Green and Renewable Energy Events – October & November 2010

This week brought us the excitement of The Carbon Show in London. Don’t miss another relevant event in the space again with the EcSearch events list. Here’s what’s coming up in Europe over the next couple of months;

October 2010:

Innovate 2010
12th October 2010 - London, UK
Follow @innovateuk on Twitter

Built Environment Solutions and Technologies
18th to 20th October 2010 - Birmingham, UK
Follow @BESTShow_NEC on Twitter

2nd Annual Offshore Wind Construction and Commissioning Conference
20th & 21st October 2010 - London, UK

South East Europe Renewable Energy 2010
22nd October 2010 - Istanbul, Turkey

Climate Change and Impact Assessment IAIA Special Symposium
25th & 26th October 2010 - Aalborg, Denmark

Renewable Energy in the Public Sector: Leading the way to zero carbon
26th October 2010 - London, UK

EU Biomas Forum 2010
27th to 29th October 2010 - London, UK

Green In the City: The Future of UK Onshore Wind - From ecoConnect
28th October 2010 - London, UK
Follow @ecoConnectCIC on Twitter

Big Green Home Show

29th - 31st October 2010 - Swindon, UK

Follow @BGHShow on Twitter

November 2010:

Green Mondays London
1st November 2010 - London, UK
Follow @greenmondaynews on Twitter

Green Monday Middlands
1st November 2010 - Birmingham, UK
Follow @greenmondaynews on Twitter

RenewableUK 2010
2nd to 4th November 2010 - Glasgow, Scotland

Energy Data Storage
3rd & 4th November 2010 - London, UK

Sustainability Leaders Forum
4th November 2010 - London, UK

The Sustainable Scotland Network Annual Conference 2010
4th November 2010 - Edinburgh, UK

Green Supply Chain
4th & 5th November 2010 - York, UK

Carbon Markets Masterclass
8th November 2010 - London, UK

3rd International Symposium On Energy From Biomass And Waste
8th to 11th November 2010 - Venice Italy

Green IT Expo
9th November 2010 - London, UK
Follow @GreenITExpo on Twitter

SMART GRIDS, SMART CITIES – SMART FUTURE
9th November 2010 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Climate Finance 2010
9th & 10th November 2010 - London, UK

Engaging the public on Climate Change
18th November 2010, London, UK

Oxford Energy Markets Roundtable
19th November 2010 - Oxford, UK

Energy 2010 - International Forum
22nd November 2010 - November 2010

EWEA - Grids 2010
23rd & 24th November 2010 - Berlin, Germany
Follow @EWEA on Twitter

Green Awards for Creativity in Sustainability
25th November 2010 - London, UK
Follow @GreenAwards on Twitter

Integrated Energy - The CHPA Annual Conference
25th November 2010 - London, UK

Electric Vehicle Charging and Grid Integration 2010
30th November 2010 - London, UK
Follow @ChargingEV on Twitter

If we're missing an event, feel free to leave us a note in the comments section of this post or send us a tweet or an email.

EcoSearch and dtimes3 Launch Green-Ex at The Carbon Show

dtimes3 Limited (d3) and EcoSearch® are delighted to announce the launch of their new sustainable exhibition service Green-ex™ at the Carbon Show on 4th October held at The Business Design Centre, Islington, London.

Aimed at providing a low cost, low carbon exhibition solution, this collaboration between a Live Events, Technology and Training company and specialist Executive Search Consultancy is the first of its kind and is likely to attract major attention from the Carbon, Cleantech & Renewables community.

Keith Goodchild, Managing Director at d3 says ‘We are extremely conscious of the cost of exhibiting and the amount of waste generated at Live Events. The overall lack of attention to sustainable solutions within the industry is of equal concern. That is why we have introduced the concept of Green-ex™ which we believe is the way of the future’.

