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Leveraging the intelligence of human stem cells, Amy Karle created Regenerative Reliquary a bioprinted scaffold in the shape of a human hand 3D-printed in a biodegradable PEGDA-hydrogel that disintegrates over time.
The sculpture is installed in a bioreactor, with the intention that human Mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs from an adult donor) seeded onto this design will eventually grow into tissue and mineralize into bone on the scaffold.
Credit: Florian Voggeneder
Tigger on my tummy last night as I was trying to read (and save my fingers from her very sharp claws as she played). Later in the night, she managed to take off her tunic again. Her tunic is too long for her and sometimes her rear feet step on the back of the tunic, giving her leverage to walk out the front of it.
An on-going side project I've been working on. Experimenting different ways to leverage my love for LEGO. #WorkInProgress
* All proceeds (minus STRIPS transaction fees) from digital guides goes to charitable organizations.
A water pump (no longer functioning) with a long handle at the Château de Langeais in the Loire River Valley.
The Château de Langeais, to the right of the pump, is a medieval castle that was rebuilt as a château in the Loire region of France. It was restored beginning in 1886 by a wealthy citizen and later bequeathed to the Institut de France.
The romanesque L'église Saint-Jean-Baptiste is to the left.
I was invited to spend two days at Europe’s most comprehensive IoT Event. This leading forum focused on case studies that show today’s Industry and Enterprises leveraging IoT technologies to transform their business through creating value and efficiencies.
The Internet of things (stylised Internet of Things or IoT) is the internetworking of physical devices, vehicles (also referred to as "connected devices" and "smart devices"), buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data.
"Things," in the IoT sense, can refer to a wide variety of devices such as heart monitoring implants, biochip transponders on farm animals, electric clams in coastal waters,[16] automobiles with built-in sensors, DNA analysis devices for environmental/food/pathogen monitoring or field operation devices that assist firefighters in search and rescue operations.[18] Legal scholars suggest to look at "Things" as an "inextricable mixture of hardware, software, data and service". These devices collect useful data with the help of various existing technologies and then autonomously flow the data between other devices. Current market examples include home automation (also known as smart home devices) such as the control and automation of lighting, heating (like smart thermostat), ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and appliances such as washer/dryers, robotic vacuums, air purifiers, ovens or refrigerators/freezers that use Wi-Fi for remote monitoring.
NOTE: You are not permitted to use this image for any purposes without contacting me first.
The private course built by jeweller Michael Hill will host the Open for the next three years in a deal that will be music to the ears of the sport's stakeholders.
After losing almost $1.2 million in two years, and four days after revealing a $695,472 loss on the 2006 edition of the Open, New Zealand Golf has handed over the financial risk or reward of the event to Australian promoter Tuohy Associates NZ. European and Australasian co-sanctioning will be retained, but already the balance sheet looks brighter for what will be New Zealand's 100th national open.
Hill has generously waved the six-figure venue fee that had been attached to Gulf Harbour and Bob Tuohy has already predicted this year's event will break even.
But while there can be no doubt the first South Island Open since 1985 has the potential to restore the tournament's tarnished image, and NZG's balance sheet, there will be some uncertainty about the venue.
Hill is the sole member of his private Arrowtown course and aside from his close friends and a small group of New Zealand's top players, few have played the course.
Recently completed after five years in the making, it will have no track record come November, but Turner, a former European PGA professional, said any concerns were unfounded.
"I went and had a hit with Michael (Hill) a few weeks ago and I can tell you it's a true championship course. It's going to be a real test," he said yesterday. "It's difficult, there's lots of water, lots of tussock and undulating greens."
Turner said it would provide the players with a unique challenge and believed it would draw good crowds despite being outside Auckland for the first time since 2002.
"I can't think of anything like it in New Zealand. It's unusual. It's a lot of rock out crops and tussock grass. I think it will be a really good venue. I think a lot of people will come. The Queenstown area is rising right now, but also I think people will come from Invercargill and Dunedin and possibly from Christchurch as well."
Hill said there had been enough feedback to allay any fears the course would not meet PGA standards.
"All the top New Zealand players have had a crack. Phil Tataurangi was first and he gave a lot of advice, then Greg Turner in the early stages too."
Their main advice had been to lengthen the course to combat technology, but they had been more than happy with the layout, he said.
"One hole is over 600 yards all up hill into the wind, so it will be quite a challenge."
Hill said it was a "thinking man's course" with many holes providing players with two options.
"You can go over the bunker, which is harder, but you get a kick down the hill. Several holes are split in two where you can go for the green over waterways or vile swamps, or go around the fairway, which is longer, but more conservative."
He had no plans to host any other tournaments on the course and believed the "curiosity value" created by keeping it closed to the public would enhance the appeal of the Open.
The 2007 tournament will be held from 29 November to 2 December, following the co-sanctioned MasterCard Masters in Melbourne with Kiwi No1 Michael Campbell the official tournament ambassador.
It will be up to Campbell, Tuohy and Hill to leverage Queenstown's tourist appeal to both players and the pubic alike. If successful, New Zealand's premier golf tournament could again become a jewel in the country's sporting crown.
[text courtesy The Dominion Post]
NOTE: You are not permitted to use this image for any purposes without contacting me first.
Left-overs from track works a crow sits next to the fence at Dronfield as 66723 passes working on 6H10 0556 Wellingborough Up Tc Gbrf to Tunstead Sdgs Gbrf
Optimal leverage trajectories in presence of market impact. Caravelli, Sindoni, Caccioli, Ududec arxiv.org/abs/1510.05123 #q-fin
"When the whole universe weighs upon us there is no other
counterweight possible but God himself--the true God, for in
this case false gods cannot do anything, not even under the name
of the true one. Evil is infinite in the sense of being indefinite:
matter, space, time. Nothing can overcome this kind of infinity
except the true infinity. That is why on the balance of the cross a
body which was frail and light but which was God, lifted up the
whole world. 'Give me a point of leverage and I will lift up the
world.' This point of leverage is the cross. There can be no other.
It has to be at the intersection of the world and that which is not
the world. The cross is this intersection."
~ Simone Weil
Gravity and Grace
*****************************
*Photograph composition was created for the Our Daily Challenge topic:
A BALANCING ACT
I was invited to spend two days at Europe’s most comprehensive IoT Event. This leading forum focused on case studies that show today’s Industry and Enterprises leveraging IoT technologies to transform their business through creating value and efficiencies.
The Internet of things (stylised Internet of Things or IoT) is the internetworking of physical devices, vehicles (also referred to as "connected devices" and "smart devices"), buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data.
"Things," in the IoT sense, can refer to a wide variety of devices such as heart monitoring implants, biochip transponders on farm animals, electric clams in coastal waters,[16] automobiles with built-in sensors, DNA analysis devices for environmental/food/pathogen monitoring or field operation devices that assist firefighters in search and rescue operations.[18] Legal scholars suggest to look at "Things" as an "inextricable mixture of hardware, software, data and service". These devices collect useful data with the help of various existing technologies and then autonomously flow the data between other devices. Current market examples include home automation (also known as smart home devices) such as the control and automation of lighting, heating (like smart thermostat), ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and appliances such as washer/dryers, robotic vacuums, air purifiers, ovens or refrigerators/freezers that use Wi-Fi for remote monitoring.
"Suguki" pickles barrel pressed with leverage and an weight stone.
Found at Kamigamo Shrine. Possibly a promotion exhibition by suguki makers.
Panasonic DMC-GF1
G 20mm F1.7
I was invited to spend two days at Europe’s most comprehensive IoT Event. This leading forum focused on case studies that show today’s Industry and Enterprises leveraging IoT technologies to transform their business through creating value and efficiencies.
The Internet of things (stylised Internet of Things or IoT) is the internetworking of physical devices, vehicles (also referred to as "connected devices" and "smart devices"), buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data.
