Seattle Day 3

We  had a brilliant day yesterday. Now, if you say Seattle, I bet two things come to mind. Firstly, Microsoft (and we went there on Friday). Secondly, Starbucks. And that’s where we went yesterday.

You arrive at the office and it all seems normal – up in the lift to the reception, people coming in and out of a door. But when you go through that door, it’s like walking into Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory! There are big open spaces with sofas, coffee kitchens on every corner, loads of conference rooms, people everywhere. Their building is the biggest office space in Seattle and is IMMENSE. There’s a huge coffee roasting machine on one floor, which is the space that everyone comes together in. We got something of a tour, including past the big placard with the numbers of Starbucks in every country – 0 in Belgium! almost 700 in the UK. We also saw their gym and down to the entertainment division. Amazing.

When we went to the conference room, we started with a coffee tasting, apparently that’s a thing that happens quite a lot. One of the people we were talking to had been with the company since it had 40 employees – it now has over 100,000! They’re all called “partners”, not employees. We had a very interesting discussion about how the company dealt with the vast array of people they have, and talked about the corporate culture there. They have 6 guiding principles, the sixth of which is profitability. Diversity is second.

You really left with a feeling that this is a nice company to work for (however you might feel about their world-dominance and their responsibility for making us all drink Latte!). They really seem to value the individual’s contribution to making the company. I guess my concern would be, how long would that culture remain if the company was in other hands than Howard Schulz and the people he has brought through the company? Something they think about too. I suppose you would have to hope that the culture is part of what makes Starbucks a success.

After that we went to the Puget Sound Regional Council, where there was a roundtable organised on diversity issues in the Greater Seattle area. We had been expecting 5-10 participants. 40 plus turned up!!! Seattle clearly has a lot more diversity going on than it might seem on the surface. Our meeting had Jewish, Filipino, Nigerian, Tanzanian, Mexican, African American, Peruvian, Vietnamese and I can’t think what else representatives. Once again, the discussion came down to education. Whatever this country has going for it, and it’s a lot, it all seems to come down to education. It does make one wonder what it will be like in 30 years, if Americans aren’t equipped for the kind of jobs that are around and they’re not letting enough foreigners in to do them. It does really seem like something that needs to get sorted out, pretty drastically!

I’m now in San Francisco, with a busy couple of days before heading out to the country. Should be fun!

Seattle Day 2

Well, isn’t Seattle great! We had great weather over the weekend, so I made the most of it, visiting a schoolfriend I haven’t seen for 21 years on Saturday and wandering around the city centre yesterday, including going down to Pike Place market.

We had a later start than usual today (thank goodness!) so convened at 11am to go to the University of Washington. It was good timing, as my phone went haywire over the weekend and so I had to take it in to Verizon this morning (needless to say they did a hard reset on it. Really, IT seems a no-brainer: if it isn’t working, turn it off and start it again. If that doesn’t work start it all over again from scratch.)

We had fun at UW – it was a discussion on diversity, which is the theme of our visit. they had various people from across the university’s different programmes. Needless to say, we had a lively session with them, covering the high school dropout rate, University career services, the appointment of supreme court judges and the stratification of American society. After that we went to the Northwest African American Museum. Did you know that Jimi Hendrix and Quincy Jones are/were from Seattle?! and on the pioneers that came west was an african american called George Washington Bush!! The museum has been developed in a historically African American museum and above the museum there is rental housing for low-income families. They also have a geneaology centre, supported by the Mormons, who apparently provide immense support to geneaology across American society. Who knew…

Off out for dinner in a bit and then hopefully going to see a film.

Denver Day 2/Seattle Day 1

Sorry for not posting yesterday, but after alot of driving in Colorado, a delayed flight, a late arrival and a time zone change, I was too pooped!

