The GABA Blog

16th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival

2011-10-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

Presented by Goethe-Institut SF: Experience Light, Love & Revolution at America’s premier festival of new cinema from Germany, Austria and Switzerland! Embark on an illuminating adventure at San Francisco’s legendary Castro Theatre! A dazzling roster of luminaries onstage will include Pepe Danquart, Michael Steiner, Nesrin Samdereli, Yasemin Samdereli, Andres Veiel and Sherwin Amini.

Highlights: Opening Night’s captivating comedy, Almanya - Welcome to Germany, of a multi-generational Turkish family in Germany setting off on a turbulent journey to their homeland; Centerpiece, Bold Heroes, about teenage boys in a Swiss hospital bravely facing an uncertain future together; The Poll Diaries, a coming-of-age epic of a girl living at the edge of World War I in the Baltics; Sennentuntschi, a sensationally-thrilling horror picture based on a popular Swiss Alpine folktale; The Fatherless, an Austrian drama about grown-up children of a former commune unearthing childhood secrets; Stopped on Track, about a family man diagnosed with an incurable disease and his last months of life; Joschka & Mr. Fischer, an insightful probe into postwar Germany through the eyes of a beloved political legend; and Closing Night’s If Not Us, Who - an enthralling tale of young revolutionaries during the explosive 1960s era. All foreign language films at Berlin & Beyond are presented with English subtitles.

Visit BerlinBeyond.com for Details, Updates & Tickets.

Questions? Call (415) 572-2075 or email festival@sanfrancisco.goethe.org

Admission Prices (except where noted):
• General Admission: $12.00
• Seniors 65+, Students (with ID): $10.00
• Matinee (before 3pm): $9.00
• DISCOUNT 10-FLIX VOUCHER: $90.00
• CASTRO PASS: $160.00

Eat, Pray, Love: the Formula for Women-Owned Business Success

2011-04-15T20:29:00.000-07:00

On March 31, 2011, GABA Women in Business held another event with the topic “Eat, Pray, Love: the Formula for Women-Owned Business Success” at the headquarters of MindJet Corp. in San Francisco.

Featuring stories from entrepreneurial backgrounds, Britt Huber (HR consultant, Global Human Resources) lead an inspiring panel discussion together with Esther Nio (Founder of Esther’s German Bakery), Taryn Voget (CEO & Co-Founder of the Everyday Genius Institute), Marita Roebkes (Social Media Manager and Co-Founder of Xeesm Corp) and Toby Beth Freedman (President of Synapsis Search), who each shared their experiences, tips and insights on how to run a successful business. The participants presented examples from their personal and professional lives, illustrating the specific challenges women deal with in running a business, and how to achieve a successful outcome.

Some of the key highlights:

· Be passionate about your product or service: You should do what you love!

· Do your homework: Running a successful business includes a detailed business plan, research your competitors, customers and how to make money.

· Prioritize your work and be intensively focused

· Build your own professional network: Being successful is not just about working hard, but about building a strong community that helps grow your business and connect with potential partners or vendors.

· Ask for advise: Setting up Master-Mind groups and joining personal development workshops and women-in-business organizations serve as a source of information, networking and advice on issues related to your business. Available resources include Astra Women’s Business Alliance, ASTIA, Hatch Network, Biztech and SCORE.

2011-04-09T08:05:00.000-07:00

The Vision of 100% Renewable Energy (2)

This is the 2^nd blog following up on Gaba’s event "The Vision of 100% Renewable Energy - commemorating Hermann Scheer" summarizing thoughts from Hermann’s last book. And, with Fukushima as a catalyst for the transformation of Germany’s energy system, his thoughts have gained even more actuality.

The big 4 German utilities are on defense, but will keep their general strategy: slowing down change forever. Together with their political supporters they will advocate gigantic projects like big offshore windparks in the Baltic Sea and huge transmission lines to southern Germany.

If they are successful, they will keep the central energy generation model and maintain control over energy generation and distribution. They also will be in charge of running those projects and make sure that they will be delayed. And, not a single kWh of renewable power will come from those projects until they are 100% completed.

But, we do not need those projects. Lifting the ban on wind energy in southern Germany and repowering old turbines alone would lead to 50% of all electricity in Germany coming from decentral wind alone (for calculation, see Scheer’s book).

PV, biomass and small hydro can supply another 10%, and 10% can be saved by increased efficiencies. 70% renewable until 2020.

Will the revolution happen at that pace? The policy decisions of the coming weeks are likely to have a huge impact. We can evaluate them by the number of players that they enable:

The big 4 only, in offshore parks and transmission lines, which will not happen in this decade?
Hundreds of small wind power developers, in areas opened up in southern Germany that so far blocked wind?

As Hermann Scheer pointed out: There is no win-win in moving to Renewable Energy. It can only be achieved if we face the conflict. Now is the time.

Fukushima - take action!

2011-03-15T21:39:00.000-07:00

The concern about Japan's nuclear disaster seems much larger among Germany's public, press and politicians than in the US. And it also seems to be much more geared towards learning and action.

That is even true for Greenpeace. Their German website gives a couple a concrete suggestions of how everybody can contribute to ban nuclear energy - once and for all:

Make your protest visible: nuclear energy, no thanks!

- Add a "nuclear power - no thanks" sticker on your facebook picture.

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=127528613970751

- Get tshirts, stickers, posters, flags with similar slogans. I did not find a US site yet, and so had to design my own tshirt.

Talk to your politicians!

- Write emails to your politicians

- Sign petitions like https://secure3.convio.net/gpeace/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=801&s_src=sidenav

- Sign up at www.votesolar.org

Make your own solar energy!

- In some areas, like Mill Valley, you can actually buy green electricity from you utility

- Get your own solar system on the roof or have companies like http://www.sunrunhome.com build and own them

Take action in your community!

Join demonstrations - more than 110.000 people went on the streets all over Germany just at the beginning of this week. Where are events happening close to where you live in the US?

I invite everybody to add links, events and organizations!

The Vision of 100% Renewable Energy (1)

2011-03-08T20:37:00.000-08:00

This short series of blogs will be interesting to all participants of Gaba's event "The Vision of 100% Renewable Energy - commemorating Hermann Scheer" - and to those who are sad to have missed it.

I just finished reading Hermann's last book, "Der Energethische Imparativ". It is a fabulous analysis of how to transform the energy system - not in scientific theory, but in political practice. In the following blogs I will give a short summary of his ideas along with a changing focus on different chapters and a few own thoughts - as an appetizer for the book, not as replacement.

His main theses are:

1. Switching to Renewable Energy is as unavoidable as natural law

2. "Old Energy" changed strategy: from impeding to slowing down, from confrontation to becoming meek and mild.

3. One way of trying to slow change down forever are gigantic projects - good for PR, never going to happen, putting old energy back into the driver seat.

4. There is no win-win in moving to Renewable Energy. It can only be achieved if we face the conflict.

5. Accelerating the change to Renewable Energy requires a good understanding of the underlying system. The best measures increase the number of players and address a multitude of motives instead of just one. All other measures distract us and should not be pursued.

6. Germany can get 70% Renewable electricity until 2020, 100% until 2030. The measures are all known and proven. But the government is owned by big old energy.

