Last Wednesday, SDForum, the energetic and prolific nonprofit for techies, hosted an excellent program for those considering a move to the Green and Clean business world.
Jennifer McFarlane of Clean Source Power (a solar energy company) did an excellent job as moderator to the panel of clean tech experts, including the indomitable Kevin Surace of Serious Materials, Steve Reale of Levensohn Venture Partners, Prakash Ramachandran, of Nordic Windpower Ltd., and Kevin Barry of Schweichler Price & Partners, an executive search consultant with expertise in the cleantech sector.
Despite the economic gloom, Jennifer McFarlane challenged the panel to “tell us something cheerful.” And they produced. Kevin Surace was most vocal and bullish, anticipating his company will double in manpower and revenues in 2009. So if you’re inclined to join the eco building world of Serious Materials, get your resume in ASAP. Prakash called for “bright stars ahead,” thanks to the incoming Obama administration and said, “the floodgates are going to open in the 3rd Quarter of 2009.” He outdid Kevin, by predicting a tripling of Nordic Power’s manpower and business by year end 2009.
There was general consensus that the TARP may not have helped the financial market to date, but it’s been a solid shot in the arm for the solar industry: extending the federal tax credit for another 8 years. Jennifer beamed broadly at that discussion, but Kevin pointed out that green products/ energy must be priced right/ cost the same as the competition or be a “solution sell” and put dollars in consumers pockets over their lifetime.
On the gloomier side, Kevin Barry said, “It’s still the Wild West from a hiring perspective…there’s been lazy hiring and there may be a bubble.” Steve Reale also used the word “correction” for the green business world and said the promise of a $100’s of billion market has lured many (possibly too many) VCs. Ominous stuff.
Advice for those thinking of a new green tech career:
do your homework/ take courses
get solar on your house
find out how it works
know the lingo
show your passion
be tenacious
Many thanks to SDForum CEO Susan Lucas Conwell for the invitation and to photographer extraordinaire DJ Cline for the use of his photos. Check out his website for more photos of this event.
Check out the new Fresh Dialogues YouTube Channelfor more exclusive interviews, including Elon Musk, Harry Hamlin and Jessica Jackley.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Martin Sheen who was visiting Silicon Valley as a guest of Dick Henning’s Foothill College Celebrity Forum Series. In this first part of our Fresh Dialogues interview, Martin talks about the roots of his social activism, his faith, his marriage and his movies.
To read selected quotes from the interview click here
Here is Part Twoof Fresh Dialogues with Martin Sheen when we explore his environmental activism, his “West Wing” perspective on President Barack Obama and what two exciting movie projects Martin will be working on through 2009.
Note: Martin donated all proceeds from his Celebrity Forum appearance to the Berkeley based nonprofit, The San Carlos Foundation What a guy!
Just back from WITI‘S 14th annual Women and Tech Summit in Silicon Valley (Oct 12-15th) and the potent energy is still with me. There is something incredibly empowering and energizing about gathering hundreds of go-getting women in a conference hall. Wish you could bottle that energy.
WITI’S motto is “no woman stands alone” and just how apt this is, given the current financial meltdown and shaky economic climate. We had senior executives announcing their personal emails from the podium, others inviting young entrepreneurs to get in touch after their talks, a real feeling of “let me help you get where you want to get sista.”
From the impressive keynotes of Cathleen Benko, Vice Chairman at Deloitte LLP and Sandy Carter, VP at IBM; the success strategies of Life Coach Kathleen Hill to the Clean Tech investment experts like Laurie Yoler and Marianne Wu, each one inspired and energized a packed auditorium.
I had the opportunity to interview several outstanding panel members for Fresh Dialogues, including LinkedIn’s April Kelly, GrowthPoint Technology Partner’s Laurie Yoler (who’s been involved with Tesla Motors from the early days) and Mary Vincent of Green Solutions. Check back soon to hear their take on the current financial crisis, how to leverage Web 2.0 to help your business, and one woman’s leap from Sun Microsystems to entrepreneurship and how global warming helped inspire that leap.
Streaming Media Westarrived in Silicon Valley last week and assembled an impressive crowd of business and technology gurus. I had the pleasure of meeting some of the pioneers of new media production, including JD Lasica, Co-Founder of OurMedia.org, Sarah Szalavitz, Co-Founder & CEO of 7Robot, producer of Zaproot, a bite sized news show about the Green revolution. I was most impressed with Sarah’s savvy and her claim that her show is now more popular than Discovery and Treehugger. They even landed a deal last year to get paid for content. Sadly, she says, that window is now closed: the days of getting paid for content are over (for now at least).
