This tutorial is now full. Space may become available, so please plan to arrive early on Tuesday, October 16, to join a queue for available seats.

A hands-on, deep dive discovery session — including corporates, startups, thought leaders and experts — exploring artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain-enabled applications to create more sustainable solutions for our planet. 

The concept of the circular economy offers a framework through which city governments and policymakers, urban planners and designers, businesses and individuals can rethink urban systems — and begin to close the loop on the flow of materials. As cities embark on the transition towards a circular economy, information and digital technology will play a crucial role in helping them address these challenges. Data forms part of the “connective tissue” linking urban systems together — from the movement of traffic, to the health of buildings, to how citizens can produce and consume energy. This session will explore the role of data in transforming urban life and building long-term prosperity, resource sufficiency, economic viability and well-being in a circular city. 

This session will evaluate potential energy storage applications, and what technologies make the most sense — technically and financially — for those solutions. The perspectives include a global technology company, a multi-national telecommunications company, a large investor-owned utility and a renewable and energy storage developer. The solutions that will be considered as part of this discussion: lithium ion, flow, thermal options and fuel cells as well as how and when to pair energy storage with renewable energy. 

Large companies, utilities and startups have invested significant funding and resources to investigate ways blockchain technologies could disrupt traditional energy distribution models and services. This session will explore real-world blockchain deployments across regulated and non-regulated markets focused on applications including transactive energy, supply traceability and other use cases.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts that the global offshore wind market will grow sixfold by 2030. This discussion will cover what corporate buyers should really know about purchasing electricity from offshore farms including the financial, technological, environmental and social benefits/challenges.

In commercial-scale electricity generation, the 'duck curve' is a graph of power production over the course of a day that shows the timing imbalance between peak demand and renewable energy production. In many energy markets the peak demand occurs after sunset, when solar power is no longer available. As renewable electricity becomes more and more plentiful at midday, what strategies could to be considered next to solve the daily generation/consumption mismatch, and what are the next challenges coming after we solve the duck curve problem? Join David Kaneda, Principal and Thought Leader at Integral Group, in this substantive, solutions-oriented lunch discussion.

About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

Learn about the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s InSPIRE study into low-impact solar development and pollinator-friendly solar from two leaders involved in the work. Meet previous VERGE presenter Rob Davis of the Center for Pollinators in Energy at Fresh Energy and Organic Valley’s Stanley Minnick and discuss the NREL study’s results to date and opportunities for new partners.

About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

Corporate energy and sustainability managers are faced with the continued challenge of meeting reduction and optimization targets, but often are limited by the availability of information to identify opportunities or create long-term strategic plans.  While the digital revolution presents significant opportunities for access to more information, infrastructure and resources are not always in place to support this transformation.  Ari Kobb, Director, Energy & Sustainability Solutions at Siemens Building Technologies, will address the different types of energy data that is typically available, and how leaders can leverage this information to make informed decisions.

About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

You already know that one of the best ways your organization can reduce its impact on the environment is to reduce your energy use — via energy efficiency and renewables. The good news is, consumers, customers, employees and others expect the companies they buy from or work for to do right by the planet — and they expect you to use clean energy as a major piece of that effort. The bad news is, packaging up a sexy, compelling story about energy consumption reduction is hard. So what's the best way to tell that story?  This Guru Lunch will be facilitated by Suzanne Shelton, President and CEO of Shelton Group, the nation's leading marketing and communications focused exclusively in energy and the environment.

About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

This table discussion will be led by Rick Mihelic, Director Future Technologies Studies for the North American Council for Freight Efficiency — who works to scale technologies for efficiency and is now guiding future change in electric and automated trucks.  There are many arguments for and against electric trucks, some very loud and persuasive, but the success of these innovative trucks will occur under the scrutiny of the marketplace who is charged with delivering our goods every day.  The benefits and challenges of adoption are broad and difficult to monetize. Rick will facilitate a pragmatic discussion on commercial battery electric trucks.

About VERGE Guru Lunches: Join like minded attendees for interactive moderated lunch discussions around a particular topic. Each table discussion will be led by an expert or thought leader, held at roundtables of up to 10 participants. These are freeform discussions, so bring your own challenges, questions, and ideas to talk through and get to know your fellow conference participants.

How do interior design choices, better-informed site selections and automation technologies lead to healthy, happier and more productive workers? Some constructive ideas for constructing a more sustainable work environment — for workers and employers alike.

More utilities are investing substantially in renewable energy, in large part because their commercial and residential customers want them to do so. This session will examine how large energy users are changing how they use energy and how they engage utilities — from programs that allow them to directly purchase renewables to partnership models such as green tariffs, community solar initiatives and more.  Building on the outstanding stories featured in the new book, Sustainable Electricity II: A Conversation on Tradeoffs (Fox & Scott. October 2018. Springer Press), the speakers will discuss the realities of collaborating between electric utilities and large customers to adapt energy programs.  

Amidst unprecedented innovations in distributed energy resources, electric vehicles, and battery storage, the buildings industry has become stagnant, and stuck in the realm of one-off net-zero energy buildings, when we should be designing net-zero, resilient communities, and utility resources. If we are to achieve environmentally resilient, socially equitable cities and communities, the building industry needs to be more proactive, disruptive, and truly integrated into the energy revolution in terms of managing loads and load shapes, shifting to electricity, connecting load to regional renewables, and working with utilities to develop rate structures that spur investment. In doing so, buildings become the conduit to capture vehicle energy, facilitate shared resources (EVs and AVs), and prioritize the integration of storage.

This session will be an interactive discussion of the partnerships and collaboration needed between the developers, architects, utilities, DER innovators, technology companies, and community leaders and an exploration of the opportunities and challenges to integrating all of these stakeholders during design and construction, highlighting the tools and information flow that is needed by each party. Participants will gain insight into the challenges and obstacles within the building industry and how to better leverage current innovations and new partnerships so that buildings can truly support a decarbonized society.