7. And, those measures will be applicable in other countries to a large degree.

In the following blocks I will go into further detail for all of those theses - and share Hermann's sharp analysis and some astonishing facts.

How to build your Network in CA

2011-02-23T11:41:00.000-08:00

I arrived in California in September 2008. In other words, when the plane touched down, Lehman Brothers came down. Welcome to America and “The Financial Crisis”. Coming from South Africa, we were seeking ‘the American dream’, but landed with a bump and things got off to a rough start for us.

My husband started his post doc at Stanford and I chased my own dreams. I quickly realised that in times of shortage and undersupply people rely even more heavily on their networks. Having just arrived in a new country, my networks were not in existence. Rather than focusing on finding a job, which were so hard to come by, I focused on meeting people. This can potentially be quite a challenge and quite overwhelming, but here are a few selected tips.

Firstly, start at a place close to you and that would probably be your spouse’s workplace. Ask people there for advice and listen carefully. That is how I found the Bechtel International Center at Stanford, a fabulous place, which offers advice, activities and programmes for spouses. I met wonderful people there and also had my first volunteer job.

Secondly, join clubs such as sport clubs or other clubs of your interest. I joined an aerobics class at Stanford and Toastmasters club in Palo Alto. The sporty activity provides you with energy and the Toastmasters club provides you with a platform to meet people and articulate your wishes and thoughts. For readers who don’t know the concept of Toastmasters, it is a club which provides you with the tools to improve your public speaking and leadership skills. These are useful tools to have when you live in a very outspoken well-articulated society.

Thirdly, you can join a language class and start to learn a new language. I considerably improved my Spanish while chasing around. Palo Alto Adult School offers great inexpensive courses. Through Craigslist you can always find a tandem – trading one language with another. Also look at the Stanford Continuing Education Programme.

Fourthly, find like-minded people and associations. I was so very lucky to find GABA, where I was able to meet lots of people and attend networking events. The other European organisations are also interesting and they organise numerous events. San Francisco has the Swissnex Organisation, the French American Chamber of Commerce, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and many more. Check them out and join them. Another great organisation to join is the World Affairs Council in San Francisco, which offers great networking opportunities. You can also become a volunteer and help out at the events.

Find new hobbies and join discussion groups. The website www.meetup.com is very developed in the Bay Area. You can find hiking groups, cooking groups, discussion groups and so much more. I joined a meditation group in Palo Alto and thoroughly enjoy the experience.

Lastly, I decided to start a blog. I realised that there is a lot of information out there when you working, but not enough when you are a spouse trying to build your life. The blog is called www.stanfordwives.com and addresses people who accompany their spouses to California, whether it is to work or study. The blog gives tips and tricks for spouses living in the Bay Area. Personalised experiences give information, which cannot be found on official websites. Through the blog I have met many people, even before they arrive in the Bay Area. Twitter and Facebook are also great tools.

I subsequently found a job and many friends along the way. My ‘near nightmare’ turned into a dream.

Please tell us how you created your network in California. Feel free to add on.

Women in Business: Make Mentoring Work for You

2010-12-08T21:49:00.000-08:00

Juliane Nandra, Nicole Kidd, Linda Cleary, Caroline Raynaud

SAP Labs warmly hosted its first GABA Women in Business event on how mentoring helps a woman’s career on November 9^th, 2010, together with SAP’s Business Women’s Network and sponsored by Cisco.

Featuring stories from both corporate and entrepreneurial backgrounds, Karen Colligan (Principal, PeopleThink) lead an inspiring discussion together with Rosie Cofre (Inclusion and Diversity Manager, Cisco), Katharina Rock (SVP Strategic Projects, SAP), Kim Wise (President, Mentor Resources) and Lesley Young (VP North American Sales, Huddle), who each shared their experiences from the perspective of both a mentor, and as a mentee.

Participants discussed the differences between coaching and mentoring, how to find a mentor, and how to be a mentor.

Key points included:

When looking for a mentor in your work environment, determine first what your expectations are. For example, are you looking for direction in something that a particular person is good at? Or is there a timeline within which you would like to have a mentor help you acquire certain skills or insight?

Try to avoid “the M-word” (mentoring): build your inquiry around what you’re trying to achieve, rather than ask a person if they would be willing to mentor you. Mentoring could refer to expectations to acquire certain skills or involved a time commitment that can scare people away.

Although the focus of mentoring is often to strengthen your weaknesses, be sure to also keep your strengths in mind, and that your mentor could advise you on how to leverage those in your career.

It’s okay to realize that a mentoring relationship is limited in time; one mentor cannot fulfill all the needs of the mentee, and it’s time to move on to a different mentor when you know that the current mentor-mentee relationship has fulfilled its purpose.

· Mentors should ask many questions before making any assumptions about a challenging situation that the mentee might inquire about, as there are many unknowns and subjective descriptions when it’s first presented.

Chemistry plays a role: the best mentoring relationships occur when the mentor and mentee have good chemistry together.

Importance of roles: two levels up between job-grades is the highest one should go for a mentoring relationship. It’s also recommended to find someone who is outside of your immediate work-circle, in order to get a different perspective and also to avoid potential jealousy or perception of threat.

If you are a woman in business, what’s YOUR story about mentoring? Continue the conversation on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/GABAWIB or in our email discussion group http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/GABA_WIB/ .Be sure to also check out the photo gallery.

GABA Women in Business is a community of international, business-minded women in the Bay Area. Our goal is to provide a forum for women where we can build long-lasting relationships, get inspired and share our experiences.

For more information on GABA Women in Business, visit www.gaba-network.org/womeninbusiness.

By Linda K. Cleary, Chair, GABA Women in Business

A Personal Story

2010-10-14T21:08:00.000-07:00

I want to share briefly my story about moving to the U.S. and how GABA has helped me to make a good start in the SF Bay Area. It shows that GABA is truly a great networking platform providing opportunities for its members (and non-members).

In 2009, I won a Green Card in the U.S. Visa Diversity Lottery and had the opportunity to immigrate to the U.S.. It’s a once in a lifetime chance and I couldn’t pass it up. At this time, I didn’t really have an idea what it would be like living in the U.S.. My previous trips to the U.S. were just short vacations, a semester abroad at San Diego State and an internship, but now I had the opportunity to go to the U.S. long term and build something from scratch. In essence, live the American dream.

So in April 2010 I left Germany and I moved to the Bay Area by myself. I didn’t have a job nor did I know anyone in the Bay Area. But while researching the Bay Area I came across the GABA and was impressed by its members, events and sponsors. I thought this organization would be a great opportunity for me to get in touch with Bay Area professionals, particularly in the IT industry in which I have an affinity for and have always been interested in the latest technologies. So I decided to join the GABA and became a member.

I remember the first GABA event vividly as it was just one day after I arrived. Though I was jet-lagged and tired, I am glad that I made it to Phone Wars 2. It was an interesting topic about the smart-phone market and I managed to meet kind people such as Mandy Herrmann from GABA. With the good impression of the first event, I started to attend GABA events regularly to chat with people and learn more about interesting subjects such as Cloud Computing, Social Networks or Innovation Models at Google.