My second day in Denver was as interesting as the first. I had a later appointment, so was able to have breakfast and check out before driving to Boulder. I got there ages before time, which was useful as I got TOTALLY lost. After driving around the whole place, with little GPS lady being no bloody use to me whatsoever, I finally found a garage where the guy not only gave me directions, but pointed me in the direction of a post office to send another great package of stuff back to Philadelphia. How I will get this all home I do not know! Then at 12.15 or thereabouts I went to the National Snow and Ice Data Centre. They’re a fairly small research centre, focussed on the cryosphere – basically anywhere it’s cold. I talked to their communications people and one of their scientists, dealing with sea ice, which is of course a huge issue and has led to alot of attention for them. It was really stimulating then and the day before to talk so much science (and fairly gratifying from my perspective that I seemed to be able to hold my own in these conversations!)

Then the  drive back down the ghost road – a tollway from Boulder to Denver that was just a delight to drive on – almost empty even at rush hour. I suppose people are put off by the tolls, but it suited me!  Before leaving Boulder I drove up the side of the mountains, because this is really the point where the Rockies meet the Great Plains. Stunning views, to which I’m sure the photos will do scant justice.

So then it was back to the airport, giving back the rental car (I’m not going into the trauma of refilling it at the petrol station as the memories might send me into some kind of spasm…) and checking in. As I sat having something to eat I realised that I hadn’t done one thing I meant to at the post office which was post my latest OU assignment. Luckily there was a post office at the airport. Unluckily I didn’t have the address with me (though I was sure I had put it in my bag – later transpired that I had, but one of the bags I checked in…). So that’s another day it will be late…

Arrived late (after 11) in Seattle so I just unpacked and went to bed. We had an early start today to head out to Microsoft. And what an interesting day we had. We had talks on some of the education work they are doing including the Innovative Schools Project. We heard about the Worldwide Telescope, super cool as I am just doing the cosmology section of my course. They told us about some of the partnerships they are creating around the world to improve access to technology. Of course, with a group as diverse as ours, there was a lot of talk about the digital divide and how technology is used or abused by governments and/or corporations to improve the lot of its people or keep them in their boxes. The final 2 sessions were particularly interesting from my point of view. Firstly the work of Microsoft Research. What I take away from that is the freedom that they give their researchers to work independently of product development – they are just there to do the best possible basic computer science. Physically they are in a different building. They have a tech transfer team to see what they can “spin out”. It’s a very good atmosphere to stimulate creative thinking. The final session was all about the role of technology in our future world and how that needs to be managed by governments. The guy giving it started off by mentioning a foresight conference he attended at IPTS in Seville (one of our internal research institutes for non-Commission people) so I was very happy! It was a great discussion, because it highlighted on the new paradigm that is emerging and the new skills and education that will have to go along with that if countries are to take advantage. Best of all, we got half an hour in the company shop at the end, so I have Windows Ultimate Vista to upload to my Mac (via Boot Camp) so I will be able to run Windows and OSX on the same computer! And it cost me $45!!! A LOT less than buying a new computer! Let’s hope it works OK when I get home.

So, back at the hotel now and off out with some friends of Barman Phil’s for a few drinks and some live music. Seattle is great, reminds me a bit of Sydney actually. I’m meeting a girl I went to school with for lunch tomorrow, so Seattle will be a social whirl!

Denver Day 1

Had a fabulous day today at the National Renewable Energy Lab. It had been one of my top must-sees, but we were having real trouble getting the entree. But it happened in the end and the persistence was justified, as it was really interesting. I started by meeting Carol from the Public Affairs side, who gave me some background about the lab and showed me round some of the buildings. They are all very energy efficient, holding the platinum status under the US accreditation system for buildings. [Spooky aside: I was supposed to have been met by Sarah Barba, but she was ill today with an allergic flare-up. And I dreamt last night that I had to cancel today's meeting because I had a horrible rash!] 

I started the day with a discussion on education. The lab do quite a bit of outreach, encouraging elementary school kids (4th graders) to develop their reading skills through science, which is a nice double whammy. They also do quite a few initiatives to encourage girls to get interested in science, with a meeting for middle school girls where they can attend lectures by women scientists on things like ‘why Barbie is anatomically impossible’!! And while they’re doing that, their parents are talking to professionals about how to get and keep their daughters interested in science. All very interesting. Then I met someone working on the international side. NREL do a lot of work with USAID and the UN Environment Programme to help developing countries plan their energy development, making the most of their renewable potential. Then I had a discussion with their press guy, before he showed me round their photovoltaics lab. Not surprisingly they have had an explosion of interest from the media recently. We discussed some of the problems that are common to press work, like measuring impact and monitoring audiovisual. After a nice lunch, I met someone from public affairs, who took me round their bio-energy lab, where they are working on producing bio-fuels from agricultural waste, switchgrass or woody materials – what are known in Europe as second-generation biofuels, and where we really need the developments if the biofuels thing is going to work.