So how can you make money on the web? The panel of New Media Production: Building an Independent Media Brand outlined two distinct business models. The first: find your niche, build your product with top quality content, grow your brand, build a community and get them involved: then you have a valuable community worth advertising to. OR, do like Will Coghlan, Co-Founder of Hudson Street Media use the web to showcase your work, build your reputation and use it as a calling card to open doors to sponsorship or VC funding. He’s still at it after 200 episodes of Political Lunch, a compelling lesson in tenacity right there.
Of special interest to Women’s Radio listeners was Adriana Gasgoigne, Director of Corporate Communications at hi5. and Co-Founder of Girls in Tech. This experienced host and vlogger (video blogger) can be found on Bubblicious, MeeVee, and TheWeakSpot. She emphasized the importance of networking and cultivating mentors for women working in new media technology.
I also spoke with Alison Jeske, Director of Product Management at Beauty.comand Drugstore.com where she’s using online video clips to drive traffic and conversion rates for her products. EBags and REI are already well in the game. Listen to this short interview to find out who is leading the field in this area; the optimum length of video clips and why she thinks this is a mandatory marketing tool for any business today.
Fun to see the Fresh Dialogues podcast picked up by the VideoRetailer website. Word certainly gets around fast!
On July 29th, a good friend dragged me along to the Commonwealth Club and introduced me to Stanford Prof, author and political activist, Lawrence Lessig.
lawrence lessig
Finding fame in the realm of open source and Creative Commons, this young 40-something from South Dakota recently changed his focus to political corruption and has mounted a fierce campaign to end such corruption in congress with his launch of a web-based movement: Change Congress. He considered running for congress himself, but instead has decided to put his profound skills to back a SV type strategy for change.
He describes it as “a google mashup for politics,” that will build a movement outside Congress.
The evening, hosted at the HQ of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation in Mountain View, was compelling, but left me feeling a little cynical. Lessig’s aims are not novel: end corruption in Congress. Wouldn’t we all like to take big money out of the political process? No brainer! Isn’t he a crazy idealist fighting a losing battle?
Maybe. But his powerful connections in SV and unique technical vision for change makes his story a compelling one.
Using maplight.org he plans to shine a spotlight on the funding behind bills in congress. He’s planning to use social networking and wiki approaches to uncover all the sly deals going on, and make public the money influencing those with the political clout. Ultimately, he envisions a map showing those congressmen and women who have signed on to beat corruption and distortion of public policy. For those who don’t, questions will be asked
Not surprised to finid out he’s an Obama supporter. Real change is what we’re all after right now. And ending corrupion is certainly a key part of that. Though I confess to still feeling rather unconvinced of Lessig’s ability to deliver a totally transparent, corruption-free Congress, I applaud his efforts. Moving in the direction of a transparent congress will certainly help our country.
One final note that cheered me…Lessig was originally a young Republican stalwart, but spending time in my alma mater, Cambridge, England disabused him of such right wing notions. Welcome to the club, Lawrence!
The charismatic Judy Miner, President of Foothill was moderator and did an excellent job keeping the questions coming fast and furious. She jolly well had to because although Firoozeh is as funny as hell, she’s also pretty succinct with her answers, which had me a little anxious toward the end of the interview that Judy would actually run out of questions.
They quipped about how they both often get mistaken for one another since they share the same dark eyes, enthusiasm for life: and hang out at the same Writer’s Conferences! Firoozeh recounted a number of stories from her life that had the audience in hoots of laughter. My favorite one was how, as a newcomer to America (age 7), the boys in her class plagued her until she told them what she described as the WORST swear word she could think of, and begged them never to use it. Needless to say, within minutes they were blasting round the school screaming it at the top of their lungs. But what they were actually shouting was: I’m an idiot, I’m an idiot! Classy gal.
But beyond the hilarity, Firoozeh shared her deeper message: to concentrate on our common humanity, to change perceptions of Iranians, and counter the attitude that EVERYTHING in the Middle East is to do with war and hatred. Her book is now widely used in schools and she hopes that will help change the view of Iran for the Post 9/11 generation.
Her advice to parents to encourage reading: give them the gift of boredom – no TV. Smart mom. Unfortunately we’re a bit too late for that in this house. But thankfully JK Rowling has saved the day!
I ushered Firoozeh into a dark annexe at the back of the stage for a quick interview for my Women’s Radio show before the event started. She was very trusting and forthcoming!
We discussed how being in Silicon Valley influenced her writing and “go for it” attitude. She also shared with me that Alexander McCall Smith was staying with her this week. Hey! Now why didn’t she invite me over? I speak the same language after all. Och aye.
Took her book to bed and kept hubby awake with my guffaws of laughter. She really is hilarious you know!
I had the opportunity to interview several outstanding panel members for 
I also spoke with Alison Jeske, Director of Product Management at 
