A Thousand Words

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Sometimes, a picture can say a thousand words.  So here’s hoping that some of our latest Clean and Cool Mission photos give you a flavour of the last couple of days!

We’ve been to Arup, Autodesk, City Hall and Better Place….

Clean and Cool Mission

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Tales of a High Energy Week

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

One thing is certain;  Clean and Cool Mission participants need to have a huge amount of energy. Luckily, this is something Nexeon CEO Scott Brown knows all about.  His company is setting out  to shape the future of rechargeable batteries.  During a busy week, he has been finding the time share his thoughts with Business Zone, and began by reflecting on just what we mean when we talk about ‘clean’, concluding;

“It’s a very real set of partly related technologies and approaches, broadly in the fields of energy generation and storage, energy efficiency, air and water quality and so on.”

Writing after our first business day in San Francisco, Scott mentions the ‘Doing Business in the US’ session, hosted by law firm and mission sponsor Orrick.

“We start with a couple of hours of ‘master class’ briefings designed to hone our skills in communicating with potential investors, legal organizations, technology partners and so on. The sessions are fascinating and boost our confidence as we know we’re communicating in the same language as our contacts in the US. Certainly not as Churchill said: “Two nations divided by a common language”.”

Follow Scott’s story over here on Business Zone.

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Wave Boss Takes On World With His Oyster

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Martin McAdam is a man on a mission.  The boss of AquamarinePower is making waves in more ways than one, as one of the nineteen companies joining us in here in San Francisco.  His company designs and manufactures the innovative Oyster device, which is the world’s largest working hydro-electric wave energy converter.

Writing for Director Magazine, Martin has been sharing some of his thoughts about the Clean and Cool Mission;

 

Many of the great travel writers say that the journey is as important as the destination. For air travellers I doubt this is the case anymore. At the airport, you are probed and detected. A free government massage might be attractive to some but I find it quite disturbing. And no, we don’t fly business class. Equity at this stage in a start-up has better uses. Even though it is already dark when we arrive, the city is spectacular. You see the Bay Bridge lit up and the downtown buildings just being American: tall and confident.

Clean & Cool seems to have grown out of the original UK Web Missions to California’s Silicon Valley. You can imagine that when a Web mission came to California everybody was into the latest digital communications. With Clean & Cool you have a bunch of engineers who care about bubble physics, building materials, diamond semiconductors, or in the case of my business, Aquamarine Power, wave energy.

Read the rest of this entry here on Director Magazine’s site.

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In At The Deep End

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Several years ago, someone advised me not to read the biographies of event participants until after I’d met them.  That way, they reckoned, you avoid being intimidated.  By the time you finally meet, so the theory goes, they will have become so familiar that their towering achievements will fall comfortingly into the background.

Sadly, reader, this was not an option for me on the Clean and Cool Mission.  Omitting to do my homework would have been a dereliction of duty as co-host, and so it was with some intrepidation that I began reading about the 19 companies who join us here in San Francisco.

The very first delegate in my briefing pack has 20 years internet and software development experience and has, and I quote, a background in astrophysics.  Another has undertaken extensive research in hybrid and electric vehicle systems and medical robotics. Business aside, and no less intimidating, I learn that one of our founders began his career as a commercial diver and is a former ice hockey coach.  My head buzzing with backgrounds and current activities of my fellow travellers,  the chance to meet face to face couldn’t come soon enough.

Sure enough, I should have followed the original advice.  We have here with us the most fantastic group of founders and directors.  Come with me on a quick run-through of just a handful;

(more…)

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Juice Technology Prepares For Take-Off

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

We’re delighted that some of the companies joining the Clean and Cool Mission will be sharing their stories as the week progresses.  Some of them will be writing here on the blog, and others will be contributing to other publications.

Here are some pre-mission thoughts from Ian Turner, CEO of Juice Technology as he packs his bags for San Francisco;

“It’s interesting, I’ve been travelling to the US for over 20 years on business and I’m still excited by the prospect of heading there again on the Clean and Cool Mission 2010 with 19 other CleanTech entrepreneurs from the UK. I’m like a kid on Christmas Eve, I keep waking up during the night wondering if Santa has arrived yet – sad isn’t it!

This trip is a little different however; it’s my first trade mission and clearly focused on the CleanTech sector, so my hope is that it will provide my company, Juice Technology, with a number of business and funding opportunities. The company is perhaps a little different from the others on the trip in that it is already established in North America having started a Joint Venture called JuiceWorks there 18 months ago with one of the largest US lighting companies. In fact the first LED lighting fixture developed for the JV has just won a Next Generation Luminaires Award, the most prestigious award in the US lighting industry.”

Read the rest of Ian’s post here on Startups.co.uk

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