Then the final treat of the day was the visit to the wind site, about 20 minutes drive from the main lab. There I was given a very interesting presentation on the challenges and potential of wind power and the state of its use in the US (did you know they have NO off-shore wind-power at the moment!). Then we went to see some of what they are doing. We started in the area for testing the turbines. The machine they have there produces 1 million pound feet of torque! Eat that, Clarkson!!! We then went to the facility for testing wind turbine blades. Basically they put pressure on them, bounce them up and down and give them a hard time to see when they break. When they built the facility they could fit the blades in it and move them up and down (flap) and side to side (edge). Now the blades are so large they stick out the end of the facility and they can only test them in one direction.  Just shows how things are progressing.

Finally we went out to the wind to hydrogen research. Funnily enough, in all the science I had chucked at me today, the only time I got really lost was when they started talking about the engine!  Shows I’m not a car owner!

So, all in all a fantastic day. Thanks to NREL for letting me visit! There’s nothing like seeing things first-hand.

Miami/Grand Canyon/ Dallas

So, there’s been a few days of radio silence as I was at the Grand Canyon with no internet access. My last day at Miami was at the University. I was supposed to see one of the VPs, but he didn’t arrive, so I talked to the Communications people. I think the most interesting outcome for me was that this communication thing is pretty much the same wherever it is you are doing it – the challenges are the same, what works is the same. That’s a great eye-opener, because it means that if I want, I have a whole range of new options in front of me outside the public sphere. Don’t worry Reijo, I’m still coming to London in June!!!

Then we went to the Grand Canyon. What goes to the Grand Canyon stays at the Grand Canyon (!) but we had a great time and it was fantastic to reconnect with everyone in a relaxed atmosphere. Plus I had a lovely birthday there what with the Fellows spoiling me, plus all the messages I got from you all back home.

But it’s all over too soon and now we’re back in the saddle. I spent the day today in Dallas at the corporate headquarters of ExxonMobil, with Deema, Sam and Omar. We had a full day of discussions, and there was a lot of interest in there. While there were people talking to us about their education initiatives and corporate citizenship actions, there was a quite refreshing acceptance of the fact that they’re a corporation and they do things, including their more philanthropic activities, for a business reason, not for the “joy of giving”. But they are nonetheless doing some interesting things. For example, they require all their employees in Africa to take malaria tablets and work with them to cut malaria among their workforce and so among the local community. They are doing some interesting things in the maths and science education field in the US. All the usual problems that regular readers will be familiar with came up, including the issue that most initiatives dealing with this are local. So they are involved with a National Science and Maths Initiative. Must find out more about that. They are doing a really interesting thing – encouraging their retiring employees who have science and maths experience to retrain as teachers. They support them through teachers training and so on. A really interesting idea!

We had a presentation of their energy outlook to 2030. I will try to find a copy to send to some of you. They said they are doing work on on-board hydrogen production, so, filling a car with petrol which is converted into hydrogen for a fuel cell to run the car, rather than an internal combustion engine. Not something I’d heard about before – are we doing any of this?

Lunch was a reminder of how the best part of this programme is the other fellows. We were talking US politics and our host asked Deema what the view was in Jordan about the US troops in Iraq. Clearly such an emotional issue for her, and she gave her view so clearly and calmly, without ducking away from the issues, like the rejection in the Middle East of all reasons given for the Iraq invasion and the impact it has had on the lives of not only millions of Iraqis, but the whole region. I’m not taking a position, just saying that I love being able to have these conversations in a spirit of openness and dialogue. At the end of the day, that’s been the most valuable thing.

After that I hopped on a flight to Denver, picked up another hire car and am now at a hotel near the airport, getting ready to drive to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory tomorrow. Looking forward to that!

