SkyBOX: Here We Go Again
I'm in New York this week, having a little deja vu (along with humidity and thunderstorms and cab-drivers-with-attitude). I'm here to celebrate a friend's wedding, attend a few meetings, and visit a ghost.
Well, not a real ghost (if ghosts can be real). But about as close as it can get as the last stop in this week's itinerary is the Space Foundation's first ever Space Business Forum, to be held this Wednesday (June 18) at the Hilton New York Hotel. The purpose of the Forum, as described in the rather elaborate brochure (the Space Foundation likes to go first class), is to focus on the financial aspects of the space industry. And more specifically, on the financial aspects of the commercial space industry.
This is, of course, a familiar theme. It raises up memories of the mid-1990s when the then-substantial Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association (SBCA) asked SkyREPORT to help establish DBS as a viable business among the financial powers on The Street. No problem! I thought. And promptly got buried in an avalanche of hoots. To start with, the only "DBS" analysts at that time were actually cable analysts whose real job was boosting cable company stocks. Their collective regard for DBS ranked somewhere between a muffled giggle and the kind of smirk perfected by 13 year-olds around the world.
Thus, our first attempt at a Wall Street forum (dubbed SkyFORUM) was a dreary affair. But bit by bit, the DBS phenomenon took hold. The twice-yearly SkyFORUMs grew from paper-plate luncheons to elaborate, and well financed, Wall Street events. But then industry consolidation raised its head and narrowed the DBS field to just two players ... one of whom doesn't like to play with others.
SkyFORUM bit the dust. And remained buried in it until a few years ago when the international growth of DBS, the establishment of new space technologies and the excitement of space tourism began to suggest a dusted-off SkyFORUM to several industry players. The gigantic tentacles of Hannover Fairs have already staked out some of the old SkyFORUM territory via its annual ISIS (ISCe Satellite Investment Symposium). And now the Space Foundation has thrown its hat in the ring with a wide-ranging schedule including a many of today's key players and analysts (plus a luncheon speech by Newt Gringrich). Later this fall, we'll even be down in New Mexico for the International Symposium on Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS), one of the more forward-looking organizations in terms of space potentials.
At any rate, the times are interesting for modern space junkies. Just count me among them as I head off to the Hilton on Wednesday.
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