Some people call it serendipity, but I think it was my regular attendance at the GABA events that lead me to meeting Dirk Lueth. He’s also German and moved with his family to the Silicon Valley in 2009 to start a new venture: ENTARENA. This software startup company operates in the Enterprise 2.0 space. It develops enterprise software to improve the performance of an organization through enhanced real-time communication capabilities. Dirk and I met each other at the Social Media for Business event and, as always, exchanged business cards. Afterwards, I sent him a follow up email and we met for coffee in Palo Alto to talk a little bit more about ENTARENA and ourselves.

To cut a long story short, Dirk offered me an opportunity to work for this promising startup company and I thank GABA for providing the environment to meet him!

Do you also have an encouraging GABA story? Write a comment.

See you at one of the upcoming events!
Jan Belke

http://www.linkedin.com/in/janbelke

GABA's Mini-Grids Panel on September 30th

2010-10-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

Based on the positive feedback from previous GABA smart grids events, Dirk Michels from K&L Gates in San Francisco hosted another panel discussion about so-called mini-grids on September, 30th. Moderator Olaf Groth did not only challenge the speaker´s presentations and corresponding insights but also successfully involved the audience during the interactive Q&A session.

The panelists team consisted of Prof. Dr. Burkhard Koch (Managing Director, IQ International Consulting, Germany), Sameer Kalra (Strategic Director of SmartSynch) and Tony Seba (Author “Solar Trillions”) and provided multi-facetted perspectives to the question how the trends for mini-grids evolve on a global as well as on a local scale.

Based on Olaf´s introduction and guidance, due to the high complexity of the topic, the distinguished speakers elaborated facts, figures and thoughts along the following key dimensions:

1) How can the trends in mini-grids be analyzed across the spectrum of highly centralized markets such as China on the one hand versus decentralized market landscapes, e.g. the U.S.?

2) How do mini-grids play out in the various parts of the energy value chain, especially in power generation, distribution and consumption?

3) How do mini-grids play out differently in OECD-countries versus in emerging markets (BRIC)?

4) How can we check our assumptions about the future of mini-grids in times of increasing global uncertainties with respect to the confluence of the need for energy efficiency and electricity reliability, as well as both demand and supply of feasible innovation?

Overall energy trend: a new architecture is potentially emerging that shows parallels to technical “revolutions” in the 1980s (PCs) and 1990s (internet). Today´s energy sector shares similar characteristics as the 80s IT sector, i.e. few big players in markets, those will be more democratic and scalable in future.

Across the energy value chain of generation, transmission, usage and storage, various opportunities will evolve for new ventures to enter diverse market segments; households will likely participate actively in the upstream energy market.

Mini-grids comprise a combination of technologies: diesel, complemented by hydro and/or solar technology depending on geography. An increasing portion of renewable technologies in the grids positively correlates with a quest for independence of the volatility of oil prices.

Mini-grids solutions will to large degree depend on advances in electricity storage technologies: All speakers agree that different technologies are at different stages of maturity: disruptive technologies in energy storage are expected.

Lessons learned for successful implementation of mini-grids: the involvement of the community as well as the empowerment and education of local populations is a key success factor as those consumers and businesses depend on the grids’ security and reliability – these are the top concerns as well for utility players and transmission operators, who have to ensure stability, as electricity has physical properties that are different from bits and bites in the internet. Imbalances in grids can lead to large-scale physical damage.

Mini-grids have an especially attractive value proposition for developing countries where they offer a feasible and less expensive alternative to centralized grids that are already well established in OECD countries. This could lead to leapfrogging that might be comparable to what we’ve seen with mobile phones vs. fixed land lines internationally.

Investment opportunities: besides direct investments in mini-grids, there is a window of opportunity for microfinance projects associated with mini-grids, due to lack of alternatives. Many traditional investors shy away from the large CAPEX investments for renewables and/or smart and mini-grids solutions.

In summary, mini-grids may evolve as a viable and profitable solution in a number of important markets around the world. However, complex local legacy systems as well as differing infrastructure and geographic conditions require customized grid solutions and have to be carefully evaluated on a case-by-case base. Furthermore, the right timing and sequence of future investment opportunities is key to develop the mini-grids trend into a sustainable future alternative for energy generation and supply, depending on local and regional policies, demand conditions, user acceptances, etc.

Finally, I would like to thank again Olaf Groth for an excellent moderation and the panelists Prof. Dr. Burkhard Koch, Sameer Kalra and Tony Seba for their presentations and enriching discussion. The GABA Clean Tech community is looking forward to meeting again in near future!

GABA's Smart Grids Panel on June 28th

2010-07-06T15:03:00.000-07:00

On June 28th, I moderated GABA's first panel on the evolving "global smart (electricity) grids: actors, trends and issues," kindly hosted by Mark Radcliff of DLA Piper in Palo Alto.

The panelists were Harold Glacier (Head of Technology Transfer and Partnering at Sacramento State University's Smart Grids Center), Mozhi Habibi (Strategy Manager at IBM's Utility and Energy Practice), Stefan Heuser (President of the Siemens Technology to Business Incubator) and Ullas Naik (Managing Director at Globespan Capital).

Acknowledging the tremendous complexity of integrating a system of systems (overlaying ICT with electricity infrastructure) and geographic diversity of the grid evolution approaches across the US and the globe, we laid out a number of high-level themes and questions to frame the conversation:

(1) Centralized versus decentralized approaches: Are we focused primarily on smart utilities or a much more distributed generation and command & control approach?

(2) Are smart grids a predominantly localized or an *integrated* regional, national or even international phenomenon? Compare US, EU and Chinese approaches.

(3) Can and should electricity markets be truly deregulated to play by market forces? Compare California v. Germany v. New Zealand v. Chilean experiences.

(4) Clash of cultures: Integrating the utility/electricity with the ICT paradigm -- stability v. connectivity mindsets. Can these two worlds co-exist and function well? Will ICT savvy independent service providers run interference with end users?

(5) Locus of innovation: Software v. hardware v. services.

(6) Can renewables become a trusted supplier of a grid's base load?

(7) Does demand response have a future or will the empowered end-user and smart appliances replace its uses?

The subsequent lively panel dialogue and active audience Q&A focused on a number of key insights:

-- The key attribute of the smart grid is to be "adaptive:" adaptive to new renewables supplies with their respective scheduling requirements, adaptive to demand swings, and adaptive to disturbances.

-- There is no "one size fits all" deployment schema for smart grids. By way of example, in the US alone, there are 3,000+ utilities with varying models, ownership and market structures; 7+ Independent Service Operators (ISOs) and Regional Transmission Organization (RTOs), across 3 large interoperability regions. Add to that Europe's electricity market diversity and various degrees of regulation/deregulation across other global markets, and a very complex, heterogeneous picture emerges.

-- There will be a smart grids investment bubble, but as previous bubbles before it, key technological capabilities, solutions and actors will survive and thrive.

-- Grids developments in the US are driven primarily by energy security concerns v. China where it's about ensuring industrial growth via efficient distributions and use v. Europe where emissions and energy independence from Russia are motivators.

-- Smart meters are the starting point in the US v. smart transmission in China v. renewables integration in Europe (for Europe, also see the combination of the Desertec and the Super Smart Grid concepts.)

-- Utilities will continue to be the most important gatekeepers to the grid for new solutions.

