE making the call in September to shift Expo 2021 from a hybrid event to virtual as Delta cases increased. Henderson’s ready to impress Expo attendees again, always having a Plan B, C and D up her sleeve. With the rapid changes in technology, she’s a firm believer in continued education, an SCTE hallmark. “To keep up with upgrades in our networks and to transition from being hardware centric to more cloud- and software-based products and solutions, we need to have a continual focus on learning and development,” she says.
Who deserves a biopic made about their life and why?
I would love to see a biopic about Shirley Jackson, the first African American woman to earn a doctorate at MIT. She was responsible for research that led to the invention of products such as the touch-tone phone, portable fax, fiber optic cables and caller ID.
What’s been the most dramatic change in your sector of the business today vs three years ago?
The incredibly rapid changes in technology over the past three years have really highlighted the importance of the upskilling and re-skilling of our workforce. To keep up with upgrades in our networks and to transition from being hardware centric to more cloud- and software-based products and solutions, we need to have a continual focus on learning and development. A job as it was performed three years ago may not exist today or it has evolved into something completely different. Essentially, we are seeing a whole new set of skills needed to train and maintain the workforce of tomorrow.
Favorite current show that you feel embraces D&I?
The “Black-ish” TV series, created by Kenya Barris and starring Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross.
