| | | Join us for our speaker series! | | | Hear from cleantech industry thought leaders & learn about our program for early-stage cleantech entrepreneurs. | | Over the next several weeks, The Cleantech Open will hold a series of engaging events featuring thought leaders in a variety of fields related to cleantech entrepreneurship.
All are welcome to join us! Cleantech entrepreneurs will learn how to accelerate their cleantech startups with our 2014 Business Accelerator. If you don’t have your own cleantech company, you'll have the opportunity to network, learn from our speakers and learn more about becoming involved with The Cleantech Open. New events are added weekly, so stay tuned! | | | Preview of Upcoming Events | | | | | Event Summaries & Registration | | | Clean Energy & Climate Change! April 2 | Impact Hub, San Francisco
Join us for networking and an engaging conversation of global climate change and the role clean energy will play in tackling the defining challenge of this generation. Keynote presenter Jonathan Koomey, PhD., will discuss his book Cold Cash, Cool Climate and how entrepreneurship can make positive impact on climate change Come early, because the first 75 attendees will get a FREE copy of his book! | | | Entrepreneurship & Energy: Assorted Tales April 8 | CITRIS, Berkeley
You will gain insights from several of The Cleantech Open Class of 2013 in two discussion panels, including a set of women entrepreneurs. Hear the startup tales and lessons learned from entrepreneurs who have pivoted, launched crowd-funding campaigns and attempted to secure funding to save the world. The experiences are varied and enlightening - a must attend event for would-be energy entrepreneurs. Speakers include: - 3DFabTech, Bao Tran – A Portfolio Approach
- Akwamag, Tuyen Vo – Launching with a Crowd
- ICE911, Dr. Leslie Field – A Dot-org in a Dot-com World
- Emergin, Bril Wang – Nano Materials to Effect Change
- Empower Yu, Dr. Laura McIntosh – Pivoting from Greentech to Grandma
- EZ Green, Gayathri Raghavendra – Lessons Learned in Building Efficiency
- Graphene Technologies, Matt Bishop – The Challenge of Being Upstream
- New World Machines, Sasha Mazo – A Cooler Way to Cool Down; Cooling Powered by the Sun
| | Cleantech Open Breakfast Networking NEW! April 9 | PARC , Palo Alto
Join us for breakfast and networking with local cleantech entrepreneurs, corporate leaders who are driving cleantech initiatives within their companies, and the Cleantech Open team that is driving cleantech entrepreneurship across the US and around the globe.
The morning will include breakfast, networking opportunities, a brief overview of the Cleantech Open and presentations by some of our partners. You will also find out how you too can get involved. As an added bonus, during the morning we will also be filming introductory sessions for the new Cleantech Open curriculum. You may end up being included in a video that will be viewed by this year’s newest cleantech entrepreneurs as they participate in the 2014 Cleantech Open Accelerator. It’s an action packed morning that anyone interested in finding out more about the cleantech industry and it’s future or is interested in participating in the Cleantech Open as an entrepreneur, volunteer, mentor or partner should attend. | | | Building a Bio-Economy! April 15 | LBNL in Emeryville
In this event, co-hosted by the Advanced Biofuels Process Demonstration Unit & Joint BioEnergy Institute, Blake Simmons, Vice-President, Deconstruction Division of LBNL's Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), will speak about the research and scale-up of biorefinery. In addition, David Smernoff, CEO of Heliobiosys, will tell you about their innovation in reducing the cost of sugar feedstock. Heliobiosys was one of the 2013 Cleantech Open Accelerator companies. David will also speak about how the Cleantech Open mentors helped them along in their building their business.
| | | | | Green and Smart Buildings - the future of the built environment in a post-carbon economy NEW! April 22 | IBM Innovation Center, Foster City Join us on Earth Day for an engaging conversation about how green and smart buildings will help define our future living environment!
Eric Corey Freed, one of the Top 10 Most Influential Green Architects in the US, will share insights about designing Buildings for the Post-Carbon Economy. As an architect and designer, Eric specializes in organic and environmental design. He is the author of four books, including "Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies", a bestseller with over 200,000 copies in print, and "Sustainable School Architecture". Eric was named by San Francisco Magazine as "Best Green Architect" in 2005; "Best Visionary" in 2007; and "Green Visionary" by 7X7 Magazine in 2008. In 2012, his company was named one of the 25 "Best Green Architecture Firms" in the US. Other speakers include: - Dan Geiger - Executive Director of the US Green Building Council (USGBC), Northern California Chapter; - Kate Randolph - Chair of the Silicon Valley USGBC, Northern California Chapter; - Lynn Guest - Energy Coordinator at IBM; - Jack Rutherford - Founder of Modula S; - Mark Chung - CEO for Verdigris Technology. | | | Crowdfunding in Cleantech NEW! April 22 | WSGR SOMA, San Francisco
Meet and mingle with other entrepreneurs and experienced cleantech lawyers at WSGR's SOMA office, and join us for an engaging conversation about leveraging Crowdfunding for Cleantech - hear from experts on options for tapping the crowd to fund your clean tech venture! Speakers will be announced shortly.
| | | 2014: The Year of the Battery
April 23 | Workspace Fremont, Fremont
This talk is centered on taking battery storage from bottleneck to breakthrough. With lessons learned from the solar industry, competition from within the US as well as from Korea, Japan and China, and the emergence of the occasional gigafactory, battery innovators are looking for ways to differentiate and thrive. Rick Wilmer, CEO of Leyden Energy, will talk about the rapid innovation challenge in the battery industry. Based in Fremont, Leyden Energy is developing solutions for high energy density and high power density applications. Jeff Anderson, Executive Director of CalCharge and Managing Director of CalCEF will provide an overview and the latest updates on CalCharge programs to stimulate a California energy storage cluster, as well as an update on the anticipated Battery University.
| | | Solidifying Solar's Place in Distributed Energy NEW!
April 24 | SfunCube, Oakland Join us at SfunCube to learn about The Cleantech Open 2014 accelerator program and how local companies are poised for near term impact in the solar energy arena.
Danny Kennedy, CEO of Sungevity, will be our keynote speaker. We also will have a panel discussion entitled The Opportunities and Challenges of Solar in Distributed Energy. Our panel will discuss how the latest advancements are making solar systems a more viable distributed energy resource. They'll touch on how entrepreneurs are reducing costs and improving efficiency in:
- Balance of system costs (BOS)
- Module level power electronics (MLPE)
- Customer acquision
- Financing
- Design
Panelists will Include: - Darren Hau, Founder of Dragonfly Systems
- John Bourne, Founder Bright Current
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--Ian ForakerDirector, Western RegionCleantech OpenCell: 415-412-1915