Ascent Partners

The 3rd Annual Cleantech Open Northwest Region Awards Expo is this Wednesday, Oct 5th, at the Bell Harbor Conference Center in Seattle.

The event will spotlight the region’s most promising clean technology innovators of the year and includes a stellar venture capital, angel, and entrepreneur panel on the clean tech investing outlook.

Three Finalists will receive awards to help them grow their ventures, and they will go on to compete for the National Cleantech Open Championship in November.

To register, follow this link:
Registration Link to Cleantech Open NW Awards Exp

Some details:
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
3:30pm to 7:30pm

Location
Bell Harbor Conference Center
Pier 66, 2203 Alaskan Way
Seattle, Washington

Program
3:45pm – 5:45pm – Two hours on the exhibition floor
5:45pm – 6:45pm – Keynote Panel on Cleantech Investment Outlook
6:45pm – 7:15pm – Announcing the Finalists who proceed to the Nationals and their awards

We hope to see you there to cheer on these innovative entrepreneurs and listen to the clean tech investing panel.
Byron McCann

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With all the talk about the importance of clean tech in addressing economic, employment, security, and climate issues, what are the actions taking place for the U.S.to be a global leader in the rapidly unfolding opportunity? This quote from Patrick Tam, General Partner at Tsing Capital in Beijing, is quite telling in that the U.S. is not necessarily the annointed one unless we move faster than we are:

According to a Time.com report, “Tam…says the government is aggressively helping seed the development of new green-tech industries. An example: 13 of China’s biggest cities will have all-electric bus fleets within five years. ‘China is eventually going to dominate the industry for electric vehicles,’ Tam says, ‘in part because the central government has both the vision and the financial wherewithal to make that happen.’ Tam, a graduate of MIT and the University of California, Berkeley, says he does deals in Beijing rather than Silicon Valley these days ‘because I believe this is where these new industries will really take shape. China’s got the energy, the drive and the market to do it.’ Isn’t that the sort of thing venture capitalists used to say about the U.S.?”

Quite provoking wake up call for more action…

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1938671-2,00.html#ixzz0WxAbWqRK

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