Tribune Tavern hosts September ORA's Dine & Unwind

 

We look forward to seeing you at this fabulous event!

 Reserve your spot today because there is limited seating due to overwhelming response.

 

 

 

Enjoy the benefits of Chamber membership! Receive $30 off your office supply needs!

Sign up for the Chamber Program or use your existing Chamber account and receive $30 off your qualifying purchase of $200 or more. (See link below.) Take advantage of savings on top of your program discounts of up to 60% from a list of 195 commonly purchased business essentials, up to 70% off Copy & Print Services, and 5% off most other items. From ink, toner, paper and printing services to all of your business needs—your Chamber Office Depot program has it all. In addition to your special pricing, receive fast & FREE delivery on qualifying orders of $50 or more.

Click here for additional offer details or to sign up for the program! Select the “Monthly Promotion” button for additional details and the offer code.

 

To learn more about this chamber benefit and more, join us for our Chamber 101 breakfast on Sept. 19th at 7:30...early bird gets the discounts! RSVP here.

The impact of SBDC’s mentors can be significant

 

The Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce has become the administrator for the Alameda County Small Business Development Center (acsbdc.org), whose mission is to assist small business owners and entrepreneurs succeed in their ventures.

SBDC has a team of professionals with decades of real world experience who mentor businesses in all functional areas – sales, marketing, manufacturing, venture capital, web design, government contracting, SBA loans, and government grants.

The impact of SBDC’s mentors can be significant, as demonstrated by Cool EarthSolar, an innovative start-up company located in Livermore, which won more than $2 million in government grants.
Only at the prototype stage with its technology and with tight budgets, Cool Earth needed grants that would help it complete product development and deploy systems for field trials.

As a technology company, Cool Earth required advisors with specialized knowledge and experience. Cool Earth applied to the Tech Futures Group (techfuturesgroup.org), a new initiative of the SBDC that has assembled a team of technology specialists with expertise in technology commercialization, raising equity capital through angels and venture capitalists, intellectual property protection, and special government grants, such as SBIR.

Cool Earth met with two SBDC advisors, Charles Eason and Gerry Barañano. Eason is the SBDC expert in Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants that provide funding for research in specific areas. Barañano is a technology commercialization expert with deep knowledge of all aspects of technology companies.

Both advisors helped Cool Earth improve the quality of their grant applications. Following Eason’s advice, Cool Earth won two $150,000 SBIR phase 1 grants and is line to win much larger amounts in subsequent phases.

Barañano recommended that Cool Earth reach out and develop a strong relationship with
Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL), and also write a white paper geared to first customers. Using their LLNL relationship and the body of the white paper, Cool Earth won a $1,732,000 grant from California Energy Commission.

“We owe much of our success with these grants to the experience, knowledge, and cheerful assistance of these two gentlemen,” exclaimed Tony Chen, Cool Earth’s director of business development.

CEQA Reform One Step Closer to Reality

Earlier today SB 731, a CEQA reform bill authored by California Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, passed out of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee.   CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) is a 40 year old law that has helped protect our environment but has over the years developed provisions that can be abused to halt environmentally sound projects and unnecessarily add cost to developments with no corresponding benefit.

 The Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, and a state wide coalition for CEQA reform, support Governor Brown who has called for CEQA reform this year.  Today’s action is a step in the right direction and SB 731 is a good starting point.  But a long negotiation process remains to craft legislation that will provide certainty and truly accomplish meaningful reform.

To learn more about the legislation, click here.