-- Startups attempting to sell "smart" capabilities or renewables into utilities should expect a 24-36 month sales cycle.

-- Automated demand response (ADR), such as that provided by the likes of EnerNOC, is a critical function in the evolving grids today on the enterprise side. It remains to be seen if it will take a hold on the consumer side.

-- The concept of a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is an important one: it captures the ability to save relatively miniscule electricity usage on a per-user basis over longer periods of time that in aggregate can constitute the same electricity capacity as a brand new power plant that would need to be constructed.

-- Potential hot spots for investment: VPPs, ADR, fuel cells, storage, business intelligence applications related to energy, smart building technologies and REITs, etc.

-- Smart grids could yield useful learnings for the larger integration of ICT with bricks-and-mortar infrastructure toward the eventual "internet of things." Hence, certain smart grids approaches, solutions, products might be scalable beyond smart grids.

-- China will likely become a key trendsetter for smart grids innovation longer term. The age of looking at China as a cheap labor outsourcing hub that merely copies western solutions is over. The country's scale, it's comparatively quick and centralized decision making in renewables and grids, and its centuries' old technological and craft capabilities combined with a large and well trained diaspora community, are likely going to propel it to the pole position of innovation leadership.

-- Western innovators will do well establishing themselves in China as quasi-local players who are there to stay. They will be required to take the long view, adjusting to some degree of IP infringement as a way of life with business models that work regardless.

-- In that sense, smart grids could become part of a long term mega trend fraught with all of the usual throwbacks, obstacles, bubbles and busts, but also one rich with opportunity to solve problems and to put our shared transatlantic and transpacific ingenuity to work.

Moderator's recommendations for further reading:

Atlantic Council -- 2009 US-EU Smart Grid Cooperation  Detica -- Securing smart meters: getting it right first time  DOE -- Study of Security Attributes of Smart Grid Systems -- Current  Cyber Security Issues  Echelon -- Making the Grid Smarter  EPRI -- Report to NIST on the Smart Grid Interoperability Standards  Roadmap  Fox-Penner, Peter; Smart Power ? Climate Change, the Smart Grid, and  the Future of Electric Utilities FERC -- Report to Congress on Competition in Wholesale and Retail  Markets for Electric Energy  FERC -- States Clash as Congress Debates New Federal Cyber Authority  Greentech Media -- Smart Grids 101  IBIS -- 2009 Smart Grid Technology & Trends  ISRCS -- North American Bulk Power System: Need for Resilient & Secure  Control Designs  NETL -- Smart Grid Principal Characteristics: Operates Resiliently  Against Attack and Natural Disaster  NIST -- Framework and Roadmap for Smart Grid Interoperability  Standards, Release 1.0 NIST -- Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy & Requirements  SAIC -- Smart Grid Security White Paper  SBI -- 2010 Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Manufacturing  www.gridwise.org www.smartgridnews.com

Negotiating as Women: Nontraditional Settings and Successes

2010-06-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

Women in Business celebrated its largest event to-date with over 80 attendees on June 9th, 2010 at Ropers Majeski Kohn & Bentley LLP in Redwood City.

Wendy Beecham, CEO of Forum for Women Entrepreneurs & Executives and Susan Handelman, Partner, Ropers Majeski Kohn & Bentley, joined Beata Lewis, consultant with Bridging Lives, to present tips and insights about mastering the art of negotiation.

Wendy and Sue shared examples from their personal and professional lives, illustrating the specific challenges women deal with in negotiation, and how to use these unique twists toward a successful outcome.

Key points from the presentation:

Each person brings a certain point of view to the table
Whether we do it consciously or unconsciously, we negotiate many times throughout the day
When you want something differently than somebody else does, we negotiate
It’s possible to “get in your own way” by feeling overconfident or making sure everyone is happy
Practice, and focus on building trust
Ask questions and don’t make assumptions (they may be incorrect)
Trust your intuition, and seek advice if needed
Treat people with respect (even if they don’t deserve it)

If you are a woman in business, what’s YOUR story about a negotiation? Join us to continue the conversation in our email discussion group http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/GABA_WIB/

For more information on GABA Women in Business, visit www.gaba-network.org/womeninbusiness, and check out the photo gallery.

By Linda K. Cleary, Chair, GABA Women in Business

Building Innovation Bridges Between Silicon Valley and Europe

2010-05-13T20:49:00.000-07:00

Conference in Palo Alto, May 13th, 2010
www.innovationbridges.com

The European Commission, Innovation Directorate - DG Enterprise and Industry, wishes to express its gratitude to GABA, the Stanford University Mechanical Engineering and all conference participants as well as the European innovation support services for organizing this event that will help shape our common thinking and future action.

This conference had a very particular focus: Building stronger innovation bridges between Silicon Valley and Europe through the European Expatriates. The purpose was to provide ideas and guidance for those that design and deliver innovation support in Europe or on behalf of European organisations in the Valley. The policy makers - and I am counting myself as one - simply don't know enough to provide the best enabling environment to make your innovations work in Europe. But we are interested to do better.

I want to thank you already for your contributions, your ideas and advice. Personal experience and opinions on barriers for building better innovation bridges are as welcome as scientific insight and the practical framework for transatlantic venture capital investing.

Looking forward to your feedback.

Sven Schade
European Commission, Support to Innovation

Click here for videos and pictures from the event.

Related online articles in French:

Innovation et transfert de technologie
Le capital risque : la silicon Valley versus l'Europe
http://www.bulletins-electroniques.com/actualites/63412.htm

http://www.france-amerique.com/articles/2010/05/18/conference_building_innovation_bridges_between_silicon_valley_and_europe_1.html

Make Social Media Work for You and Your Business

2010-05-02T11:28:00.000-07:00

The perfect exercise in social media marketing, is to create and promote an event dedicated to it.

On March 30th, over 50 women came to the Mindjet office in San Francisco to discuss how social media marketing can become a viral instrument to turn your unique experiences into a successful business.

It was our most marketed event yet— promoted on four different social media networks (along with our usual email channels), inspired the group’s first-ever real-time Tweets, and lots of email group activity about the topic.

Our speakers got the conversation started by sharing their personal and professional experiences about using social media for their start-up business, within larger organizations, and on behalf of their clients:

Bettina Jetter – serial entrepreneur and founder of Coaching Sanctuary
Chaszey-Sandhriel-Dejay - Executive Director of Pay It Forward Academy
Betsy Streeter - Cartoonist/Illustrator/Designer/Teaching Artist
Nicole Kidd - Rebmann Research U.S. Trend Scout & Analyst

Bettina, Linda and Nicole

The discussion explored how women excel at networking, business persona versus personal personas, and the social media business bottom line. Comments about marketing techniques quickly turned to questions about how to market using social media, and the realization that social media more than just a marketing trend— it’s a business reality and a social imperative.

Some noteworthy sound bites:

Social media has shot to the forefront of people's attention because it is fun. Thanks to social media, it's easy to share your ideas, photos, videos, likes and dislikes, with the world at large - and find out what they think of them. You can find friends, business contacts and become part of a community or a bunch of different communities. Social media allows you to connect with people you have something in common with, and it helps to streamline the process who you meet.
Set goals, be authentic, know your values before you create your profile.
Make wise decision whether you want to give your product or services away for free. However, generosity oftentimes pays off because it can raise awareness and catches someone’s interest.
You may want to consider using software that helps you to manage your time, increase productivity and to stay focused. Remember that it is easy to get lost. Pace yourself and follow the 80/20 rule.