"Things," in the IoT sense, can refer to a wide variety of devices such as heart monitoring implants, biochip transponders on farm animals, electric clams in coastal waters,[16] automobiles with built-in sensors, DNA analysis devices for environmental/food/pathogen monitoring or field operation devices that assist firefighters in search and rescue operations.[18] Legal scholars suggest to look at "Things" as an "inextricable mixture of hardware, software, data and service". These devices collect useful data with the help of various existing technologies and then autonomously flow the data between other devices. Current market examples include home automation (also known as smart home devices) such as the control and automation of lighting, heating (like smart thermostat), ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and appliances such as washer/dryers, robotic vacuums, air purifiers, ovens or refrigerators/freezers that use Wi-Fi for remote monitoring.
Density Approximations for Multivariate Affine Jump-Diffusion Processes. Filipović, Mayerhofer, Schneider arxiv.org/abs/1104.5326 #q-fin
Just prior, I was standing on the bag, pushing with my feet while pulling on the strap. It finally fit through the door of the bus.
Design Dialogues Fall 2010: Computation After New Media
Guest Curator: Garnet Hertz
This lecture series explores key concepts in computational media to empower individuals to imagine, collaborate, provoke, and prototype through computing.
As a result of its widespread adoption, digital media has transitioned from "new media" to a ubiquitous part of contemporary life. This shift from novelty to familiarity has considerable ramifications for academic institutions working in the fields of media arts and digital culture. Exploring the formal potentials of information and networked technologies is no longer of significant interest: information technologies need to be understood as an embedded part of culture and history. Digital cultural practices must also work to extend their parent disciplines, including the studio arts, media history and theory, design, computer science and engineering.
Each speaker in the "Computation After New Media" series will focus on one word— a single term they feel is a core part of their work within the framework of computation. These lectures will be aimed at exploring the underlying structures of computationalism, providing an important leverage into the philosophy, languages, and principles of digital media.
SCHEDULE:
- October 1: Sharon Daniel, UCSC
- October 8: Eddo Stern, UCLA
- October 22: Paul Dourish, UCI
- October 29: George Legrady, Experimental Visualization Lab, UCSB
- November 19: Casey Reas, UCLA, author, Form + Code in Design, Art, and Architecture
- December 3: Celia Pearce, Georgia Tech, author Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds
Design Dialogues brings provocateurs from the worlds of design, art, academia, and technology into the MDP Studio. Each term, a guest curator is invited to build a series around a theme of their choosing.
Meetings: 12-2 pm. Talks: 3-6 pm in the Wind Tunnel Gallery. Open only to Media Design students, alumni, and faculty.
October 1: Sharon Daniel
Sharon Daniel is Professor of Film and Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz where she teaches classes in digital media theory and practice. Her research involves collaborations with local and on-line communities, which exploit information and communications technologies as new sites for "public art." Daniel’s role as an artist is that of “context provider”—assisting communities, collecting their stories, soliciting their opinions on politics and social justice, and building the online archives and interfaces that make this data available across social, cultural and economic boundaries. Her goal is to avoid representation—not to attempt to speak for others but to allow them to speak for themselves.
Daniel’s work has been exhibited internationally at museums, festivals including the Corcoran Biennial, the University of Paris, the Dutch Electronic Arts Festival, Ars Electronica and the Lincoln Center Festival as well as on the Internet. Her essays have been published in books and professional journals such as Leonardo and the Sarai Reader. Daniel has recently presented “Improbablevoices.net” at the Fundacion Telefonica in Buenos Aires and at the conference “contested commons” in New Delhi, India. Her current research is supported by grants from the Daniel Langlois Foundation, the UCIRA, UCSC Arts Research Institute, and the Creative Work Fund.
October 8: Eddo Stern
Eddo Stern works on the disputed borderlands between fantasy and reality, exploring the uneasy and otherwise unconscious connections between physical existence and electronic simulation. His work explores new modes of narrative and documentary, experimental computer game design, fantasies of technology and history, and cross-cultural representation in computer games, film, and online media. He works in various media including computer software, hardware and game design, kinetic sculpture, performance, and film and video production. His short machinima films include "Sheik Attack", "Vietnam Romance", "Landlord Vigilante" and "Deathstar". He is the founder of the now retired cooperative C-level where he co-produced the physical computer gaming projects "Waco Resurrection", "Tekken Torture Tournament", "Cockfight Arena", and the internet meme conference "C-level Memefest" He is currently developing the new sensory deprivation game "Darkgame". Stern's work can be seen online at www.eddostern.com/
October 22: Paul Dourish
Paul Dourish is a Professor of Informatics in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at UC Irvine, with courtesy appointments in Computer Science and Anthropology. He teaches in the Informatics program and in the interdisciplinary graduate program in Arts Computation and Engineering. His primary research interests lie at the intersection of computer science and social science; he draws liberally on material from computer science, science and technology studies, cultural studies, humanities, and social sciences in order to understand information technology as a site of social and cultural production. In 2008, he was elected to the CHI Academy in recognition of his contributions to Human-Computer Interaction.
Dourish is the author of "Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction" (MIT Press, 2001), which explores how phenomenological accounts of action can provide an alternative to traditional cognitive analysis for understanding the embodied experience of interactive and computational systems. Before coming to UCI, he was a Senior Member of Research Staff in the Computer Science Laboratory of Xerox PARC; he has also held research positions at Apple Computer and at Rank Xerox EuroPARC. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from University College, London, and a B.Sc. (Hons) in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh.
November 19: Casey Reas
Casey Reas lives and works in Los Angeles. His software, prints, and installations have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions at museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Casey's ongoing Process series explores the relationship between naturally evolved systems and those that are synthetic. The imagery evokes transformation, and visualizes systems in motion and at rest. Equally embracing the qualitative human perception and the quantitative rules that define digital culture, organic form emerges from precise mechanical structures.
Casey is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He holds a masters degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Media Arts and Sciences as well as a bachelors degree from the School of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati. With Ben Fry, Reas initiated Processing in 2001. Processing is an open source programming language and environment for creating images, animation, and interaction.
Reas and Fry published Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists, a comprehensive introduction to programming within the context of visual media (MIT Press, 2007). In 2010, they publishing Getting Started with Processing, a casual introduction to programming (O'Reilly, 2010). With Chandler McWilliams and Lust, Casey has just published Form+Code in Design, Art, and Architecture (PAPress, 2010), a non-technical introduction to the history, theory, and practice of software in the arts.
Casey is the recipient of a 2008 Tribeca Film Institute Media Arts Fellowship (supported by the Rockefeller Foundation), a 2005 Golden Nica award from the Prix Ars Electronica, and he was included in the 2008 ArtReview Power 100. His images have been featured in various publications including The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, Print, Eye, Technology Review, and Wired.
December 3: Celia Pearce
Celia Pearce is a game designer, author, researcher, teacher, curator and artist, specializing in multiplayer gaming and virtual worlds, independent, art, and alternative game genres, as well as games and gender. She began designing interactive attractions and exhibitions in 1983, and has held academic appointments since 1998. Her game designs include the award-winning virtual reality attraction Virtual Adventures (for Iwerks and Evans & Sutherland) and the Purple Moon Friendship Adventure Cards for Girls.
Celia received her Ph.D. in 2006 from SMARTLab Centre, then at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London. She currently is Assistant Professor of Digital Media in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture at Georgia Tech, where she also directs the Experimental Game Lab and the Emergent Game Group. She is the author or co-author of numerous papers and book chapters, as well as The Interactive Book (Macmillan 1997) and Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds (MIT 2009). She has also curated new media, virtual reality, and game exhibitions and is currently Festival Chair for IndieCade, an international independent games festival and showcase series. She is a co-founder of the Ludica women’s game collective.
Curator: Garnet Hertz
Doctor Garnet Hertz is a Fulbright Scholar and contemporary artist whose work explores themes of technological progress, creativity, innovation and interdisciplinarity. Hertz is a Faculty Member of the Media Design Program at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California, a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the Institute for Software Research at UC Irvine and is Artist in Residence in the Laboratory for Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction at UC Irvine. He has shown his work at several notable international venues in eleven countries including Ars Electronica, DEAF and SIGGRAPH and was awarded the prestigious 2008 Oscar Signorini Award in robotic art. He is founder and director of Dorkbot SoCal, a monthly Los Angeles-based DIY lecture series on electronic art and design. His research is widely cited in academic publications, and popular press on his work has disseminated through 25 countries including The New York Times, Wired, The Washington Post, NPR, USA Today, NBC, CBS, TV Tokyo and CNN Headline News.
