Turning Vision into Value
If you are based in the San Francisco Bay Area, or if you’re visiting, please invite your friends and colleagues and join us for the Silicon Valley Innovation Institute’s Innovation Society 2010 Series…
SVII “First Wednesday” Innovation Society Meeting
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
6:00-9:30 p.m.
Bay Cafe & Restaurant
1875 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto (please see directions below)
Program:
A 21st Century Space Program Where We All Get To Go: A Conversation with Bruce Pittman
Bruce Pittman has been a space cadet since John Glenn rocketed to orbit on his 10th birthday. This led him to become an aerospace engineer and join NASA while still a student at UC Davis.
Bruce will discuss the big changes going on in the NASA space program. He’ll also talk about the even more exciting changes coming to the emerging commercial space market—a market that has internet billionaires and hotel moguls betting big that we’ll want to go up and experience space, not just watch it on TV. Corporate leaders that include Jeff Bezos, Sir Richard Branson, Elon Musk, and Bob Bigelow, are undertaking endeavors that will open the high frontier for all of us; and NASA is helping in this effort, an unprecedented collaboration, which Bruce will discuss. He will also discuss scientific and technological developments that could take us even further, such as Aneutronic fusion.
More About Bruce Pittman:
Bruce Pittman is Founder and President of Profit Engineering Technologies, and is currently working under contract to NASA as the Director of Flight Projects and Chief System Engineer in the Emerging Commercial Space Office at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. In this position Mr. Pittman supports programs ranging from suborbital human-tended research; orbital applications of the International Space Station and other orbiting commercial facilities; low cost, responsive access to space, as well as lunar commercialization. He has been involved in high technology project development, project management and system engineering in a variety of industries for over 30 years.
Program Schedule:
6:00 – Doors open for registration and networking.
6:45 – Community Dinner
7:15 – SVII business
7:30 – Feature Presentation
9:30 – Closing
Location
Bay Cafe, Bayshore Ballroom
1875 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto
www.BayCafeRestaurant.com
650-856-0999
In Palo Alto, take Embarcadero East past Ming’s restaurant, then turn left into the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course driveway; from the parking lot, walk up the wide path toward the golf course buildings; the restaurant will be on the right.
You can register and pre-pay using PayPal. Although a limited number of tickets are usually available at the door, pre-registration is suggested so that dinner attendance can be planned in advance:
Help Us Shape SVII’s 2011 Program!
As we work on planning content for our 2011 monthly meetings, we would love to hear your input! If you have thoughts about speakers, topics, format, or anything else related to meeting content, email us at friends@svii.org.
Education Initiative
The SVII Education Initiative began at the July 7th, 2010 Silicon Valley Innovation Institute event, which featured an excellent, in-depth panel discussion on technology and innovation barriers in K-12 education. Our expert panelists discussed some of the barriers that prevent modern classrooms from utilizing the vast technological resources currently available, and what we might do to reduce those barriers. Based on the exciting and challenging dialog that resulted, SVII has started work on an Education Initiative that will tackle some of the problems discussed at the July 2010 meeting, and afterward.
The SVII Education Initiative is off to a great start, and you can still join the effort and contribute your ideas! Members have used Ken Ketch’s Group Mind Express tool to create a collaborative space to work on this initiative. If you attended the session and had further insights to add, head over to the SVII Collaboration Center and make your voice heard. We will be adding more tools to that space as the initiative develops, so stay tuned.
Building on the insights gathered, SVII members hope to make a concrete, positive contribution to the world of education in the Silicon Valley. If you’d like to receive all updates about the education initiative, please email brenna@svii.org to be added to the list.
Archives and Outlook
Please note that the SVII Ning group has been replaced by the following social networks:
You can now follow SVII on Twitter @sviihq
Join the new SVII Facebook group and the LinkedIn group.
You can also use Eventbrite to register.
Stay in Touch
For more information, and to join the e-list, email friends@svii.org. Plan to join the SVII Innovation Society each “first Wednesday” of the month.
Keep checking here for program updates, archives and summaries of past meetings.
SVII is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization.
Cathryn Hrudicka, Founder, CEO and Chief Imagination Officer of Creative Sage™, is a member of SVII.