The full event presentation: http://www.gaba-network.org/download/EventFlyer/20100330_Presentation_WIBSocialMediaNicole%20Kidd.pdf
Photos from the event: http://www.gaba-network.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=569&Itemid=211
For more information about GABA Women in Business, visit: http://www.gaba-network.org/womeninbusiness
WIB email group: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/GABA_WIB

By Linda Kotzot Cleary, GABA Women in Business Chair

Cloud Computing 2011

2010-04-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

A Joint SAP/Churchill Club/GABA Panel Discussion at SAP Labs in Palo Alto, April 13

Last night I had the pleasure of opening another panel discussion on Cloud Computing. This time the panel was part of SAP’s Virtualization Week 2010 and moderated by Rachel Chalmers, Research Director at “the 451 group”, an independent technology-industry analyst company focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation. On the panel we had executives from SAP, Citrix, T-Systems, and AT&T Business Solutions.

I remember that in 2005 I had organized the first panel for GABA on a similar topic, only that at the time we called it Adaptive or Utility Computing and not Cloud Computing. Obviously Cloud Computing seems to be a more popular term and I wonder who started it. Was it Salesforce.com or Google or Amazon? It was definitely not SAP, they just adopted this term because it seems to be more than just another buzzword du jour.

The lively discussion about cloud related issues like security, bandwidth, certifications, cloud standards and others made very clear that Cloud Computing for enterprises, especially Cloud Computing for SAP, is not the kind of Cloud Computing we are all familiar with from Google. Who cares what happens with your data, when your Google search command ends up in a public cloud. All we care about is a precise answer in a timely manner. And although this requirement may also be true for any SAP user, you want to make sure that your data stays in the country and is secure at any time. But is data more vulnerable when it resides in a cloud rather than in your own data center? Our panelists seem to think that there is no perfect security solution and there will always be somebody trying to break though your fire wall.

However, companies like AT&T and Deutsche Telekom (T-Systems’ mother ship) are not only investing millions of dollars into more bandwidth, but also in high-security data centers. The buyer’s expectation is to lower the cost of ownership, increase ease of consumption and fast time to value.

Under Rachel’s excellent moderation, panelists discussed the shift from on premise to on demand computing, and from upfront to as needed consumption of compute power: Customers want flexibility even if it is only a hybrid approach to Cloud Computing, e.g. keeping core applications in-house and sending edge applications into the cloud. Another good first step for companies to experience the cost savings and agility of Cloud Computing would be using the cloud for their batch processes or peek situations. Large corporations offering HR Self Services to their employees during the Open Enrollment period at the end of the year, utilities sending out millions of invoices at the end of each month, e-commerce retailers coping with Back to School or Holiday Season demands... these are all opportunities for Cloud Computing

What I personally took home from this event is that Cloud Computing is no longer just a hype – it is reality. It may not yet be perfect, but it is a great way of lowering a company’s total cost of ownership coming with agility and better performance. I know that this will not be the last panel discussion on Cloud Computing for GABA. The mid-market customer is expecting SaaS Software-as-a-Service, where a user wouldn’t have any upfront investments but only pay what he uses - SAP from tap, so to speak. Stay tuned.

Sincerely,

Uwe Wagner
GABA Software Co-Chair and Principal & Founder of Tiburon Consulting LLC

Phone Wars II - The Software

2010-04-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday April 7, 2010, a distinguished panel of experts in the smartphone industry was convened to discuss the current state and future predicitions for the fast growing smartphone market.

As a cell phone user, have you noticed how your buying decision has changed from a few years ago? Before, the first decision might be the carrier and the calling plan. The phone itself might have been an afterthought. Today, some people begin to make their decision based on the platform. "Do I want an Android phone, an iPhone, or maybe a Palm Pre?" After that choice is made, you are more or less stuck with a carrier and plan. There is a new war going on in the cell phone industry - the software war.

We started the evening with a poll of the audience. The biggest smartphone share was for RIM (Blackberry), followed by iPhone, and Android. This does not represent the market as a whole - worldwide, Symbian (Nokia) is still the majority smartphone platform by far! However, it's clear from the marketing numbers we presented that Android is growing rapidly, iPhone is holding its share quite nicely, and the others (Palm, RIM, Nokia) are beginning to lose. The panelists agreed that the numbers shown seem to reflect the reality as they understand it.

The panelists acknowledged that iPhone does seem to deserve its high customer satisfaction ratings compared to other platforms - but they believed that Android's open architecture will create more opportunities for cooperation and innovation than iPhone. Google's own Android phone, Nexus One, is a flop when judged by sales numbers, but one panelist mentioned that Google may have created this phone more as a reference platform than as an end user device. Now the standard is set, and other handset makers will need to meet or beat this standard.

Android, as an open standard, is in danger of confusing consumers with its plethora of different OSes and functionalities across numerous handsets. Google seems to be working to bring this under control, and our audience didn't think that consumers cared about OS versions (from my
personal perspective though, I think they *will* care when the Android phone they just bought runs a different version of Google Maps without any of the cool functionality that their friend has on another Android phone).

Microsoft is about to introduce a new OS platform for smartphones, based on Windows 7. At least one panelist thought Microsoft would make a strong entry, eventually placing at #3, behind Android and iPhone on the marketshare side.

Wrapping up the other platforms - None of the panelists were very positive on Palm Pre's prospects. This platform seems to be on the wane. Symbian (Nokia) is a strong phone platform of course, but its current smartphone efforts do not impress - but we were warned not to count out Nokia - based on their market position in the overall phone sector, they can change the smartphone dynamics in an instant. Everyone seemed worried about RIM's prospects, since the future may very much depend on application developers, and not Blackberry's original strengths with email.

As expected, the "Open" vs. "Closed" discussion caused some mutterings among the audience and panelists, especially as I tried to draw comparisons with the PC industry. If you look at how the PC industry played out, it essentially became a battle between Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft was based on an "Open" platform (this is where I heard the muttering), while Apple is and stays closed. I was referring to the hardware, of course, not necessarily the software. But is there a similar battle brewing between Google and Apple? Will Android be the cheaper smartphone option, but with more "blue screens of death", since the eco system will not be as tightly controlled? Will iPhone be the more expensive, more exclusive option with better performance? I think I got at least one panelist to agree with me on this, but as you can expect, the mood in Silicon Valley strongly favors the "Open" contender. We all agreed that Android is and will remain a strong (if not the strongest) contender in the smartphone platform wars - note that eventually Microsoft (my so-called "open" solution) won the day on the PC and almost drove Apple out of business!

We briefly covered the "Fourth Screen" - i.e. in-between devices such as iPads and Ereaders. Nobody thought these would compete with the smartphone. People would continue to buy smartphones.

We also discussed international implications. One panelist made an excellent observation: "the world does not necessarily revolve around items designed in Cupertino", i.e. the international market may favor an open platform where developers sitting outside the USA can create innovations targeted to specific cultures.