Matthew Grey Gubler from “Criminal Minds” and Beth Riesgraf from “Leverage” at the 2012 College Television Awards hosted by the Academy of Television of Arts and Sciences Foundation.
Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Rome speaking during the Session: Leveraging Data Insights at the Annual Meeting 2017 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 18, 2017
Copyright by World Economic Forum / Sikarin Thanachaiary
Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Rome speaking during the Session: Leveraging Data Insights at the Annual Meeting 2017 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 18, 2017
Copyright by World Economic Forum / Sikarin Thanachaiary
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin will join officials on Wednesday, August 24, 2016, in Huntington, from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and the U.S. Economic Development Administration, along with local partners, for an announcement regarding ARC POWER Grant awards.
Below is a list of the West Virginia projects receiving funds:
Coalfield Development Corporation
$1,870,000
Natural Capital Investment Fund
$1,250,000
New River Gorge Regional Development Authority
$967,500
Mercer County Regional Airport
$1,500,000
Hatfield-McCoy Trail
$1,372,275
EntreEd K-14
$2,196,450
Randolph County Development Authority
$622,500
EdVenture Coding
$10,000
Hobet site planning
$200,000
TOTAL
$9,988,725
West Virginia Grants POWER Grant Descriptions:
$1,870,000 ARC grant to the Coalfield Development Corporation in Wayne, WV for the Appalachian Social Entrepreneurship Investment Strategy. ARC funds will be used to incubate job-creating social enterprises; scale-up Coalfield Development Corporation’s innovate 33-6-3 work-training/education/life skills workforce development model; and expand Coalfield Development Corporation’s service territory to other coal-impacted areas in Southern West Virginia. The award will create 85 new jobs and equip 60 trainees to pursue good-paying jobs in high-demand industries in the Appalachian Region, and will be supported by funding from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
$1,250,000 ARC grant to the Natural Capital Investment Fund, Inc. in Shepherdstown, WV for the Growing Triple Bottom Line Small Businesses in Coal Impacted Communities in Central Appalachia project. The ARC award will expand coal-impacted communities’ access to capital in Southern West Virginia by capitalizing a $4,000,000 tourism-related revolving loan fund, and develop a West Virginia New Markets Tax Credit Fund. The project will create 200 new jobs and 20 new businesses, bring $5,000,000 of leveraged private investment into the region, and will be supported by funding from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
$967,500 ARC grant to the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority in Beckley, WV for the New River Gorge Region - Developing an Entrepreneurial Economy project. ARC funds will be used to establish a sustainable technical assistance grant and revolving loan fund—which will assist start-up businesses with hands-on technical aspects of their operations—and to hire social enterprise and region-wide business coaches. The project will yield 15 new businesses, improve 294 existing businesses, create 225 new small business jobs, and utilize the capacity of a VISTA volunteer.
$1,500,000 ARC grant to the Bluewell Public Service District in Bluefield, WV for the Mercer County Regional Airport Development and Diversification Initiative. EDA is also awarding $1,000,000 as part of this project. ARC funds will be used to extend public water service along Route 52 and Airport Road to the Mercer County Regional Airport. In addition to providing essential infrastructure to the regional airport, the project will create 38 new jobs, and will capitalize on an existing regional asset by providing funding for a strategic plan that will position the airport and its adjoining 200 acres of flat, developable land as an economic driver for four counties in Southern West Virginia and Southwestern Virginia.
$1,372,275 ARC grant to the Hatfield McCoy Regional Recreation Authority in Man, WV for the Southern Coalfields Sustainable Tourism & Entrepreneurship Program. ARC funds will develop and implement a comprehensive program to expand tourism-related employment and businesses in southern West Virginia, and will foster Trail expansion in Kentucky and Virginia. In addition, the award provides for the deployment of a coordinated marketing effort, which will increase the region-wide economic impact of the Trails by $13,000,000 per year. The project will create 225 jobs and 50 new businesses along the Trails, and will be supported by funding from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
$2,196,450 ARC grant to the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education in Charleston, WV for the EntreEd K-14: Every Student, Every Year project. The EntreEd program enables K-12 teachers to integrate entrepreneurial content and context into delivery of required standards in any subject or grade level. The project will educate the next generation of Appalachia’s workforce to create their own businesses to drive the local economy. ARC funds will expand the footprint of the proven EntreEd program into five additional counties in West Virginia, eleven counties in Kentucky, three counties in Ohio, one county in Tennessee, and two counties in Virginia. The program will be supported by expertise from the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), project management from the EdVenture Group, and funding from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. The EntreEd program will serve 15,000 K-12 Appalachian students in 50 individual schools and 7 community colleges over the life of the award.
$622,500 ARC grant to the Randolph County Development Authority in Elkins, WV for the Hardwood Cluster Manufacturing Expansion Project. EDA is also awarding $1,200,000 as part of this project. ARC funds will be utilized to expand a major cabinet manufacturer’s operation by 27,000 square feet—creating 45 new jobs and adding $2,500,000 in annual wages to the regional economy. In addition, the award will strengthen the Hardwood Alliance Zone – a nine-county region in Central West Virginia containing a cluster of hardwood businesses.
$10,000 ARC grant to the EdVenture Group to provide grant-writing assistance to apply for a POWER Implementation grant to train displaced workers in computer coding and other IT skills.
$200,000 ARC grant to provide funding for development of a strategic plan for the Hobet Surface Mine site in Boone and Lincoln Counties. The strategic plan will assist in maximizing the fullest use of the site for economic development.
Breakdown of States Receiving Funding:
Percentage distribution of grant funds
West Virginia- $9,988,725- 39.6%
Kentucky- $8,736,384- 34.6%
Virginia- $2,917,375- 11.6%
Ohio- $2,022,758- 8.0%
Alabama- $1,057,352- 4.2%
Pennsylvania- $500,000 - 2.0%
TOTAL- $25,222,594- 100.0%
ARC Implementation Award Summaries, 8-22-16
•$2,750,000 ARC grant to the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP) in Hazard, KY for the TechHire Eastern Kentucky (TEKY) Initiative: Developing a Technology-Driven Workforce project. The project will serve young adults aged 17-29 who are out of school, and older adults who are unemployed, laid-off, or underemployed by offering several avenues to industry-led accelerated technology training, paid work-based internships, and employment opportunities in IT careers. This comprehensive workforce development program will train 200 new workers, create 160 jobs, and serve to bolster existing and emerging sectors that rely on a skilled information technology workforce in 23 Eastern Kentucky counties. The program will provide the trained workers necessary for a private technology company to expand its operations into Eastern Kentucky.
•$2,500,000 ARC grant to the University of Pikeville in Pikeville, KY for the Kentucky College of Optometry (KYCO). EDA is also awarding $4,974,100 as part of this project. ARC funds will be used to purchase equipment, instructional supplies, and other materials to help launch a new College of Optometry. The college will both grow the healthcare workforce and improve access to vision care in Central Appalachia. KYCO will be only the second optometry college in the Appalachian Region, and will primarily serve Eastern Kentucky, Southern West Virginia, and Southwestern Virginia. Within the first three years of the award, KYCO will graduate 60 optometrists, provide care to 12,000 patients, and bring $26,000,000 in direct economic impact to the regional economy.
•$2,196,450 ARC grant to the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education in Charleston, WV for the EntreEd K-14: Every Student, Every Year project. The EntreEd program enables K-12 teachers to integrate entrepreneurial content and context into delivery of required standards in any subject or grade level. The project will educate the next generation of Appalachia’s workforce to create their own businesses to drive the local economy. ARC funds will expand the footprint of the proven EntreEd program into five additional counties in West Virginia, eleven counties in Kentucky, three counties in Ohio, one county in Tennessee, and two counties in Virginia. The program will be supported by expertise from the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), project management from the EdVenture Group, and funding from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. The EntreEd program will serve 15,000 K-12 Appalachian students in 50 individual schools and 7 community colleges over the life of the award.
