Innovation

A Japan-California Hydrogen online Webinar in early February was hosted by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Northern California. The event’s goal: to connect California organizations with the Japanese government and Japanese companies working in the hydrogen space. Presentations focus on the California Hydrogen Hub project and include remarks by key stakeholders in California and presentations by the Japanese government and Japanese companies in the field. VX News here shares a transcript of the remarks of Michael DiBernardo, POLA’s deputy Executive of Marketing and Customer Relations.

To inform readers on the challenges and the potential of the modular housing industry, VX News shares the take of Vamsi Kumar Kotla, founder and CEO of LA-based modular homebuilding company, ReMo Homes. Kotla provides his valuable insight into the obstacles that modular home builders are facing, and how those obstacles could be overcome.

Caltech, which has long been at the forefront of science & innovation, has been investing for years in its campus’ sustainability. VX News spoke with John Onderdonk, working out of the Linde Center for Global Environmental Science, on his role as Caltech’s Assistant Vice President of Facilities Operations and Services at the campus and the many efforts underway to modernize their grid and prepare for the future realities of climate change. In the interview, Onderdonk speaks of the challenges of meeting the demands of a “small city” (Caltech) and the challenge of, literally, building the airplane while you’re flying it.

VX News, to understand the importance of the India/US budding relationship, spoke with veteran Indian journalist, Pallava Bagla, on the upcoming satellite launch and opportunities for future collaboration between the two countries on green economy issues. Also, Bagla addresses India’s embrace of nuclear power and their long history of pursuing sustainable practices.

With greater housing density all but guaranteed in California, urban mobility and traffic congestion have become pressing public policy issues. VX News, to inform public discussion, spoke with John Rossant, CEO of CoMotion, about both the future of mobility and his upcoming CoMotionLA conference in LA November 14-16th. The latter will draw to Los Angeles some of the world’s most influential leaders and innovative companies (public & private), as well as the municipalities who are pushing the boundaries of mobility. In doing so, it will offer conference participants opportunities to meet, connect and strike deals with many of Mobility’s key stakeholders Additionally addressed at CoMotionLA will be the challenges of rewiring cities.

Since 2014, the Innovation for Cool Earth Forum (ICEF)  Annual Meeting has been held every year by the Government of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) of Japan  to engage in cross-sector leaders for lively discussion and exploration of innovation-based solutions to climate change.

In this excerpt from Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson’s first State of the City Address, Mayor Richardson lays out his plans for the waterfront city in his first 100 days in office. VX News shares highlights of Mayor Richardson’s 100-day plan, entitled “Opportunity Beach Agenda,” in which he outlines his priorities for economic development and environmental sustainability.

In this excerpt from 2022’s luncheon plenary titled “Game Changers: Meet The Innovators,” VX News highlights two innovative business leaders in very different fields: ERI Co-Founder & Chairman, John Shegerian, and RWI Synthetics' Founder and CEO,Myrna Bittner, moderated by Jim Kelly of S&C Electric. Read along as Shegerian tells the story of his early entrance into the ever-growing e-waste economy with ERI, followed by Bittner’s remarkable world-building software to help visualize all futures, imaginable or otherwise. A recording of the entire plenary can be found here.

In July of this year,  an array of Blockchain-based Metaverse and Web3 platforms launched the Open Metaverse Alliance, a new decentralized autonomous organization to ensure a governance system within the Metaverse with four core principles of transparency, inclusiveness, decentralization and democratization.