Keith continues – ‘Although we design and build exhibition stands we are committed to providing sustainable materials and support services. Therefore, we have also developed a suite of low cost electronic services that enable pre-marketing, the invitation process, data capture, delivery of marketing collateral and pre-booking of meetings. As a result, our exhibition clients can enjoy a paperless environment, automated data recording and data base management during their events. Combining these services and minimising the need for elaborate stand design and expensive build, our Green-ex™ solution is providing a full exhibition capability at a fraction of the cost’.

‘Making the decision to launch Green-ex™ at the Carbon Show was a ‘no-brainer’, said Debby Lloyd, Managing Director at Ecosearch® who have collaborated with d3 throughout the development of the Green-Ex™ concept. Debby also sits on the Carbon Show Advisory Board and was recently a judge for the Green Business Awards, so her industry knowledge and expertise has supported the development of the service.

Ecosearch® co founder and Director Phillip Clement said ‘When I was approached by d3 and they told me why they wanted to develop a low cost, low carbon exhibition solution I was immediately engaged with the concept. Many businesses, especially start –up’s, often struggle to invest time and budget to promote their services however the Green-ex™ service can provide them with an excellent opportunity to go to an exhibition, enjoy all of the benefits that can be derived from their participation, but for a more modest investment’.

Zoe Ingle, Haymarket’s Show Organiser added ‘The Green-ex™ concept was of immediate interest to us at Haymarket. We want to actively promote the use of more ‘Green’ solutions and Green-ex™ does exactly that. Enabling companies to share facilities within a ‘Pavilion’ concept is not new, but providing participants with a full range of electronic services designed to reduce or eliminate paper, save administration time, improve lead generation and deliver improved ROI is a significant step forward and that is why Haymarket is very happy to promote and endorse the Green-ex™ concept at the Carbon Show 2010’.

Visit the Green-ex™ stand 268 and talk to their team to discover ‘The way of the future’.
For company descriptions and contact details please see attached appendix.

Click here to view the full Green-Ex press statement.

You can follow @EcoSearch, @dtimes3 and @TheCarbonShow on Twitter.

Solar – Coming of Age...

Things are really hotting up in solar which poses some interesting challenges for incumbent businesses already operating in the space – manufacturers, distributors, installers ...

Some businesses are going to wake up in the morning and find out that someone ate all the pie ... well product then!

Word on the street is that the smaller installers are suddenly inundated with larger commercial project enquiries – they are struggling with the size, the commerciality and the delivery capability not to mention the cash flow issues that £6m worth of kit will give them – cue sleepless nights for some of these MDs. (shhhh... guys might be time to rethink being a ma & pa shop).

The property, pension fund and shed markets have finally woken up to the fact that there is money to be made in ‘them there’ rooftops and now they want a piece of the action and fast…like yesterday?!! Hmmm doesn’t quite work like that does it?

Now what’s also interesting is that some of them are treating it like just another construction project - “let’s get the boys who did that warehouse roof to do it” ... uh? ... well hello big red flashing lights – it’s just not that simple? Meanwhile roofing guys are gleefully throwing in a bunch of ill thought out quotes in double quick time and will be caught with their pants down .... The naivety of some is mindboggling. They don’t understand payback models let alone the products, O&M issues, positioning, FITs bla bla. Someone will lose a shed load of money – excuse the pun.

Conversely – little installers – WAKE UP – the time to buddy up and JV is now – choose your partner wisely or offer yourselves to the lion fast. When the product supply chain squeeze hits – it’ll be those businesses with the biggest wallets open that will land it.
Meanwhile the sleeping giants of construction look like they have their wallets out on a mini shopping spree, so they’ll be Hoovering up the casualties, or perhaps smugly picking over the remains!

As far as manufacturing is concerned, some are struggling to even quote because they just can’t figure the manufacturing pipeline ... the supply chain issue is again rearing its ugly head. Anyone read anything on rare earths – if not try the Thunder Report. http://www.neuralnetwriter.cylo42.com/node/3106

We are already seeing clients defect from those companies who just can’t supply – quality is all very well but if you can’t get it, get it somewhere else – anywhere else and compromise.
And to cap it all, reports are now coming in that some distributors and manufacturers could have already sold or have reserved all of next year’s product inventory, doesn’t this smack of the same thing that happened in big wind? ... mass-demand in a short space of time ... oooh there’ll be a lot of unhappy salesmen out there (give me a ring when you are ready).