•$2,022,133 ARC grant to the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) in Berea, KY for the Economic Transition for Eastern Kentucky (ETEK) Initiative. The ARC award will expand fast-track retraining and entrepreneurial technical assistance services targeted to dislocated coal workers; establish an intern program aimed at placing former coal workers in the energy efficiency sector; and increase access to capital through a $1,000,000 venture capital loan fund. The project will create 200 new jobs and 100 new enterprises, serve 500 existing businesses, and bring $12,000,000 in leveraged financing to a 54-county region in Eastern Kentucky.
•$2,000,000 ARC grant to Ohio University in Athens, OH for the Leveraging Innovation Gateways and Hubs Toward Sustainability (LIGHTS) project. The ARC award will strengthen Southern Ohio’s entrepreneurial ecosystem by leveraging the capacity of four strategically located “Innovation Hubs” -- which provide facilities, equipment and design/engineering expertise to entrepreneurs – and five regional “Gateway Centers” that link local entrepreneurs to a broad array of support services throughout the ecosystem. The project will build on the successful TechGROWTH Ohio model, create 360 new jobs, 50 new small businesses, and bring $5,000,000 in leveraged private investment to the area.
•$1,870,000 ARC grant to the Coalfield Development Corporation in Wayne, WV for the Appalachian Social Entrepreneurship Investment Strategy. ARC funds will be used to incubate job-creating social enterprises; scale-up Coalfield Development Corporation’s innovate 33-6-3 on-the-job training/education/life skills workforce development model; and expand Coalfield Development Corporation’s service territory to other coal-impacted areas in Southern West Virginia. The award will create 85 new jobs and equip 60 trainees to pursue quality jobs in high-demand industries in the Appalachian Region, and will be supported by funding from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
•$1,500,000 ARC grant to Appalachian Sustainable Development in Abington, VA for the Central Appalachian Food Enterprise Corridor. This 5-state, 43-county project will develop a coordinated local foods distribution network throughout Central Appalachia, and will connect established and emerging producers in Ohio, West Virginia, Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and Eastern Kentucky to wholesale distribution markets. The ARC award will support planning, partner convening, and capacity building, as well as production and processing equipment, supplies, and labor costs, and will be supported by funding from the Just Transition Fund. The strengthened food corridor will act as regional economic driver -- creating 120 jobs, retaining 250 jobs, and ultimately creating 95 new businesses.
•$1,500,000 ARC grant to the Bluewell Public Service District in Bluefield, WV for the Mercer County Regional Airport Development and Diversification Initiative. EDA is also awarding $1,000,000 as part of this project. ARC funds will be used to extend public water service along Route 52 and Airport Road to the Mercer County Regional Airport. In addition to providing essential infrastructure to the regional airport, the project will create 38 new jobs, and will capitalize on an existing regional asset by providing funding for a strategic plan that will position the airport and its adjoining 200 acres of flat, developable land as an economic driver for four counties in Southern West Virginia and Southwestern Virginia.
•$1,464,251 ARC grant to the University of Kentucky Research Foundation in Lexington, KY for the Downtown Revitalization in the Promise Zone project. The ARC award -- partnering with the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky, the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, the Kentucky Promise Zone, Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR), and the Kentucky Mainstreet Program – will help revitalize the downtowns of 8 distressed towns in the Southeastern Kentucky Promise Zone. The project will provide each community with tailored economic studies that identify economic opportunities, support strategic planning sessions to capitalize on those opportunities, provide financial support for key steps to implement those strategies, and build local leadership and business capacity. The project will create 24 new downtown businesses, 72 new jobs, and leverage $800,000 in private investment.
•$1,417,375 ARC grant to Southwest Virginia Community College (SWCC) in Cedar Bluff, VA for the Retraining Energy Displaced Individuals (REDI) Center for Dislocated Coal Miners program. The REDI program will provide fast-track reemployment services directly to displaced coal miners -- equipping them with the necessary skills to get back to work in a high-demand field, earning comparable wages to their previous employment. Through an intensive, accelerated program of coursework, workers can obtain credentialed skills in as little as four months, rather than the more traditional training periods of a year or more. Training will be focused on three sectors with local employment opportunities: advanced manufacturing, construction, and health technology. The program will certify 165 new trainees over the life of the award, and will be supported by funding from the Thompson Charitable Fund and the Virginia Tobacco Commission.
•$1,372,275 ARC grant to the Hatfield McCoy Regional Recreation Authority in Man, WV for the Southern Coalfields Sustainable Tourism & Entrepreneurship Program. ARC funds will develop and implement a comprehensive program to expand tourism-related employment and businesses in southern West Virginia, and will foster Hatfield McCoy Trail expansion in Kentucky and Virginia. In addition, the award provides for the deployment of a coordinated marketing effort, which will increase the region-wide economic impact of the Trails by $13,000,000 per year. The project will create 225 jobs and 50 new businesses along the Trails, and will be supported by funding from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
•$1,250,000 ARC grant to the Natural Capital Investment Fund, Inc. in Shepherdstown, WV for the Growing Triple Bottom Line Small Businesses in Coal Impacted Communities in Central Appalachia project. The ARC award will expand coal-impacted communities’ access to capital in Southern West Virginia by capitalizing a $4,000,000 tourism-related revolving loan fund and developing a West Virginia New Markets Tax Credit Fund. The project will create 200 new jobs and 20 new businesses, bring $5,000,000 of leveraged private investment into the region, and will be supported by funding from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
•$997,150 ARC grant to the Shoals Entrepreneurial Center in Florence, AL for the Shoals Shift project. ARC funds will be used to offer a wide range of entrepreneurial programming, including improved access to capital and credit and development of strategies to increase the profitability of the region’s start-ups and existing businesses through more efficient use of broadband technologies. The programming includes training and activities for community members and student entrepreneurs from middle schools all the way to the university level. Activities will take place in a nine-county region covering parts of northwest Alabama, northeast Mississippi, and south central Tennessee. The project is expected to help create or retain 110 jobs, start 20 new businesses, and leverage $10,000,000 in private investment.
•$967,500 ARC grant to the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority in Beckley, WV for the New River Gorge Region - Developing an Entrepreneurial Economy project. ARC funds will be used to establish a technical assistance support program -- which will assist start-up businesses with hands-on technical aspects of their operations -- and to hire social enterprise and region-wide business coaches. The project will yield 15 new businesses, improve 294 existing businesses, and create 225 new small-business jobs.
•$622,500 ARC grant to the Randolph County Development Authority in Elkins, WV for the Hardwood Cluster Manufacturing Expansion Project. EDA is also awarding $1,200,000 as part of this project. ARC funds will be utilized to expand a major cabinet manufacturer’s operation by 27,000 square feet -- creating 45 new jobs and adding $2,500,000 in annual wages to the regional economy. In addition, the award will strengthen the Hardwood Alliance Zone – a nine-county region in Central West Virginia containing a cluster of hardwood businesses.
•$500,000 ARC grant to Pennsylvania Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc. in Russell, PA for the Nature Tourism Cluster Development in the PA Wilds project. The ARC award will be used to create a coordinated regional cluster development system to capitalize on Pennsylvania’s numerous nature-tourism assets that spread across 2,000,000 acres in 12 counties. This strategy will drive attendance to these natural attractions, and will be leveraged by $500,000 in match investments to develop a network of small businesses to support the increased demand for products and services in the area.
ARC Technical Assistance Award Summaries
Through the POWER Initiative, ARC is making funds available to assist organizations to develop plans, assess needs and prepare proposals to build a stronger economy for Appalachia's coal-impacted communities.
•$200,000 ARC grant to the West Virginia Development Office for the Hobet Strategic Plan. West Virginia will receive technical assistance to develop a detailed economic assessment and strategic plan for the best use of the Hobet Surface Mine Site in Boone and Lincoln Counties, previously the largest surface mining operation in the state.
•$10,000 ARC grant to The EdVenture Group in Morgantown, West Virginia for the Creating Opportunities, Diversifying Economy for displaced coal miners (CODE) project to develop a sustainable plan for economic diversification. The project being developed is expected to serve 12 counties in West Virginia.
•$60,202 ARC grant to the Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Alabama, for the development of a strategic plan focusing on entrepreneurship in coal-impacted counties in the Appalachian part of Alabama. Innovation and increasing business startup activity will be the primary focus.
•$22,758 ARC grant to Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, to analyze and develop a project plan for the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation and Commercialization Center. The project is expected to serve 14 counties in OH, PA, and WV.