This summer promises the introduction of a new class of Android smartphones, that can run on Sprint's 4G network, with rumored download speeds of 10Mbps. But the panel thought that there is plenty of room for other phones as well, since availability of the 4G network will be very limited. Nobody seemed to have any inside information on what new phone Apple will introduce this summer (not surprised), personally, I expect a game changer - Apple's platform hasn't changed in 3 years. Yesterday's SDK announcements from Apple were just the tip of the iceberg... One panelist noted that we should expect phones to do more with motion sensing - for example, a distinctive shake may dial a certain number, or just the act of turning the phone over might silence it.

That wrapped up the evening. Thank you to the panelists (Daniel Kellmereit, Angela Nicoara, Ray Milhem, Christof Wittig) and to a great audience!

You can download the presentation slides pdf from the GABA Website.

Steffen Bartschat - Co-chair, GABA Software IG www.linkedin.com/in/bartschat

Reflections on "Better Job with LinkedIn" Event

2010-02-12T20:23:00.000-08:00

It was fun being back at GABA. I still fondly remember the days when GABA was one of the very first (group ID #10, see http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=10) professional associations in the world that decided to connect their members via a group on LinkedIn. Now there are at 526,083 groups, and LinkedIn has 60 million members. If LinkedIn was a country, it would be the 20th largest in the world, ahead of

France

, the

and

Italy

.

Part of the fun of being a co-founder of LinkedIn is that people come up to me and tell me about all the ways they use LinkedIn: from finding beta testers to getting clients, from helping friends to researching companies, and from searching for a job to doing investment research. Sometimes I wonder what business problems there might be where your network of connections on LinkedIn can't help. After all, the best information--and the one that provides real competitive advantage--is usually closely-held. It is information that is not accessible to Google, but in someone's head. Typically, you don’t even know in whose head it is. So, it becomes an issue of people search, which is one of the primary applications for which I use LinkedIn.

Once I have found a person who may have relevant knowledge, my real-world contacts can introduce me. Often, they don’t know the person, but they know people who know her; and their good word helps me get in touch to check a reference, learn about a market or gain insights that help me make better decisions.

However, I have also learned that many have not used LinkedIn for much more than hiring employees or getting a job. Not that this is something to sneeze at. Getting a better job can contribute a great deal to personal happiness. So, I was glad to have the opportunity to share at GABA some of the ways LinkedIn can be used to further one’s career. Many of these tips I learned from fellow LinkedIn members, and I also picked up a few new ideas from attendees of the event.

Generally, most in the audience were already quite savvy about completing their profile, getting connected, getting recommendations and joining groups. Some even thought about the keywords to put into their profile, so recruiters would find them. Others used status messages to stay top of mind with their connections. I also learned that many appreciate the ability to view not just job listings, but also the profile of the hiring manager posting the job on LinkedIn. This not only makes it easier to figure out whether or not to apply and how to customize the cover letter, but many are able to learn which of their connections know the hiring manager or someone at the company who can pass on their message “from the inside” to make sure their application gets reviewed with priority.

Based on the feedback, here are the three areas most attendees had not yet used to accelerate their job search. First, few had taken advantage of LinkedIn Answers to showcase their expertise in certain topics. Answering questions in your area of expertise improves your profile because you get an expertise module if the person asking the question selects yours as the best among the answers he has received. Hiring managers can see the question and all the answers, including yours, to get a much deeper look at you than what they could glean from reviewing just your professional history. Similarly, you can integrate presentations, videos and your blog feed into your LinkedIn profile to present yourself in a much more compelling light than applicants with just an old-fashioned resume that lacks external validation. So, take a look at some open questions now.

Second, check who viewed your profile. This gives you a good sense for who is looking for people like you. As you make changes to your profile and increase your activity on LinkedIn, you should see more people looking at your profile, more of the right people looking at your profile, and an improved conversion rate from appearing in search results to getting picked as one of the interesting results. Also, if you applied to company X, whether through LinkedIn or not, it is pretty obvious that someone is considering your application if you see that people from company X viewed your profile. You may also want to change your visibility settings on the page that shows who viewed your profile to show your name and headline when you view the profiles of recruiters, etc. When they see your name and headline in the list of people who viewed their profile, they will probably look at your profile and reach out to you if they find your profile relevant to one of the searches they or their colleagues are working on.

Third, few had explored the Companies section. On company profiles, you not only learn about company revenue, stock charts, company news and companies they acquired. In addition, you can see from which companies they recruit, where employees work after leaving the company and the profiles of former employees, new hires and recently promoted employees. In fact, you can use this to look up your interviewers and contact the person who used to have the position for which you are interviewing. Also, you can search for companies in your area by industry, company size, etc. Best of all, the results are shown by degrees of separation, so when you see a blue “2^nd” icon next to a company name, you know that one of your connections knows a current employee of the company, and that your odds of getting a job there are significantly improved over job seekers not yet leveraging their network of contacts on LinkedIn.

The full presentation is here.

To a great job in 2010!

Konstantin Guericke

Season's Greetings From GABA

2009-12-22T13:11:00.000-08:00

Dear GABA members,

What a year this has been! Politically a new U. S. President (YES WE CAN), a new coalition in Germany (CDU/CSU and FDP), and economically the deepest recession in decades.

Especially during this recession, the German-American Business Association (GABA) has proven once again that it can offer unique support and added value providing the kind of community that helps professionals through difficult times. In reaction to the changed job market GABA offered a special job hunting series to help people reorient themselves and to use all channels including social media in their job search. With its 10 Industry Groups in place, GABA provided plentiful networking and training opportunities tackling business, technology, leadership and social topics. Some of them can be reviewed on the GABA Blog.

Despite the overall economic slowdown, 2009 was a very successful year for GABA. The association was able to grow its membership by 18% compared to last year. Now in its 7th year, GABA put together a total of 60 events: 40 in Northern California, and 20 organized by the Chapter in Southern California plus additional events in Munich and Berlin. The overall number of attendees exceeded over 3,500, a new record for us!

GABA TV Airs Saturday At 8.30 PM

Another project GABA started in late 2009 is GABA TV. The weekly show is hosted by GABA's Media Co-Chair Pamela Lenz Sommer, and will air tomorrow for the first time: Starting December 19th, GABA TV airs every Saturday at 8:30 pm at KMTP TV channel 32. KMTP-TV32, Digital 33 reaches 1.9 million households in the San Francisco Bay Area over the air, via satellite and cable. GABA TV provides an additional platform for knowledge exchange, business and cultural topics and can be used as a venue to promote your business.

To all of you, who have experienced the value of our organization, please encourage your friends, business partners, colleagues and employers to Join GABA.

Especially after this challenging year, on behalf of the GABA Board, I want to thank our Executive Director Caroline Raynaud and her local team, the extended GABA team in Southern California, as well as the chapters in Germany for their work. And most of all, we give appreciation to our Industry Group Co-Chairs, and all our wonderful volunteers for a successful 2009.

GABA is driven by its members so please contact us with your ideas, valuable feedback and suggestions. We are always striving to improve.

Happy holidays and best wishes for a prosperous New Year!

Sincerely,

Thomas Neubert
Chairman and Co-Founder, GABA
chairman@gaba-network.org

The Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute and Its Latest Innovations

2009-12-15T20:50:00.000-08:00

During two events in December, members of German-American Business Association GABA and the Silicon Valley tech community received a rare look inside one of Germany’s R&D powerhouses – the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI).