Oh, and I haven’t even touched the utilities with this article – what ARE they doing??? Do they seriously think the double glazing sales approach is going to work? That’s a subject for another day!

Green and Renewable Energy Events – September & October 2010

Here’s the latest Events list in the European Renewable Energy space – taking you up to the end of October 2010. We hope you find it useful. If we’ve missed an event, please let us know and we’ll make sure it’s added to the list.

~*~*~

Featured Event:

4th & 5th October 2010
Business Design Centre, London

~*~*~

September 2010:

The Energy Event
8th & 9th September 2010
Birmingham, UK
Twitter: @energyevent

Wind Power Monthly - Cost-effective, best-practice O&M strategies
9th & 10th September 2010
Hamburg, Germany
Twitter: @WPMevents

Women in Cleantech: Exploring Cleantech Policy – From ecoConnect
22nd September 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @ecoConnectCIC

Cleantech Bootcamp - From ecoConnect
27th September 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @ecoConnectCIC

UK Green Buildings Council Regional Event
27th September 2010
Manchester, UK
Twitter: @UKGBC

Biogaz Europe
29th September 2010
Lyon, France

Green in the City: Cleantech meets Biotech - From ecoConnect
30th September 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @ecoConnectCIC

October 2010:

Green Mondays – London
4th October 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @greenmondaynews

Green Mondays – Scotland
4th October 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @greenmondaynews

The Carbon Show
4th & 5th October 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @thecarbonshow

2nd Global Wind Turbine Supply Chain Conference
5th & 6th October 2010
Hamburg, Germany

Energy Solutions Expo
6th & 7th October 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @energysol_expo

All-Energy Australia
6th & 7th October
Melbourne, Australia
Twitter: @AllEnergy

European Biofuels Expo & Conference
6th & 7th October 2010
Warwickshire, UK

2nd Annual Offshore Wind Construction and Commissioning Conference
20th & 21st October 2010
London, UK

Renewable Energy in the Public Sector: Leading the way to zero carbon
26th October 2010
London, UK

EU Biomas Forum 2010
27th – 29th October 2010
London, UK

Green In the City: The Future of UK Onshore Wind - From ecoConnect
28th October 2010
London, UK
Twitter: @ecoConnectCIC

Stay tuned for another events update at the beginning of next month.

Is Your Business Really “Sales” Ready?

So – you have your product, your founder has tested the sales temperature, you’ve landed funding so it's all hands on deck to hire that crack sales team.... or is it?

One of the things I have noticed in early stage land of late is that some businesses are suddenly finding their sales pipeline is not what they thought it was and ill thought out strategies are being tested to breaking point in the current climate.

Evidence perhaps that too many people have rushed into employing a sales team before completely understanding their sales strategy. And also evidence that the sales strategy has not kept current in a rapidly changing business climate.

Common mistakes I see:

Unclear sales strategy – usually borne from a founder being too close to the product and failing to look up and around the market during launch phase.

They misread the early sales made by passionate, driven founders as “evidence of real market demand”.

They fail to take account of objective external views and miss key longer term niches while focussing on the big, low hanging fruit deals.

They fail to articulate what they are actually selling - confused customers do not buy! I see many brilliant ‘techies’ with sound products that actually fail to reach market maturity because they simply can’t sit the other side of the ball and see it from a “customer” perspective and sell it on that basis.

They can’t effectively present product or service features and benefits – what you think is your product's strengths actually isn’t necessarily what your customers think.

They over complicate entering the market – there’s more than one way to crack a nut...

What they are selling actually might not be fully complete or their pricing model is not fit for purpose and does not match the clients’ needs as a business.