POWER Special Projects Summaries
As part of the POWER Initiative, ARC is supporting several special projects to strengthen entrepreneurship, expand market opportunities, and address key issues in Appalachia's coal communities.
•$60,000 for a partnership with the National Association of Counties Research Foundation to provide additional technical assistance to 11 teams from Appalachian coal communities that participated in the EDA-funded Innovation Challenge for Coal-Reliant Communities Program. This support includes grant writing, feasibility studies, strategic plan development or updates and capacity building to facilitate strategic and sustainable investments. Community teams are located in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.
•$750,000 to continue a collaborative effort with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal partners to research opioid abuse and related problems of HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) in Appalachia's coal communities.
•$400,000 for a partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) to expand the Cool & Connected Initiative to help 10 Appalachian coal-impacted communities use broadband service to revitalize small-town main streets and promote economic development. Participating communities will receive technical assistance for strategic planning, as well as initial implementation support for the first steps of their plans. The communities are located in Alabama, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
•$352,000 to provide training, technical support, and expanded market opportunities to Appalachian-based coal supply chain companies through partnerships developed at MineExpo 2016, the world’s largest and most comprehensive exposition dedicated to mining equipment, products , and services. This trade show is part of the 2016 U.S. Commercial Service International Buyer Program schedule, which connects U.S. exhibitors with foreign buyer delegations at the show. ARC funds will be used to ensure the participation of companies from Appalachia and enable them to get international trade support tailored to the specific needs of the individual companies. Southern Alleghenies Planning and Development Commission in Altoona, Pennsylvania, is coordinating the ARC assistance.
Photos available for media use. All photos should be attributed “Photo courtesy of Office of the Governor.”
2022-10-20: Hassatou Diop N’Sele, Acting Vice President for Finance and Chief Finance Officer address during the Finance in Common 2022 - HLE 9 – How to Mobilise Capital at Scale by Leveraging Private Finance.
BRIEFING WITH SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR GLOBAL PARTNERSHIPS ANDREW O’BRIEN; DEAN KREHMEYER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA DARDEN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS INSTITUTE FOR BUSINESS IN SOCIETY; MATTHEW SWIFT, CO-CHAIRMAN, CO-FOUNDER, AND INTERIM CEO OF CONCORDIA; AND NICK LOGOTHETIS, CO-CHAIRMAN AND CO-FOUNDER OF CONCORDIA
MODERATOR: Thank you again for coming to the New York Foreign Press Center. Since everyone’s made their introductions, I’m not going to go introducing our speakers by name. But all of you have their bios. Today’s briefing is on the record. After our guests make remarks, we’ll open the floor to questions. Please state your name and your media affiliation before you do. And with that, let me turn it over to Special Representative O’Brien.
MR O’BRIEN: Good afternoon, everybody. As I mentioned, I’m Drew O’Brien, and I am Secretary John Kerry’s Special Representative for Global Partnerships at the U.S. Department of State. And our office is, obviously, delighted to share this platform today with the Darden School from the University of Virginia and Nick and Matt from Concordia. I’m going to talk a little bit about the importance of partnerships at the State Department and within the U.S. Government and then – and that will sort of help us frame what we’re doing here with the P3 Impact Award.
So our office, the Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships, was launched in 2009, and we look at it as the entry point for collaboration between the public sector, the private sector, civil society, NGOs, universities. We’ve talked a lot about universities over the years, so that’s why we’re particularly delighted that Darden is with us in this and civil society. Under President Obama, public-private partnerships have become a priority for the U.S. Government, also under Secretary Kerry. They’re a critical mechanism for strengthening our diplomatic connections, enhancing our development work, promoting economic growth, and safeguarding our long-term security as a nation.
Partnerships bring together the best of the public and private sector resources to leverage the creativity, innovation, and core resources of partners for greater impact and to create a holistic, sustainable solution to critical challenges.
We were – our office was created to serve as a resource for the rest of the State Department in learning how to do diplomatic and development work through partnerships. And we manage a number of these things on our own, a number of these partnerships on our own, supporting the tech ecosystem in Sub-Saharan Africa, in Southeast Asia, to – we’re the office, the point person for diaspora populations within the U.S. Government, to using mobile technology to help people in remote parts of the world. So we do sort of a number of different things. Tomorrow, we’ll have a big gathering on a virtual educational exchange at the Aspen Institute that will connect students and teachers in the Mideast and North Africa with students and teachers in the United States.
So what we’re doing – we all do pieces of this work, and we’re here together these next few days – what I call spread the partnership gospel to others. We’re recognizing great work that’s done by our partners and organizations around the world. And that’s what got us to this P3 Impact Award with both Darden and with Concordia. We’ve created the award to recognize partnerships that are changing the world in most impactful ways. This collaboration helps to better understand the mechanisms and best practices of a modern P3. So this isn’t just sort of saying wow, aren’t they creative, aren’t they the best. This is actually looking at the pieces that go into it, recognizing there are pieces that can be employed other places toward success.
Judges from each of our organizations read over 50 applications this year and assessed them on each partner’s structure, impact, innovative features, and scalability. And I will tell you, they were – I mean, I don’t like to be – you have these big competitions, everybody’s a winner.
MR KREHMEYER: Right. (Laughter.)
MR O’BRIEN: But everybody is a winner, because this is – in a lot of ways, this is cutting edge of what government’s doing, and we’re very fortunate that we’ve got some very willing and eager partners and enthusiastic partners in the private sector with Concordia and Darden.
So I want to give my colleagues a chance to talk. I think we’ll start with Dean, give a little UVA overview.
MR KREHMEYER: Thank you. Thank you. Let me sort of add the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, delighted to once again partner with both the U.S. Department of State and Concordia in delivering the P3 Impact Award.
Drew sort of mentioned the finalists, and to say they were impressive and all the applications were impressive is kind of an understatement. What we’re seeing and what we are seeing through last year’s applicants and this year’s applicants is that businesses absolutely and increasingly are joining in public-private partnerships to address global challenges. They are providing a far-reaching impact on the communities and societies in which they operate.
What we’re also seeing at the Darden School is this is of interest to our students. This is of interest to students who are going to be the emerging leaders, tomorrow’s leaders, who are going to be engaging in these public-private partnerships. And it’s important that they see this as one of the mechanisms, whereby when they are leading organizations and when they are leading business organizations, that they are looking broadly at how do these organizations really provide value to all of the stakeholders they serve. One of the ways they do that is through the public-private partnerships, and there’s no better examples than the finalists we received.
One more note I’ll make about the P3 Impact Award is certainly it’s an award, and we had great applicants. The team did a super job of selecting finalists. But one of the important things about the award is yes, recognizing the finalists and recognizing who was selected as the winner of that, but also important and maybe more important is capturing the insights and the leading practices that come from those applications, that come from those finalists and that come from the winner, and how can we, through the report that we will issue tomorrow, share those insights and leading practices, so that other public-private partnerships or those that are thinking about engaging in public-private partnerships can utilize those learnings to be more effective in their own realm and sphere.
So let me just wrap up before – and I’ll turn it over to Matt and Nick – and sort of why is this important to the Darden School? The Darden School – our mission is to improve the world by developing and inspiring responsible leaders and advancing knowledge. And I can think of very few examples that would better illustrate that than recognizing these public-private partnerships – not just recognizing them, but also working with them to take the knowledge and sharing it broadly to have impact.
And with that, I’ll turn it over to Nick and Matt.
MR SWIFT: Thank you very, very much, and first let me say on behalf of Concordia how honored we are by the partnership with the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and the U.S. Department of State. This is a partnership that has really grown organically, come together very well, and it is one of the things that myself and Nick are most proud of as far as what we do at Concordia.
Concordia, as an institute, does three things. We offer programming, primarily most known for our annual summit held every year during the UN General Assembly, and Nick will talk a little further about our annual summit, which is coming up starting tomorrow. The second is our annual Partnership Index, and the third is our campaign series, which is really where we’re taking a lot of the public-private partnerships that are being built within the Concordia community, and we are helping make those have better social impact.
