Showing posts with label elin oftedal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label elin oftedal. Show all posts

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Energy & Sustainability Conference ~ Stavanger ~ June 17-20-2007


This is the conference that my friend Elin Oftedal has been working on for the last 6 months or so.
The 10th International Conference on Technology Policy and Innovation (ICTPI), will be held in Stavanger, from Sunday, June 17, to Wednesday, June 20, 2007.
With the focus of energy and sustainability the “Stavanger2007” event is expected to be a particularly valuable part of the ICTPI series. The relevance of these two topics is high with the current pressure on energy supply and with the challenge of balance the increasing need for energy with environment issues.
Some of the speakers include:
  • Justin Adams from BP to expand up on the corporation's new message of "Beyond Petroleum"
  • Neil Hirst, the Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Energy Technology Office which has broadened its mandate broadened to incorporate the "Three E’s" of balanced energy policy making: energy security, economic development and environmental protection
  • Arne Mogren is one of the main architects behind 3C - Combat Climate Change an initiative led by Vattenfall to integrate question concerning climate change and environment in the business – strategy
  • Jan Egeland, special envoy for the UN Secretary General, formerly Deputy Secretary General has agreed to be a keynote speaker on the ICTPI conference on the topic: "Societal Sustainability in times of Complex Crises".
  • Dr Leena Srivastava, is an Executive Director at TERI, New Delhi and Senior Vice President of TERI-NA (Tata Energy and Resources Institute, North America), Washington, DC, USA.
  • Dr. Shi Zulin who works at the Tsinghua University in Beijing where he is well known for his research on optimization and policy research on China's energy structure information technology and reform of state owned enterprises and research on new growth approaches for traditional industries.
Naturally there will be opportunities for conference participants to enjoy the gorgeous Norwegian summer weather and get to know their hosts. Who knows...I may get to head over there too!

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Cultiva - Kristiansand Norway

In truth, everything really came together because of Richard Florida's book The Rise of the Creative Class because the folks at Cultiva had pegged Austin as a place to come to discover how to grow their own entrepreneurial class. In fact, the name of their organization truly represents their goals as stated on the website: Cultiva is derived from the Latin word “cultio” which means, “to cultivate”. The name “Cultiva” clearly communicates growth, innovation and development. We see Cultiva as an appealing and harmonious name that is easy to pronounce, easy to read, and works well in any language.

I was introduced to Cultiva just over two years ago by Elin Oftedal. A few months after she left Austin, she gave my number to Daniel Norgaard as a contact during SXSW06. From that meeting came the trip to Norway last August that is chronicled in the early part of this blog.

There is much more to the story...past, present and future. Many more interesting characters to introduce, still sorting out the trolle...lol.

rg