I had the privilege last week to attend a meeting at Cal State Long Beach whose organizers hoped it would be viewed as a “watershed moment” in the history of the university. The meeting was to organize and kick off a virtual Business Technology Center Affiliate Program based in Long Beach. The program is “affiliated” with the bricks-and-mortar Business Technology Center in Altadena (pictured). That technology incubator was developed through the hard work of my friend Bill Lyte, a consultant with Kennedy-Jenks, and Robert Swayze, whom Long Beach is now fortunate to have as its Economic Development Bureau Manager. The Altadena center will celebrate its 9th anniversary next month.
Here in Long Beach, the affiliate program will provide services to technology entrepreneurs to assist them in commercializing technologies of all types. For example, entrepreneurs will have access to mentoring and coaching, contact with “angel” and venture capital investors, access to seed capital, and a choice of seminars and workshops, to mention just a few of the benefits.
During the meeting, Port of Long Beach Harbor Commission Vice President Mike Walter, Bill Lyte, and I teamed up to express the view that goods movement provides an especially fertile field for technology development. I see a need for information technology (to improve security and efficiency), environmental technology (to reduce emissions and other impacts), and in the longer term, alternative transportation technology that could offer electrically-powered ways to move freight. (Cal State Long Beach’s Center for the Commercial Deployment of Transportation Technologies, or CCDoTT, studies and helps to develop these technologies.)
Personally, I’m excited about the prospect of focused technology development here in Long Beach. The potential economic benefits and job development are most welcome, as is anything that improves goods movement.