But let me talk to the first part, because that’s how it connects really to the award, the raising awareness piece. Concordia, we are proud to say, we strive to be one of the leading advocates for public-private partnerships in the world. And as part of that, our global platform and the community that we have built is a place to highlight some of the best practices and some of the best, frankly, public-private partnerships in the world, and there’s no better way to do that than with the annual P3 Impact Award. I have to say I was very pleased and proud of the number of applicants that came in this year, but also the quality of the applicants that came in this year. The process to judge and determine who was the winner was a challenging one, because all of them were exceptional. And what we hope that this award can do is show leaders of both the public and private sectors the real value of building their own public-private partnerships together.
So with that, I’ll pass to Nick.
MR LOGOTHETIS: Thanks, Matt, and I’ll just – my name is Nick Logothetis, co-chairman and co-founder of Concordia along with Matt. I just want to add my thanks to Dean and the University of Virginia and Drew and the team at the State Department. I’ll just talk a little bit about our fifth annual summit, which is coming up tomorrow and on Friday.
So Concordia initially started as a yearly summit, which then grew to a multifaceted organization, but our summit has always been our flagship event. And this year we’ll have about 1,000 people. We’ll have over 20 current and former heads of state. We’ll have some leading CEOs from companies Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, General Mills, Hershey’s, amongst others. And we’re very particularly excited that this year we’ll have remarks from Joe Biden, the Vice President of the United States, at the end of the day tomorrow.
So as we continue to expand Concordia, we also have developed partnerships with organizations that are real experts in what they do – organizations like the Atlantic Council, like the Rockefeller Foundation, like others. And so we have individual sessions with those different organizations throughout the day.
So we hope that you’ll be able to join us tomorrow and the next day, or one of the days. Will Hummel in the back there is working with us on our press outreach, and so we’d welcome you to come and see and experience what Concordia is about. And I just wanted to say thank you again.
MR O’BRIEN: I think if I could add two more cents about both partners – University of Virginia, the Darden School, where there’s – the colloquial expression is “Talk the talk, walk the walk,” and they do. As Dean said, you will see what we’re talking about today is infused in their students, it’s infused in their learning life.
And that makes a big difference, because what I think we’re trying to do – the State Department angle of this – we are trying to help people around the world prepare for an economy that’s 21st century and beyond. I – different parts of where I go in the world, I use the metaphor that we’re trying – a lot of places 100, 150 years ago had a shipyard or a big factory in their town, small town, big city. They had something that everybody went to every day and went to work. That’s how they paid their mortgage, fed their families. Those don’t exist anymore; we all know that. There are large companies, but those don’t exist. We are trying in a lot of ways – I use the metaphor, we’re creating the shipyard of the future. And it’s at people’s kitchen tables, at their home offices. It’s at a small business park in a non-urban area. It’s everywhere. And that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to help people think differently.
Concordia. If you have not been to the Concordia summit, my opinion – my opinion – it’s the premier private sector – public-private sector event in the world. I mean, I go to a lot of events. This is a room loaded with excitement, it’s a room loaded with people that are eager to talk about the issue. So we are very fortunate to have this great university partner and this forum that this team here at Concordia’s put together. It is – if you get a chance to go, go. You will be completely overwhelmed. So --
MR SWIFT: Thank you. Thank you.
MR O’BRIEN: No, and it’s true. It’s very accurate.
Questions? I know that you joined a little bit late.
QUESTION: I’m sorry.
MR O’BRIEN: That’s quite all right.
QUESTION: Sorry about that.
MR O’BRIEN: No, no worries. We can talk to you a little bit afterwards if you’d like to. Questions?
MODERATOR: The floor is open for questions. State your name and media affiliation.
QUESTION: I don’t even know where to start. I’m really overwhelmed. This is really very powerful and insightful. So my name is Bukola Shonuga; I’m with the African Views Framework. And I attended a few events this week with the president of Nigeria in town. And they’re looking for foreign partnership – for foreign partnerships and foreign direct investment and so on, and also looking to see how they can harness (inaudible).
So when you talk about best practices, Nigeria can be a case study of corruption and lack of adequate resources. Even when you look at a university education in the last 30 years, that’s an issue that (inaudible) taking over the government right now. So there are no existing industries for graduates to directly work when they graduate and come out of the universities. So I think that finding a way to private partner with this group will be one thing that we would like to recommend to the Nigerian Government, like let’s – it’s a new day. So if you’re talking about that much population and you’re looking to have youth employment or reverse, you have to first talk about best practices.
So it’s a long-winded, but my direct question is – and I’m really sorry that it was long-winded – will you take Africa in this context? What are your views of what is happening in Africa towards best practices, and how they can better utilize their resources to be the 21st century climate that it should be? And what would you – in terms of partnership with African countries, what would that look like to you?
MR O’BRIEN: Would you like me to – it’s a very good question. And – so President Obama in particular has placed a lot of emphasis on our outreach to Africa as a U.S. Government for what is now amounting to a good chunk of his both terms. And there’s – not only is it important in a geographical sort of way, but the reality is the world’s youth population is in Africa, and it will obviously continue to be that way. So it’s – the world population will be very Africa-centric in the years ahead. Africa has the potential to be the world’s bread basket. Africa is a place where people are enthusiastic about entrepreneurship and education, and I can talk a little bit about something our office does there.
There are – there’s a lot of opportunity there. It’s a matter of harnessing – doing sort of what we’re doing; making sure that government is focused on bringing the private sector to the equation, working with universities, working with other – we do a lot of work with hospitals and health centers. We – you have to be creative about this, so I think you have to be very open-minded about it, because government – and I’m talking about the United States Government – but government at one time was seen as fixing everybody’s issues here, right. If you look at sort of the post-war – post-World War II economy, U.S. Government did a lot for people, particularly after the Depression; not even the World War, but after the Depression. And that sort of – that influence has waned a little bit. You can see it in our political climate. And the direct foreign investment that we used to give away as a country has declined sort of steadily too.
What’s the solution? The solution is public-private partnerships. It’s bringing the private sector into the equation. Now, that could mean a Fortune 500 company; it could mean a Fortune 50 company. But I think for the work we’re doing, it’s getting people to think differently about how this equation works, and it’s finding young entrepreneurs, people who have great ideas, people who haven’t had the opportunity to have a formal education who may need that. And how do we make those links, and how do we show people who are – everybody’s going to – not everybody, but a lot of people make their living around the world, like I said, at their kitchen table, in their home office, at a small business park. Nobody should be left behind because that’s how the world economy is headed.
MR LOGOTHETIS: And just to add, what Concordia tries to do is not be an advocate for business and not be an advocate for government. We’re an entirely nonpartisan, nonpolitical organization. We try and bring the two groups together to help them better understand one another, to help them work more efficiently together, but also, as Matt said, I think, to learn from other experiences. Because there are unique ways to do business in different parts of the world, but there are many things that are similar. And so that’s what we try to play a role in.
Specifically as it relates to Africa, I’ll be honest with you: Concordia has not been as strong in Africa as we would like. We hope that’s changing. This year we have our first African CEO representative, a gentleman by the name of Jabulane Mabuza, who’s the CEO of Telkom in South Africa. And we’re very excited about that and hope to build upon what – he is on a panel to talk about youth unemployment – and build upon what sort of comes from that panel.
MR SWIFT: And I will also say we have a session entirely dedicated to public-private partnerships and health, focusing on Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon, which is a very important initiative from the State Department as well. So we will be – this will be the first year that we’re doing programming focused on the continent, and specifically in the area of health.
MR O’BRIEN: There’s – so we do – we have – our office has a program called LIONS@FRICA, which makes linkages between entrepreneurship communities in the United States – Cambridge, Massachusetts; Silicon Valley; Charlottesville, Virginia; and – just to name a few of sort of the – Miami – places we work with in connection with aspiring entrepreneurs, and takes them through trainings over the course of five to seven days on how to pitch a product, how to talk to an investor – soup-to-nuts entrepreneurship crash course. We do that. The Global Entrepreneurship Summit was just on the continent this past year. There’s a lot happening there. There’s a lot of things to be excited about.
QUESTION: Thank you.
MR O’BRIEN: Yes, sir.