They fail to plan long and short term sales pipelines – how to balance keeping the investors happy whilst building long-term value in the business is an art form!

And ... worst of all they rush their hiring and end up with the wrong people ... and that’s where we come in.

Average cost of a failed hire = 3 x salary at the last count ... makes my fees look better value than ever!

By Debby Lloyd,
Managing Director, EcoSearch

Hire, Hire, Hire – Managing Rapid Growth

EcoSearch build the management and technical teams for businesses in renewable energy, Cleantech & Carbon Management – we do that for smallco and corporates. I love this part of my job – I love the role I play in building those successful companies (not that we recruiters are recognized sometimes for the value we bring in the long term – ours can be a very transactional role but where we are able to work in a true partnership capacity it can make for a very powerful result).

We’ve all had that training haven’t we about “man management”, but how often do we stop to think about the application of all that knowledge we soak up over the years and its long term application impact in our respective businesses?

I’ve learned, seen and personally experienced that it is far more difficult to successfully grow your team rapidly in a smallco than in a corporate organisation. Managing to blend, mould and nurture a new team is a bit like making fine wine, only sometimes you are forced to rush it and sometimes the grapes you use aren’t quite what you thought they were (If I were a wine buff now I’d use a suitable comparison here).

Investors these days are very good at pressing the HIRE HIRE HIRE button but don’t always listen to the CEO who knows his business inside out and knows where his existing team is challenged. Mind you, some CEOs are very guilty of going on talent acquisition spending sprees with disastrous consequences, overspent budgets, imploding teams, dysfunctional divisions, poor hires, lowering quality of output.

The good CEO takes the time to monitor the “temperature” and watch the development of his people as he goes about adding. This is a bit of a dark art that many people fail at. Sometimes you have to take your foot off the gas and allow things to settle. I always thought “forming, norming, storming” theories were a bit of a management cliché but they are in fact critical milestones on which to manage. Recognising them is key. It is easy to fall into the trap of putting it down to culture and personality when actually the root cause is usually communication, and clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. These all get horribly blurred when a team expands rapidly. A good CEO recognises this and helps his team understand this and work through it.

And how rewarding is it when you see that team gel into a finely tuned machine that delivers uplift in production and sales?

Hmm - now here’s a thought: What if your recruiter's fee was calculated on business milestones achieved...? I wonder what impact that would have on your hiring quality.

By Debby Lloyd
Managing Director, EcoSearch

Green & Renewable Energy Events List – August & September 2010

The events list is back!

If we have missed anything, please let us know. You can leave a comment on this post or even send us a tweet.

August 2010

Green Drinks – Reading
3rd August 2010
RISC Global Cafe, Reading, UK

Sustainability Now
On demand until 10th August 2010
Virtual
Follow @sustainnow on Twitter

Green Drinks – London
10th August 2010
The Glasshouse Stores, Soho, London

September 2010

Green Mondays - North West
6th September 2010
Manchester, UK
Follow @greenmondaynews on Twitter

Green Mondays – Midlands
6th September 2010
Nottingham, UK
Follow @greenmondaynews on Twitter

Green Mondays – London
6th September 2010
London, UK
Follow @greenmondaynews on Twitter

The Energy Event
8th & 9th September 2010
Birmingham, UK
Follow @energyevent on Twitter

Wind Power Monthly - Cost-effective, best-practice O&M strategies
9th & 10th September 2010
Hamburg, Germany
Follow @WPMevents on Twitter

World Green Roof Congress
15th & 16th September 2010
London, UK

Low Carbon South West: Sustainable Cities - Building The Future
17th September 2010
Bath, UK

Bioten
21st – 23rd September 2010
Bath, UK

HUSUM Wind Energy
21st – 25th September 2010
Husum, Germany

Women in Cleantech: Exploring Cleantech Policy
22nd September 2010
London, UK

If you are organising an event coming up soon and would like it included in future lists - don't hesitate to let us know about it.

The EcoSearch Team