Welcome back to DIGIGRAM! After a bit of a hiatus, I am back to give you an update on the latest topics, trends, and stories from Silicon Valley and beyond.
A lot has happened in the world over the last year. While a lot of gloom befell the world, there have also been some incredible milestones this year. There is much to celebrate that happened in 2022! For instance, in the last year, we’ve had these incredible technological and scientific breakthroughs:
- The United States Senate passed a bill to boost domestic chip manufacturing. The law also includes $67 billion to fund research into how to slow down climate change, a new record! I hope that a significant portion will go towards developing climate technologies.
- A new report found that if the current pace of wind and solar growth continues, the world will meet its climate targets.
- Switzerland qualified for the last 16 nations at the soccer World Cup. And was promptly eliminated by Portugal – oh well…
In this edition of Digigram:
#1: Mitipi and KEVIN’s USA Launching Pad: Interview with Patrick Cotting, CEO of Swiss IoT startup Mitipi who are creating something rare – a new category of product. Specifically, KEVIN is a new kind of device that deters burglars from breaking into your house rather than just alarming you after the fact.
#2: “Connected Life” was the topic of my class at UC Berkeley this year: Read why I am so passionate about the “always on” lifestyle and the technologies that enable it. And get to know the winning teams and their plans to launch their startup companies, “WorkerBee” Connected Me, “SAFEST” Connected Health, and “DAOcracy” Connected Community.
#3: Silicon Valley Mindset Post-Covid Takeaways: Account of one of the first groups of Digital Leaders visiting the Bay Area after COVID. Read what has changed and what remains the same.
I’m excited to share some of the things happening in my world, and it’s been a joy to work with passionate innovators again. I hope their words and stories inspire you as much as they’ve inspired me.
Till soon, Gert
Top of the Month:
MIT Climate Start-Up Competition
I am delighted to help the students at MIT University expand their climate & energy startup competition to Europe and to more universities in the USA.
Let me know who should be included!
This is an exciting initiative I get to work on at McKinsey, and you can read more here.
Source: www.cep.mit.edu
Flop of the Month:
100 private jets flew to Egypt for the COP27 conference
I really hope the discussions held and commitments made by their delegate passengers more than made up for the CO2 spewed out by these jets. Couldn’t they lead by example and carpool, err “planepool”? My opinion: COP is important, but please hold it in a big, easy-to-reach city, not a hard-to-reach resort town with a delicate natural environment.
Meet me here:
SF Salon Music!
My super-talented musician wife Michelle started a new venture: SF Salon Music, with two goals: Revive the style of 18th-century French salons, which brought music, art, and culture into the homes of ordinary people. And these modern-day salons always blend several art forms in unexpected ways to bring together audiences and artists to build community and experience art with food, drink, and socializing.
The last salon took place at the Verdi Club in San Francisco’s Mission District and combined songs from two beloved musicals – “Into the Woods” and “Les Misérables,” with a local storyteller to weave these two tales together. It was a fantastic event.
If you’d like to attend a salon in the future, sign up for the newsletter at sfsalonmusic.com.