QUESTION: Bingxin Li from People’s Daily in China, but I’m based at the UN. Talking about the Africa – the partnership in Africa, China has a lot of investment in Africa, and there used to be a lot of state-owned companies there, but now there are more and more private companies in Africa, and also as well as the U.S.
MR O’BRIEN: Right.
QUESTION: Mainly, they’re private companies. How – is there a possibility of U.S. and China partnership in helping African countries to – especially in the industrialization of them, (inaudible)?
MR O’BRIEN: I think one of the things that actually – of the equations – and I’m sorry to jump on this question, gentlemen --
PARTICIPANT: Please.
MR O’BRIEN: One of the equations we see that works very well is when we do have a multilateral or even a bilateral arrangement with another country on a particular issue area. We see this work very well with health and health care. We see it work very well – I mentioned the event we have tomorrow down in Washington at the Aspen Institute of virtual educational exchanges, because it’s multilateral. It’s the United States Government working not only with the private sector and NGOs, but also with other governments.
So I would say the direct answer is yes, and it’s a matter of doing what we’re doing here, which is trying to find the pieces to put together for success.
MODERATOR: Yes.
QUESTION: Vasco De Jesus Rodrigues, I’m from Vasco Press Communications in Brazil. Any thoughts on the Brazilian situation with the economy --
MR O’BRIEN: So --
QUESTION: -- on the low side? Okay, please --
MR O’BRIEN: Anyone want to – who wants to – I mean, I can talk about --
MR KREHMEYER: We’ll let you start on that one. (Laughter.)
MR O’BRIEN: Sure, but – so we work with other countries that – whose economies are on an upswing, we work with them that are stagnant, and we work with them when they are on a downturn. So I think what we do is actually – it’s not – I don’t want to say it’s immune from the larger economic situation, but in fact, we’re a solution – what we’re trying to do here. Public-private partnerships are a solution to that. We try – the things that government cannot do, we go to the private sector to help us. For the things that the private sector cannot do, either we’re doing or helping find other pieces to put together.
There’s a very significant large corporate U.S. presence in Brazil. General Motors comes to mind. It’s a great – and a great partner to our office – to the Secretary’s office, and they do help with other initiatives around the world. So we’re – I think we’re one of the solutions when it comes to sort of difficult economic times. We’re one of the – we sort of keep on chugging. In fact, opportunity may even knock when that happens.
MR KREHMEYER: I would just sort of add, and another way of looking at it is times of stress are often some of the times that create some of the innovations. And we actually, at the Darden School, have another awards program where we have looked at, within the Commonwealth of Virginia and looking at growing it, what makes resilient businesses resilient. And it’s looking at how have those companies that are in some of the most difficult economic areas within Virginia – how have they thrived, how have they grown, how have they added employees.
And once again, it’s an award, but let’s don’t stop at the award. We certainly don’t. We want to take the learnings from that, which we’ve done, given it to our faculty to look at what are some of the success factors. And I’ll tell you what one of them is. One of them is kind of what Drew referred to, is is there an ecosystem around those businesses that is providing support. And that includes communities that are engaged with the business, that includes trade associations, that includes government, public sector partners – all those things that create an ecosystem where success raises all those stakeholders together.
So we’ve seen that on the scale of a Virginia. I would suggest that the findings would be true globally as well.
QUESTION: Could you give us a bit of – sorry, I’m Gabriel Mellqvist with Sweden’s business newspaper. Could you give a historical perspective on the growth of this compared to five, ten years ago as the private sectors obviously demonstrated a bigger interest, or how has this (inaudible)?
MR SWIFT: I would say significantly. I think --
MR O’BRIEN: They know this stuff inside and out. (Laughter.) This is their thing.
MR SWIFT: I think for the last 15 years you’ve seen public-private partnerships, or P3s as we call them, as becoming very trendy in the business community. I think there are so many instances that can be cited where there’s been a failure of the public sector, a failure of the private sector, to accomplish what they need to. I think disaster relief is a very obvious arena where the private sector has stepped in and played an enormous role. And it is partnerships between corporations and governments – state, local, federal government here in the U.S. – where that has played an enormous role. And so one of the reasons why Nick and I founded Concordia in early 2011 was because we saw this as a trend that was growing. And if you’re the CEO of a large corporation, whether it’s your corporate social responsibility initiatives or something else, the public-private partnership model, I think, is a very appealing one to a CEO.
MR LOGOTHETIS: And it’s more and more, in certain cases, becoming not only appealing but essential if you want to do business in some places. And I mean, we can say that there are – another reason why Matt and I founded Concordia was there are – at times it is difficult to work with business and it is difficult to work with government. People – I think the question we get asked the most is: Who’s more difficult – business or government? (Laughter.) And it really – there’s no answer to that. It really varies in case to case.
In some cases you have a very entrepreneurial government, and I mean in different countries and different cities, who are pushing for it, who are acting like business in a sense. And in other cases you have a very bureaucratic government and a very entrepreneurial business where – but it really varies. And so what we tried to do was, as one of our main tenets, create a hub where those two groups could come together and learn from one another.
MR SWIFT: And let me comment on the private sector side. Here’s what – where we see this going. The CSR models at a lot of corporations today I think have an impact, but I think the public-private partnership model – the tool of P3s – are very much going to become the norm as part of the CSR approach that these companies take. And that’s very important, because there’s a lot of goodwill and interest on the public sector side and the private sector side, and in so many instances the public sector brings tremendous scale, the private sector brings great efficiency, and those two brought together really can create powerful P3s. And I think all of the P3s that applied for the award this year, and certainly the five finalists, which will be highlighted over the next two days, with the winner being announced by Drew and Dean and our director of research on Friday – I think you’ll see the evidence of that.
MR O’BRIEN: Yeah, and when I first took this position, when I was appointed to this position almost two and a half years ago, one of the first reactions you get from people is that you basically have your hand out, that you’re the U.S. Government going to talk to the private sector about what can – what’s in it for us, can you donate to this, can you donate to that. And that’s one part of the job.
I came to understand very quickly that it’s – and again, this is – these folks around the table with me study this and know this – this is about so many other things beyond money. This is beyond you’re – it’s the CSR that sort of everybody has in common, it’s that social responsibility that everybody has in common. It can be a question of resources. And I’m throwing names up, but Bank of America is very good with – a very great partner to our office and to the State Department on resources at different level. IBM has a model where their employees go and work in country. Not only are they working at maybe an IBM facility, but they’re actually engaged in some sort of public-private initiative in the area. That’s a tremendous model.
So as much as this can be about money that goes to a certain effort, you name it, this is about a lot of other things – resources, people sort of putting their shoulder behind it and their brains behind it. So again, everybody with me studies this and knows sort of the intellectual promise of this, and it is – as Matt said, it’s – it is where everything is headed on the business front. They were very wise to go down this road.
QUESTION: A quick follow-up. Do we know why companies suddenly are so interested in this? Do you have any idea where it comes from?
MR O’BRIEN: I would say the pressures of the global economy are making companies better global citizens.
MR SWIFT: Yeah. I think also the information revolution has made every person in the world sort of aware of what’s going on around them and sort of created a reporter out of everyone. And that puts a lot of pressure on companies to act in a certain way. I think you also see a lot of cities – cities are really leaders in this front – and countries that are looking to reconstruct or re-reconstruct, like a city like Athens, Greece. It’s not an emerging country. It’s sort of re-emerging, in a sense, after economic depression there, using – trying to use public-private partnerships as a tool to really reinvent their city. And cities often have more flexibility to act over states or countries.
MR KREHMEYER: And I will add from my perspective students.
MR O’BRIEN: Students.
MR KREHMEYER: Students, millenials. This generation is one that – and I think we should all be very optimistic about it – it’s a generation that wants to positively change the world. And you see all those complexities that we talked about. You see the integration of the global economy. You see the information age. They are looking at how can I lead organizations and lead initiatives that are really going to drive a lot of positive impact, notable impact. And for all the reasons that in particular Matt was just describing of why the public sector and private sector are coming together in these partnerships, those are exactly the reasons that students see as well. And that is certainly a tailwind that is pushing these public-private partnerships, I think, in a very positive way.
