Hello all. With 10 days to go to the 7th edition of SAFNOG, we are delighted, and excited, to welcome you all to sunny and vibrant Cape Town, where we can all see each other after 2 years of social distancing. We have put together a very exciting program that covers a number of new, trending, thoughtful, operational and technical topics from within our community. Here are some key highlights: * The arrival of the new Equiano cable system, and what it means for the region, presented by Jonathan Davidson, Google. * A keynote on how value within the telecommunications space is shifting, and what the modern telco may need to look like for the future, by Edgar Kasenene, IDEX. * A panel on what the ongoing semi conductor shortages are doing to the industry, represented by vendors, operators and distributors, and hosted by yours truly. * The new paradigm in submarine cable design, using SDM (Spatial Division Multiplexing), presented by Alan Hollander, Infinera. * ... and a whole lot more! Check out the full agenda here: https://safnog.org/event/agenda.html If you haven't yet, please register to attend, and also book your hotel accommodation using SAFNOG's preferred rate, at: https://safnog.org/ The Day 1 social will be Beers For Peers, hosted by NAPAfrica. The Day 2 social will be hosted by Iris Network Systems. If you have any questions, please send an e-mail to: secretariat at safnog dot org We look forward to seeing you in Cape Town. Happy travels! Mark.