Florida Days 1 and 2

Florida started EEEEARLY, getting off the red-eye from Las Vegas at 7am. I picked up a rental car at Fort Lauderdale – got a PT Cruiser because there were no compacts left. It was a much nicer drive than I thought. I drove to the hotel in Boca Raton, checked in and crashed out for a couple of hours. When I woke up I changed and headed out to my first meetings of the day, which were at Scripps Florida, an independent research institute that focuses on biomedical research. Florida, like North Carolina, has been working on becoming a global destination for biotechnology, as part of its economic development goals and the creation of quality jobs (traditionally jobs here have been tourism, services and agriculture, all of which tend to be low-skill, low-pay jobs.) They have some really interesting education and outreach programmes and I was also able to talk to their business development guy. What they are doing differently in Scripps Florida is moving beyond basic research into translational research, which should help companies develop the discovery as they come in later in the process. They got a lot of financial support from Florida and the County to set up the institute, but it seems that most of their operating budget comes from NIH grants won on the basis of excellence. After the meeting, the education VP showed me round some of the labs. LIke the school in St Louis, there is a strong element of architecture in making the centre work – the labs are long and open, and bring together various different disciplines, so there is much more interaction amongst the scientists. Are there any courses on architecture to promote exchange ideas, or theses on how this affects co-operation?

After that meeting I joined Omar and Christian for dinner with Myles Martel about leadership and communication. It  was such an interesting session, because it codified and ordered things that I have often instinctively felt about how to do this job. For example, when we have those discussions about whether the Commissioner should do a press conference. Myles said that leaders should persuade, not inform, to move their target audience towards their goal. So if you’re just telling people about something, then someone less “leaderlike” can do it. The Commissioner should come on board to convinve people about something. And if you think about it, the most successful communication experiences we have had have been the ones where there was persuasion to be done.

An early-ish start this morning, though nothing like yesterday! Omar and I drove to Miami and he dropped me at Chuck Cobb’s office. Ambassador Cobb is an Eisenhower trustee and was a political appointee ambassador in Rejkjavik. He met all of us that came to Miami and offered some interesting ideas about people I should talk to. We talked a bit about the challenges of science education, and mused about how the US can address them – there’s a strong state v federal thing here, as you no doubt know.

After a truly yummy Cuban lunch from a wee caff, my only regret being I had to wolf it done to get to the next meeting, I headed over to the University’s Medical School. I had a brief meeting with the VP for Special Programs, then headed over to meet the Provost for  Research, Richard Bookman. What a great guy and what a great meeting. I had suggested a few things to talk about -research ethics/integrity and the involvement of private money in research. These are obviously big issues for all universities and theirs is no exception. The Association of American Medical Colleges did a symposium on the science behind influence, which basically found pretty unequivocally that doctors are influenced (one way or another) by gifts, favours and reciprocal relationships (in their words). The question could therefore be less one of eliminating potential conflicts of interest – which is nigh on impossible – and more one of declaring and managing such issues. He is also leading a discussion within the university (and beyond) about open innovation, building on the work of Larry Lessig  (I haven’t been able to watch the video on the link because of the bandwidth, but Dr Bookman told me it was marvellous!). What this is looking at is new forms of managing intellectual property, opening up knowledge as far as possible and only locking it in where necessary. There are also moves afoot to link up IP within universities, thereby opening existing ideas to reinterpretation and reworking which might lead to renewed innovation. All totally fascinating. I don’t feel I’ve done it justice here, to be honest, but I hope you get at least a flavour.

Talking of flavour…I’m hungry and not in an area with a lot of life. Hope that there’s some food somewhere in the hotel! I’m managing to get quite a bit of Open University work done today, which is not before time! But at least TMA 08 is done.

Las Vegas Day 1

So I arrived in Vegas on Saturday afternoon from St Louis. When I handed in my rental car there, it was snowing. When I got outside the airport in Vegas it was about 85 degrees. BLISS! I met up with Chak Hee when I got to the hotel and we set off to explore the town. I will gloss over the hotel because, to paraphrase Gil, it was not really up to standard for emerging leaders!! Well, it was very 70s, didn’t seem it had been renovated for years and the clientele was not exactly Bellagio. But my basic requirements are clean and comfortable beds and hot water in the morning shower and it had both of those, so I won’t really whinge.

