This is quite a prestigious environment with many industry experts and successful entrepreneurs. We had the honor of having Jason Sheppard as the panel moderator and we touched on many topics that are important in the industry.
One interesting topic that was brought up in the panel was the redundancy requirement to have 'sister' sites be provisioned by different electrical and fiber companies. That is certainly something that Rochelle can provide having been in the electricity business since 1896 and in fiber since 1996.

Few things I didn't have a chance to mention on the panel as time was tight;
Rochelle has a clear view on Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) requirements. Although not required to match the state requirements as Rochelle is a muni, Rochelle is charting ahead with already done implementation of Bio-Gas at the landfill and two solar plants coming in second half of 2014. In addition our solar plant incentives as mentioned before.

Also the availability of highly competent IT personnel through our partnership with NIU's High Performance Computing Department.

There was a very nice recognition of Rochelle at the conference with comments on that panel such as;
"Rochelle has a great setup and the city is really easy to work with"
As well as recognition by other participants in the Chicago area as to our presence.

More to come on our conference activities.