3-D Without Wearing Glasses

The Interactive Media group demonstrated several 3D displays that do not require any special glasses for the viewer. This is accomplished by tracking the viewer’s eye position and mechanically adjusting the 3D filters within the display to optimize the viewing angle as the viewer’s position shifts continuously. Another interesting demonstration showed how touchless gesture control can be used to play a video game or interact with an informational kiosk.

The Image Processing group described the immersive experience of 7 HD displays stitched together, providing a 180 degree field of view with 3D sound. There is no better way to watch the German national soccer team, except being there, of course! Another project, named the “virtual mirror”, provides an augmented reality display which can be useful when trying on new shoes or a new suit, without requiring the specific merchandise to be on hand.

Gesture Controll and Virtual Mirror

It was exciting to see the researchers describe what is possible already now and in the future. The possible applications of this research are endless – ranging from the medical field, to consumer technology, to information services.

The HHI is part of the Fraunhofer Association, which comprises 60 institutes in Germany and other parts of the world, offering research services to industry and government. For its part, HHI employs over 220 scientists plus approximately 130 students, with a total research budget of € 26M. Its primary focus is communication networks and image processing, with special emphasis on interactive media, mobile broadband, photonic networks and components, and fiber optical sensor systems. FHHI staff has been honored with two Emmys for their contributions to the H.264 video format.

The HHI is interested in sharing its technology and R&D capabilities with interested companies in the Silicon Valley. Engagements can be short, medium, or long-term, ranging from straight technology licensing deals to joint research projects or even establishing joint spinoff ventures.

Happy Holidays!

Steffen Bartschat – Co-Chair, GABA Software Industry Group
http://www.linkedin.com/in/bartschat

For more information about the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute, see their website or join them at one of the following occasions:

CES, Las Vegas, NV, 07.-10. JAN 2010 and NAB, Las Vegas, NV, 12.-15. APR 2010
Contact: Jürgen Rurainsky, rurainsky@hhi.fraunhofer.de , +491735449185

Web2.0, San Francisco, CA, 03.-06. MAY 2010
Contact: Michael Witte, Head Strategic Marketing michael.witte@hhi.fraunhofer.de

Photonics West, San Francisco, CA, 26.-28. JAN 2010 hall north, booth 4601
Contact: Dr. Joachim Giesekus, joachim.giesekus@hhi.fraunhofer.de, +4916093973493

OFC/NFOEC, San Diego, CA, 23.-25. MAR 2010
Contact: Wolfgang Schlaak, schlaak@hhi.fraunhofer.de

Siggraph, Los Angeles, CA, 27.-29. JUL 2010
Contact: Jürgen Rurainsky, rurainsky@hhi.fraunhofer.de, +491735449185

The Future of Home Entertainment

2009-11-14T09:10:00.000-08:00

On November 5, industry leaders representing the tech community in Silicon Valley and content creation community in Hollywood gathered to prognosticate on the future of entertainment in the living room. Which technologies are "hype" and which will become real?

Projectors an Emerging Trend in the Home

The panel discussion was introduced by topic. The first topic centered around High Definition TV. Everyone agreed HD-TV was here to stay and bound to become a success. The revolution is nearly won! Many of the panelists described how they use high-def projectors to produce wall-sized video entertainment as opposed to relying on LCD or plasma TVs.

The discussion turned to the Blu-Ray disc format. Will it be adopted at the same pace as DVD? The consensus was "no", DVD will continue to be the ubiquitous, most portable format for the time being. However, as consumers replace their living room DVD players, they might choose to buy a BD player - to give them the choice of playing a Blu-Ray disc as well as a DVD disc, since BD players are backward compatible. While BD players may eventually outsell DVD players for this reason, there does not seem to be the same prospect of BD discs outselling DVDs - for the portability reasons mentioned previously.

What about 3D entertainment?

3D has been a huge success in movie theaters - will it enter the home any time soon? The consensus seemed to be "no" - TV is mostly a passive and multi-tasking sport - so who will want to wear 3D glasses or move into a 3D TV's narrow "sweet spot" while watching TV *and* doing their knitting, or Twittering, etc? There also seems to be a huge cost burden on producing 3D content, not to mention the bandwidth costs for transmitting this content. 3D will continue to play a successful "niche" role in movie theaters - not all movies will be produced in 3D, but every year we should be able to view a few spectacular 3D productions. Don't look for it to become ubiquitious in our homes, though.

For more pictures from this GABA event, please click here.

What is the future of the set-top box, which had its start as a cable TV "channel shifter" but has recently evolved to become a digital video recorder and more - allowing both time and place shifting.      An interesting comment was made that time and place (e.g. the Sling Box) shifting are essentially temporary solutions.   If we had had true video on demand, there would be no need for recording or transmitting shows from your home to another location.   Another key challenge in this area is the user interface.    It's all about the software - enabling the consumer to quickly discover the entertainment they desire.      Note also that the Blu Ray player may have a role here as an emerging "set top box" platform with similar capabilities as other hardware devices.

Much Enthusiasm for Internet Delivery - Little for Smart TV

Nobody on the panel seemed very enthusiastic about the Smart TV concept.   Who needs gadgets showing you the weather or your Facebook page when you just want to lounge on the sofa and watch some mindless TV?   There does seem to be a generational "gap" however - younger viewers love to multitask while watching TV - but would they want to interact with their TV - or maybe they will just continue to use the laptop that is open while the show is running on the TV?

There seemed to be a good amount of enthusiasm for the concept of Internet delivery of our favorite shows and movies.   Technological challenges related to network bandwidth and ISP capacity restrictions did not seem to worry anyone - the key issue here seems to be content licensing and developing an economic model that allows everyone in the food chain to create a profitable transaction for a given movie rental.   Current models don't seem to work very well.

Will Apple take over home video entertainment in the same fashion as music?   Panelists don't expect this to happen.   The same economic model issue comes into play and Apple is no further at solving this problem than its competitors.   But there is one big worry here - Apple has over 100M consumer credit cards in its iTunes database - that's a powerful platform for transactions!

Special thanks to our panelists - Jeff Klugman (TiVo), Jim Taylor (Sonic Solutions), Roland Vlaicu (Dolby), Todd Collart (Deluxe Digital Studios), Michael McGuire (Gartner), and Jerry Pierce (AZEC).

This summary was provided by our moderator for the evening, GABA's Software Industry Group co-Chair, Steffen Bartschat.

The Moderator's Powerpoint Presentation is available for Download.

We have another upcoming event about Media technology and innovation on December 10, 2009. For more information please click here or visit our website at www.gaba-network.org and open the event calendar.

Electric Cars: Transformational Change or Niche Trend?

2009-10-28T10:04:00.000-07:00

The GABA event on electric vehicles on October 12th at Cooley’s in Palo attracted an audience of nearly 100 people. GABA Automotive Industry Group Chair Thilo Koslowski presented his Electric Vehicle analysis from Gartner, and moderated a panel of representatives from Better Place, Coulomb Technologies, General Motors, and AC Propulsion who exchanged their views on developments in the emerging electric vehicle industry.

