Leading The Way To New Clean Energy Economy In Long Beach

Photo: https://csufentrepreneurship.com/csu-demo-day-powered-by-sunstone-october-18/

Welcome back to The Sunstone Way.

Long Beach is hosting two big events this week, both with the potential to help shape our future. The 2024 League of California Cities Conference is already underway at the Long Beach Convention Center, and the CSU Demo Day Powered by Sunstone is this Friday at the Cal State Long Beach campus hosted by the CSULB Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

League of California Cities

Most city leaders, both elected and appointed, work constantly to keep their communities in the best shape possible while at the same time preparing for the future. As we speak, several hundred mayors, city council members, city managers, city clerks and more are listening to speakers talk about how to get that job done.

In my various roles as part of the Long Beach city government, I went to more than a few of these conferences. It was always fascinating to see how different towns and different officials had their own set of problems and solutions.

While the League of California Cities is primarily charged with advocating for its members at the state and federal levels, it also provides this valuable function of connecting its members to one another. There’s no better way to figure out how to deal with changes you face than seeing how others are attacking the same issues.

As the league’s website says, “Change is constant in our cities, and these sessions will support city leaders by equipping them with the latest knowledge, resources, and tools to advance their communities.”

Fitting to be in Long Beach

It’s important that this conference is in Long Beach this year, because the city is on the cusp of great change – something it has faced before, by the way. This time around, the city is weaning itself off oil, both as a source of energy and as a source of revenue.

Mayor Rex Richardson has offered a Clean Energy Economy vision for Long Beach’s future in his Grow Long Beach campaign. Focusing on five already strong economic areas – Aerospace and Aviation, Ports and Logistics, Health Care, Housing and Education, and the Creative Economy, including the arts, culture and tourism – the plan looks to new technologies to grow the city’s economy and improve its environment.

Long Beach has been producing oil and benefiting from the proceeds for more than a century, so giving that up is going to be a major change and take a major effort to cope. But similar to when the U.S. Navy weighed anchor and left Long Beach more than 30 years ago, the transition has already begun.

It is more than finding ways to replace the money that oil production has brought in. Long Beach is on a path to creating a truly sustainable ecosystem, starting with the goods movement centered around our port. Long Beach will be a leader in the transition to the Clean Energy Economy. Sunstone will help.

And leaders in cities from all over California will be watching. I have told you that California is the world’s fifth largest economy on its own, haven’t I? In 2023, the state’s GDP was $3.9 trillion.

That’s some economic power coming to town.

Back On Campus

This Friday, university entrepreneurs from campuses across the California State University system will be at Cal State Long Beach to test out their ideas in front of potential investors at the third annual CSU Demo Day Powered by Sunstone.

This is where the ideas that will power tomorrow first surface. The concept of teaching the value of innovation and providing resources to promote entrepreneurship has spread across all 23 campuses in the CSU system. This event, along with the Sunstone CSU Startup Launch Competition in the spring, brings all that creative power together.

“The CSU system is really a hidden source of innovation and creativity,” Dr. Wade Martin, a friend and director of the Institute for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at CSU, said. “For founders from the system, it is relatively new to find out that there is a support structure for them to succeed.”

Putting the founders and the support structure together accelerates the entrepreneurial process, and makes magic happen.

It’s all in Long Beach this week. And that’s The Sunstone Way.

And remember, always be a Sunstone!

John Keisler

CEO & Managing Partner

Sunstone Management, Inc.

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©Sunstone Management, Inc. 2024

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