QUESTION: I was just going to – on a (inaudible) note, this sounds like the TED talk. (Laughter.) And on a serious note, I think it’s – I mean, especially with the breakthrough of technology, there are so many ways to get information across the world without having to be there. So I was just wondering again, in developing countries, if there are any plans, especially on the Acordia part – what’s your organization again?
MR SWIFT: Concordia.
QUESTION: Concordia, I’m sorry – to make this information available via a virtual training platform so that other young people, especially entrepreneurs and professionals around the world, would gain access to this information and be able to use it to empower their community.
MR SWIFT: Absolutely. And that’s something that we will do in the future. We have not done that yet, but every – at all of our forums and especially our annual summit, we have a series of sessions that we call P3 toolboxes, which is really where you come and you learn real – the basics, the fundamentals of how to construct a public-private partnership. Those have been very popular with our community, our global community that comes together, especially for the annual summit. But I think incorporating technology in that would be a – would be a great way to --
MR LOGOTHETIS: In other words, to package those eventually and then sort of release them to the world.
QUESTION: It’s also very clear that young people around the world actually have – they know the solutions to their problems; they just don’t have the resources to make some of these things happen. And I think an organization such as yours do really a lot of good if they have access to that information.
MR SWIFT: Absolutely.
MR LOGOTHETIS: Absolutely.
QUESTION: I’m a little bit slow, so can you give me – can you tell me more about the competition – how it works, who applies, what are the criteria, and just a little background?
MR SWIFT: Dean?
MR KREHMEYER: Sure, happy to do it. So what we do is we open the competition at the beginning of the year and use a number of media channels, social media channels, including great channels at all of our organizations, to invite applications. And we invite them from, as you might imagine, partners in the private sector, partners in the public sector, and oftentimes NGOs that might be involved as well. So we invite those. We extensively use our network.
The applications, when they’re received, are then reviewed by an esteemed panel of judges. Each of the applications gets multiple readings, and the judges then select the finalists – the five finalists and the winner, which, as Matt said, we will be featuring the finalists over the next two days at the summit and announcing the winner on Friday.
MR LOGOTHETIS: Are we allowed to say the finalists now or no?
MR SWIFT: Of course, that’s public who the finalists are. We can take you through the finalists if you would like.
QUESTION: Sure.
MR SWIFT: So I think we’ll start with the first one. Partners in Food Solutions. That’s a partnership between USAID as well as TechnoServe, and it’s a partnership with General Mills, Cargill, Royal DSM, and Buhler; also a partnership between the Nature Conservancy and Dow Chemical; a partnership focusing on Madagascar between Coca-Cola, RAIN, WSUP, and the Africa Foundation; TV White Space, which is a partnership between Microsoft and USAID; and then also the U.S. Global Development Lab partnering with Village Capital. Did I – did I miss anything?
MR KREHMEYER: Yep, that’s correct. Yep.
MR O’BRIEN: That’s it.
MR SWIFT: And so they will be – there will be five-minute features of each partnership over the two-day period, and then the winner will actually be announced by Secretary Kerry.
MR O’BRIEN: That’s right, via video. (Laughter.)
MR SWIFT: Yes. (Laughter.)
MR KREHMEYER: Secretary Kerry.
MR SWIFT: Asterisk.
MR LOGOTHETIS: Asterisk.
MR SWIFT: Yeah. (Laughter.)
MR O’BRIEN: Via video. Statistic-wise, just important to reference Matt’s indication that this will grow, we had – and we did the first one last year in 2014 – we had 18 applications. This year, I think we had at least 50.
MR SWIFT: Fifty-two.
MR O’BRIEN: Fifty-two.
MR LOGOTHETIS: Read off some of the names. I mean --
MR SWIFT: We have Chevron, Dow, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wal-Mart, Save the Children, Unilever, Nike, Discovery Education, Walt Disney Company, Yale University, the Nature Conservancy, TechnoServe, RAIN, USAID, Microsoft. All were applicants in some form, those partnerships.
QUESTION: Was there a theme of this year’s competition? Is it about water or --
MR O’BRIEN: No.
QUESTION: Just any --
MR O’BRIEN: We look at – I mean, anybody in the partnership space can apply. We had a whole range – health and sanitation, environment, education, technology, public safety, economic development. We had applications from across the board.
MR KREHMEYER: What’s interesting to me about the names of the organizations that you read, Matt, is – and encouraging to me – is that these are leading global organizations. These are organizations with – yes, deep resources, both financial and capability leadership skill-wise, and a lot of demands on those resources. And yet one of the important priorities that they place at the head of this list is their engagement in these public-private partnerships, which I think reinforces some of the points we’re making here – is to see these leading organizations, it’s in a lot of ways – we get some, I think, intangible benefit because we actually get to read through all these and really see the exciting things going on in the world of public-private partnerships.
QUESTION: In the light of this – something just came to mind – with the recent recall of 11 million cars by Volkswagen – is that the news, something to that effect, they have recalled --
MR SWIFT: I think it’s 17.
QUESTION: How many?
MR O’BRIEN: It’s more than 11.
MR SWIFT: I think it’s 17 --
MR O’BRIEN: Seventeen --
MR SWIFT: -- as of today.
QUESTION: Anyone comment on that quickly?
MR O’BRIEN: I don’t – I actually don’t know enough about the issue.
QUESTION: So – okay.
MODERATOR: So I think we’re just about out of time unless I see a hand raised, one more question or so? Well, if --
MR O’BRIEN: Thank you.
MODERATOR: -- there are no more questions, everyone, thank you all very much.
MR O’BRIEN: No, that’s very great. Thank you very much.
MR SWIFT: Thank you all for coming.
MR LOGOTHETIS: Thank you.
MODERATOR: Today’s briefing was on the record and our transcript will be posted as soon as it’s ready at fpc.state.gov, and that concludes today’s briefing. Thank you so much.
###
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2015, 3:00 P.M. EDT
NEW YORK FOREIGN PRESS CENTER, 799 UNITED NATIONS PLAZA, 10TH FLOOR
Read: New applications leverage the popularity of social networks - Finance and Commerce.
“A lot of the gold in social media is in the analytics in giving people insight into how people behave on these social networks and finding trends within that data,” said David Erickson, director of e-Strategy at public relations and marketing firm Tunheim Partners in Minneapolis.
Jeffrey Sachs, Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University answers questions at the IMF Seminar, Leveraging Policies for Sustainable Development Goals. This was held at the Westin Bali International Conference and Centre during the 2018 IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings October 12, 2018 in Bali, Indonesia.
©IMF Photo
30 May 2018 - Leveraging Data Science for the Public Good - Civic Innovation Hub - BLI
- Frédéric Bardolle, Chief Technology Officer, Data for Good
I was invited to spend two days at Europe’s most comprehensive IoT Event. This leading forum focused on case studies that show today’s Industry and Enterprises leveraging IoT technologies to transform their business through creating value and efficiencies.
The Internet of things (stylised Internet of Things or IoT) is the internetworking of physical devices, vehicles (also referred to as "connected devices" and "smart devices"), buildings and other items—embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these objects to collect and exchange data.
"Things," in the IoT sense, can refer to a wide variety of devices such as heart monitoring implants, biochip transponders on farm animals, electric clams in coastal waters,[16] automobiles with built-in sensors, DNA analysis devices for environmental/food/pathogen monitoring or field operation devices that assist firefighters in search and rescue operations.[18] Legal scholars suggest to look at "Things" as an "inextricable mixture of hardware, software, data and service". These devices collect useful data with the help of various existing technologies and then autonomously flow the data between other devices. Current market examples include home automation (also known as smart home devices) such as the control and automation of lighting, heating (like smart thermostat), ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and appliances such as washer/dryers, robotic vacuums, air purifiers, ovens or refrigerators/freezers that use Wi-Fi for remote monitoring.
The Leveraged Freedom Chair is pictured here in tests in Kenya. It's a chair propelled by hand levers that's in development at MIT. It's compact, has adjustable speeds and a K-Mart price tag.
The prototype above handles both bad roads and cramped offices. The full story is here:
Maybe it was too politically incorrect to use the word "shut" as an instruction to close or turn something off. The powers-at-be must have met and decided that they will now use "on & off" or "open & closed" for instructional labels. They must have also tightened the budget because now these instructions are usually silk screened onto control surfaces.