Early electric vehicle: Lohner-Porsche from the year 1900

Thilo Koslowski, vice president and automotive practice leader at Gartner, disclosed numbers predicting that in industrialized automotive markets, battery-powered vehicles (plug-in full-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) will represent 5 to 8 percent of all vehicles sold using various types of propulsion technologies by 2020. Battery-powered vehicles will account for 15 to 20 percent of all vehicle sales by 2030.

According to Thilo’s analysis three key factors will impact EV adoption over the next years:

Automotive Industry and Technology Advancements
To test EV market acceptance and prepare for a potential boost in EV production, virtually all global mainstream automobile manufacturers are planning to bring at least one EV model to market in the next four years; some plan to do so even sooner. The growth in EVs is also opening the door to emerging vehicle manufacturers that specialize in the design, development and sale of battery-powered automobiles. Furthermore, the emergence of new supply chain partners that provide engineering, powertrain components, testing and battery offerings continues.

At the same time, key technological advancements are prerequisites for creating dependable battery-powered vehicles in the future and include:
-    Increased energy density for various chemical compositions in EV batteries and new powertrain designs with increased reliability
-    Advanced software control models (e.g., for energy, battery and temperature management)
-    Expanded standardization efforts, such as the SAE J1772 initiative for standardizing EV charging plugs, which is likely to be adopted by most OEMs this year

EV Infrastructure Developments
Infrastructure developments require massive investments to provide users with a seamless transportation experience for battery-powered vehicles. To this end, infrastructure efforts need to accomplish new forms of collaboration between vehicle manufacturers, energy providers, charging service providers and vehicle owners. Gartner predicts that EV brokers will play a critical role in achieving this required collaboration aimed at simplifying EV ownership, but brokers' business models will need to adapt to a changing value chain over the next five years.

Societal and Political Trends

Consumer awareness about the operational costs of passenger vehicle ownership and the desire to meet environmental objectives has grown steadily in developed countries over the last three years in response to rising awareness about global warming, higher fuel costs and vehicle emissions. At the same time, regional governments have also increased their financial support for EV development.

Thilo Koslowski

Additional information is available in the Gartner report "The Electric Vehicle's Value Chain and Technology Evolution" at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=1179817&subref=simplesearch

Phone Wars and the Current Challenges Wireless Semiconductor Manufacturers Are Facing

2009-09-27T20:05:00.000-07:00

The trend towards the Smart Phone cannot be stopped anymore, the participants of the GABA Semiconductor IG event on September 17th, 2009 agreed.

Technology is converging, and people are using their phones for all sorts of applications, many of which had been exclusive of the PC world before. The application fields go way beyond simple web browsing. However, Smart Phones will not see as much single chip integration as ultra low-cost phones. Even though integration will advance, multi-chip solutions remain more cost effective and flexible in most cases. This is especially true, when looking at the different innovation speed in the areas of modem and application processor.

A question that brought up some controversy among the panelists was, whether the Smart Phone of the future will resemble a PC platform: Some argued that there would be little room for differentiation and all devices will provide ample performance to use with any given application, which will lead to faster pace towards commoditization and result in lower margins on the hardware side. Others were confident that there would be enough room for them to differentiate their products to keep up the current pace of innovation and the correspondent product replacement cycles.

Patents remain another threat for Hardware Manufacturers. For the upcoming 4G wireless technology standards, it is not yet clear whether this will turn out to be as much a minefield as it has been for the current 3G technology. In the past, patent officers often granted patents containing only little innovation, which led to many lawsuits regarding wireless technologies. Tarek Fahmi, Partner and Semiconductor IP and Patent Counsel at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, said he received the impression that patent courts are currently making it harder for patent trolls to obtain license payments or prevent competitors from shipping their goods only because they are holding a patent.

In the future, however, core fields of innovation might shift away from the semiconductors towards other key components of the mobile phone such as the touch screen displays and the battery. Arbitrary battery form factors and more capacity will fuel longer phone run time without sacrificing attractive designs.

All parties agree that the battle around mobile phone software platforms is just beginning. Stay tuned for the next event on Phone Wars when we will be exploring a similar topic with software industry experts.

Slides from the presentation at the event are available at http://www.gaba-network.org/download/090917_GABA_Phone_Wars_I.pdf

Best regards
Hartmut Schittko

Who You Know, Who Do They Know, And How Will You Be Perceived?

2009-09-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

We are in the early stages of the Social Networking revolution. It may seem that this revolution started recently with sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. In fact, the revolution started initially in the dotcom era with dating sites (match.com, yahoo personals…) and reconnection sites (classmates.com, Ancestry.com…). These sites, all of which I have used in the past, laid the foundation for the Social Networking revolution we are experiencing today.

It simple to join any Social Network and many times “free.” It seems like all you need to do is add the required information and you are part of the network. Do not be deceived by the simplicity; there is much more thought that needs to go into what you say and what you add to your Social Networks.

Many people see Social Networking as another fad that will fall apart over time or something they do not need to understand because it will not affect the way they do business or even a big waste of time. Wrong! In 2008, 22% of employers used Social Networking to do background checks. By 2010, the projection is over 55% will be using Social networking for background checks. I believe that the estimate is conservative.

From the perspective of a job searcher, Social Networks make it easier for potential employees to research companies and potential bosses. Reading the recommendations or lack thereof tells you a lot about a person and gives you “interesting” information on their management style or lack thereof. You do not know who your friend’s friend’s friend is and what they do. If you are looking for a job, it is imperative that you utilize Social Networking, both in person and on the web. Your competition, for any posted job is already using both methods. Additionally, there are techniques to use Social Networking to project where a new job might be.

When I received the email request to do a guest blog for GABA, I was both honored and wondered who was making this request. As a Social Networking expert, I like to know as much as I can about the person I am talking with. I immediately looked up the GABA project manager on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, and Xing. It turns out that she is a third-degree connection on LinkedIn and I have 11 connections that are connected to someone who knows her. If I wanted, I could have requested an introduction through LinkedIn or called one of my 11 connections to see if they knew her directly and requested a "warm" introduction. My experience is many people do not convert their second- and third-degree connections to first-degree connections.

I look forward to discussing how “Social Networking - Increases Your Personal & HR Opportunities!” on September 10, 2009 with you. If you are attending, please take quick the on-line survey (10 minutes). GABA will send you the link after you register. Thanks, I look forward to talking with you at the workshop.

Best regards,

Tim Bailey aka TimBaileyGR

http://www.linkedin.com/in/TimBaileyGR

http://www.facebook.com/timbaileyGR

http://twitter.com/TimBaileyGR

PS –

Alliance-Strategies policy is to link with only people we know professionally on both LinkedIn and Xing. As for Facebook and Twitter, these are wide open.

Starting the GABA Blog

2009-09-08T09:13:00.001-07:00

Dear GABA Blog Readers,

Welcome to our first post.

This blog is meant to be a window for our association. A window you can look into to see what we at GABA are doing and what is coming up. And a window we can look out of to learn about preferences and what inquiries you have for us.

In other words, we will be posting news about our events and our community on an ongoing basis. Contributins will be made by our GABA industry group co-chairs and event speakers. We hope that you will connect with us and post your comments.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards

Caroline Raynaud
Executive Director, GABA California