Vegas is crazy, insane, ridiculous – but kinda fun for all that! It’s been strange being at this conference full of serious broadcast people and high technology and then heading back to the Strip with its yard-long margaritas and all you can eat buffets! The conference – National Association of Broadcasters annual event – has been something of an eye-opener. It’s very focused on the industry, so all the stands are about broadcast technologies and many of the conference events have been the same. Unfortunately the two best sessions for me were at the same time…sods law. I saw Anthony Zuiker, founder of CSI, speaking this morning and this afternoon was at a session on social networking. I have to say there is a bit of me which doesn’t have much truck with this “boo-hoo our audience share is being taken away by new technologies whatever can we do about it” attitude you hear around the halls here. Yes, people, mainly but not exclusively young ones, are turning to alternative venues for some aspects of their entertainment and news. But it still seems to me that there is a basic adage in this industry – people respond to quality programmes. If there is a move away from television to other media, it’s got a lot more to do with the quality of what is being broadcast, rather than the platform it’s being broadcast on. A good TV show is a good TV show and still draws in tens of millions of viewers (CSI being a prime example). Having mobile, web and gaming associations alongside The Swan is never going to make it anything other than manipulative, voyeuristic, shoddy programming. It was interesting talking about this with Chak Hee (Korea Fellow and Chief Anchor of an English-language TV channel there), because in the news world, the web is much more competition for TV than a complement, as we were discussing in the sessions I went to.

Catching the red-eye to Florida tonight, arriving early tomorrow and doing the driving thing again, so tune in later for more Antonia-related automotive fun!

St Louis Day 2

St Louis gained huge brownie points last night for providing a great night of R&B after our Brazilian dinner organised by Rob Fruend, one of the 2008 US Fellows. This morning we started with breakfast from another 2008 US Fellow, Rachel Storch, who is in the state legislature. She told us that there was an attempt to criminalise human embryonic stem cell research in Missouri recently. Criminalise it. Not “not allow it with federal/state funds” but put scientists in prison. I find that quite shocking. I mean, there have to be limits. But the vast majority of the people involved in this, like many of the people at Monsanto, are doing this because they believe they are doing something good. In fact, this seems to be a state with many issues bubbling beneath the surface. A little more on that later.

I spent today at the St Louis Science Centre. The morning was great, particularly the meeting with the Associate Director, Carol Valenta. It does seem that there is a change underway in the American science museum world, a recognition that they cannot rely on things that spin and flashing lights and “edutainment”. They need to focus on real science and also look to the future, not just represent the past. I found this in my meetings in Washington and North Carolina and St Louis said it too. I was interested to talk to them about the involvement of industry. The centre is a source of information for people from a source they rely on to be objective. So how can that square with being paid by comapnies. For the moment, the answer lies in the American civil society – the support for exhibits comes from companies’ philanthropic dollars, not their marketing dollars. But the former is shrinking, so what will happen then? They have also had to adapt to the fact that one-third of their visitors are not accompanied by children. Does that show a thirst among some of American society, at least, in finding out the facts behind the scientific myths?

Well, that was all fascinating enough, but then I had lunch with Diane Miller, who heads up the Taylor Centre, an outreach programme of the science centre. They work with kids from neighbourhoods dominated by ‘under-represented groups’, which translates here as African-American kids. The teenagers come to the centre on Sundays and they work on various projects – building greenhouses and growing plants for old people’s homes, working in schools, designing communal spaces in community groups to make them more open for minority groups. These are kids from areas with huge levels of drop-outs and yet there are kids there who don’t just graduate from high school but go on to college. Almost the best bit was discussing with her some of the issues relating to race relations in the US and in St Louis in particular. It’s astonishing to think that it can still be the case where people can’t buy a house or send their child to a private school because of their skin colour. But I”ve heard both of those stories today, from different people. This all links into the panel we had this afternoon on healthcare, with Rob, Rachel, Bolormaa and Sam. Because public health, primary care and particularly prevention seem to me to be part of a cycle of education and access that have a lot to do with money here. Apparently in poor (i.e black) areas of St Louis there are no proper supermarkets. Couple that with a lack of public transportation and of course families on welfare in those areas end up buying processed foods that are easy to carry and mean they don’t have to go to the supermarket reguarly. And a lack of basic scientific knowledge means that myths build up around how health issues arise that are very difficult to challenge.

