Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Just as with everywhere else, Covid has reshuffled the deck in the Auto/Mobility sector. In a industry where bouleversement was already imminent — caused by the decline of internal combustion, the rise of sharing, a global drop in vehicle demand, the arrival of 5G and connectedness, the coming of autonomy and the geopolitical struggle between the US and China — Covid further scrambled the picture. Supply chains have been disrupted, some technology trends have accelerated while others have been set back. If anything, during Covid China's importance in the sector has increased. Many traditional names are struggling while a plethora of new tech-enabled competitors have emerged. Entire traditional business models are being deconstructed and new sources of value creation are being imagined.

In such a time, innovation from startups is all the more timely, and the old saw that the best new companies are forged in times of crisis applies. Fortunately our Workshops are focused on startups, which provide a window onto the next generation of technologies. We will showcase 18 compelling startups from all over the globe which reveal the breadth of activity in the sector. Our startups have been referred to us by our network of top industry investors and then further vetted by us. They will talk about autonomous driving technology, new EV designs, fleet management software, data infrastructure for connected vehicles, owning and operating the entire electric fleet stack, next generation EV transmissions, using AI to spot traffic violations, transformer vehicles, using dashcams for data mining, optimizing traveler and vehicle scheduling and much more. 

In addition to the startups, we have recruited some of the leading experts and investors in the sector to talk. They will join several discussion sessions on topics of importance to the sector (see below) which will be very complementary to the startup presentations.

Our regular attendees know that we started with an intimate invitation-only workshop in my mountain retreat in the Santa Cruz mountains. But of course this year since we will be virtual we have decided to take full advantage of the format -- Bonny Doon will have to wait. So you do not need to travel to attend. We aim to be accessible to participants from the all over the world, and we offer reduced rates for attendees calling in for half a day. Sessions will be videotaped and made available to participants after the Workshop. Our registration fees are so modest that you will not feel bad about choosing to attend only a portion of the program.

We do not operate on a "pay to play" model, we just invite the best startups and speakers we can find. So you can be assured our panels will be focused on content, not marketing. (Of course our startups will be pitching themselves hard . . .)

We intend to facilitate communications and networking between attendees. To that end, about a week prior to the Workshop we will be setting up a Slack channel for registered attendees to join, so they can contact others for discussions, calls and follow ups. Also, during the midday break we will be offering the use of Gather, a virtual networking platform, so you can walk around a virtual reception room and have video meetings with people you come close to. It's come to this — a gamification of networking!

Looking forward to seeing you online.