Agenda

2013 WEST Summit & Showcase of Solutions

The Challenge:

Our planet is facing unprecedented manmade challenges to long-term sustainability.  NASA Ames Research Center and Sustainable Silicon Valley and partners collaborate to showcase game-changing solutions for local and global sustainability.  What scope and scale of change is required for a resilient future? Join us for the 90 Finalists gamechanging solutions. We will be looking at the scope of the challenges we face and a wide array of solutions that might have game-changing impact.

More Details About The Panels:

8:30 – 10:25 AM
Welcome Session I: Setting the Stage–Scope of the Challenges We Face

Opening Keynote Speakers and Panel Discussion
World-renowned climate scientists and economists will lay out the facts of current state of the planet, the likely scenarios for change and the types of impacts that our society and economy face in the short, medium and long term.

10:25 to 10:45 BREAK and EXPO

10:45 to 12 Noon
Session II: Life Support Systems of the Planet

Our planet is made habitable through a complex set of systems that work together to provide a stable climate, clean air and water, fertile soil, healthy oceans and more. Through burning fossil fuels, deforestation, urbanization and other actions, human activity has caused significant disruption to these systems. 
This session will address:

1. What are the life support systems of the planet?
2. How do they work and how do they interoperate?
3. To what extent are the imperiled?
4. How can they be repaired?
5. How can monitoring and measuring help to determine efficacy of solutions and extent of adaptation required?
6. What is the time, cost, and scale of the action needed to restore these systems’ resilience and to create a regenerative economy and society?

12 Noon – 1:00 PM
Lunch and Solutions Exchange
 

A one-hour intensive networking opportunity during a catered lunch. Join us for a lunchtime session of serendipitous synergy discovery, peruse a myriad offering of sustainable technology solutions to our planet’s challenges, or just hunker down for some good, oldfashioned networking. We’ll have tables of eight people per group available, with some tables having a designated discussion topic –space-based solar power, anyone? Finance? Branding? and others just providing a venue for whatever topic is on people’s minds. No assigned seating, and no requirement to stay at one table for the duration. In fact, we encourage people to wander between groups…and while they’re at it, to wander over to the sustainable technology displays that will line the room’s perimeter. At the end of the hour, you’ll walk away with a pocketful of new personal and professional connections, as well as be blown away by the bold strides being taken by tomorrow’s green technology companies.

1:00 – 2:30 PM
Lunch Session II: Launch Pad! – Top Finalists Pitching

Just over an hour of our ten Solutions Finalists pitching their ideas to a distinguished panel of judges, competing for the WEST Summit 2013 Solutions Grand Prize.

We received over a hundred submissions for this year’s solutions showcase competition, and LAUNCHPAD! will provide the ten finalists with a platform to strut their stuff. For three intense minutes, each team will pitch their solution to a panel of venture capitalists, academics, executives, and government officials. They’ll receive immediate feedback from the panel on feasibility, potential partnering opportunities, etc., but ultimate deliberation will take place behind closed doors later in the day. The winner of the Grand Prize will be announced during the closing session of the summit, so be sure to stick around for the day’s grand finale!

2:30 – 3:45 PM
Session III: Solutions at the Scale of the Challenge – Intelligent Integrated Infrastructure
How can advanced technology and innovation transform urban infrastructure for energy, water, transportation, communications and materials?
1. Rapid transition to post-fossil fuel economy.
2. Big data and infrastructure – new possibilities for dynamic and efficient management of transportation, energy, water, and other resources.
3. Collaboration across “silos” – making a template for resilient infrastructure for new development, renovation and post-catastrophe reconstruction.

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