Over dinner Bolormaa and I discussed some of these issues, primarily in the context of the delivery of healthcare and the idea of a social contract that prevails in our societies - there are some things that are about more than the individual, and rather about our responsibility to each other within a society. I think that’s maybe at the core of our differences. So, still learning about this place!

St Louis Day 1

It was an early start today, leaving the hotel at 8am for Monsanto, with some nice oatmeal under my belt! The weather was totally foul but David’s instructions were right on the money and so I got there no problem at all. My first meeting was with three people from their communications team. The main point there really was that there’s no real different in how you communicate about scientific issues whether you’re a major international company or a public institution – it’s about the message, the messenger and making it relevant to people. Then I met their Director of Global Public Acceptance, then the coordinator on their side for the Water-Efficient Maize for Africa Programme. After lunch I went out to the Monsanto Research facility and had a really interesting tour there. All of which gave me considerable food for thought.

I think there are elements in Europe which feed into the attitude that have nothing to do with the technology – such as recent food scares and also our different relationship with food – the pride we take in it and the enjoyment we gain from it, which are generally very different to the US. I also think mistakes have been made in the past by the biotech companies by not taking people’s concerns seriously and so not addressing them. But it’s not a black and white issue. As climate change grips, should we really take away the possibility for farmers in drought affected countries to feed themselves? And who are we to tell them what to do anyway? As the population grows and the amount of land to feed them from reduces, should we not use technologies that can increase production per acre? As we’re concerned about the environmental impact of agricultural practices, should we not use technologies that can reduce them? I’m not saying I’ve made up my mind. But the point is that technology is rarely intrinsicly good or bad. It’s what is done with it. And I can see that good can be done with this technology. 

Off for dinner with the fellows now, at a Brazilian restaurant. But am in driving karma situation (for all those lifts I’ve had over the years!) No caiparinhas for me which is no bad thing!!

North Carolina/St Louis

We checked out of the hotel this morning and headed to our meeting at the North Carolina Biotechnology Centre. Yes, you’ve already heard about them – I was there previously, meeting with Steven Burke. Today we met with a wider range of people working in the centre, including on their education programmes, their small loans to businesses and their research grants. It’s interesting that they are taking this on in public private partnership way, providing grants for education (mainly university and community college, but also K-12) and research. We had a discussion about acceptance of GMs in Europe – they also look at public acceptance and communication efforts. They do some interesting things with schools, including workshops for teachers, equipment made available to schools to teach aspects of biotechnology and so on. Over lunch (pasta with tomato sauce, I was in heaven!) I talked to Rudy Juliano, who is a cancer researcher at UNC-Chapel Hill, but has also got involved in science policy at the state level. Really interesting guy. We talked about some of the challenges and the similarities of science policy in the US and Europe. The thing is, there’s a lot more in common than it may seem. Just like in Europe the states have enormous freedom to pursue their own science policy - look what North Carolina has done with the Research Triangle Park and this Biotech Centre. And the challenge is how to make that work at a national level. the difference of course is the sheer volume of federal funding via the National Science Foundation. But that was referred to as “over-the-wall” funding, where there is little accompaniment. The states can look at the science they support within a context to the extent that is not possible at federal level.

The morning was a little perturbed by the news that American Airlines was cancelling most of its flilghts today as a result of this on-going maintenance hoo-ha. But in the end, the flight was not only on time, unheard of for US internal flights in my experience, but it arrived early! I picked up a car at the airport and drove for the first time in the US! Gil deserves some danger money for even getting in the car with me, but I think it’s going to be OK tomorrow. The guy who is arranging my visit to Monsanto tomorrow met me and we had a very nice dinner at the Ritz-Carlton. Then headed back to the hotel and met up briefly with Sam and Gil.

So time to head to bed I suppose to prepare for tomorrow, and deal with the time change - I’m heading West!