At the end of a crazy day
Palo Alto, Sunnyvale then San Francisco and back
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There are days when everything happens. It was like that yesterday. Physically it is hard, what is more, impossible to be at two places at the same time but we gave it a try and we did quite a good job.
The plan was to go to San Francisco by train. Troy and Robert are already gone, they have moved over San Francisco. Getting around without a car is pretty clumsy but challenges like that teach you to move about in this country.
An event called “Sustainable Innovation Day” took place in Sunnyvale in the morning,
which was organized in Plug and Play Tech Center. Without the organizers the brands PayPal and Dropbox wouldn’t be so well-known. Many startups are present in the building already and it was good to see how the community areas, the restaurant were formed to follow the example of Google. Which is, in my opinion, already present in all the companies here. You can find less and less of the rigid office style of the 90s. I love it!
The conference was done entirely according to the ideology represented by ENVIENTA.
The lecturers talked about shocking data. California will have to face forest fires and lack of water. Big companies were represented themselves at the presentations and there was a lecturer from the Governmental Office of California as well.
Finally, this was the place where we managed to meet people who had been working on their projects for a while and others whose sustainability project is still rudimentary.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay until the end of the day because we had a previously arranged meeting 50 kilometers from us in San Francisco, and we had to get there, too. We jumped in an Uber (thanks to the pool, it is cheaper, too), to the railway station. Sunnyvale, San Francisco is more than 1-hour trip.
The easiest way to buy a train ticket is through the application CalTrain. I really recommend if for downloading before you come here. Buying the ticket is extremely simple and clear. You have to keep in mind that the ticket is only valid for four hours.
All aboard, let’s go to San Francisco…
Going by train is a great experience. I feel like a little kid again. Even the inside of the train is not usual. One carriage has two floors. Of course, I want to sit upstairs. We stop at every station but we still manage to get to the middle of San Francisco in 70–80 minutes. But seriously it is more efficient than a car. The ticket costs 8.50 dollars which compared with England — also taking the distance into consideration approximately the quarter of a British price.
We get around in San Francisco much easier, everything we want to reach is simply accessible on foot. The meeting goes well and we try the new pitch deck “live”, we get valuable feedback and a promise that we are going to be introduced to a representative of a brand very close to our project.
Walking is nice because we pass headquarters like Dolby and Twitter.
On the way I remember that we were let in one of the biggest hackspace venue in the US, the night before, I am going to write about that next time.
It’s been quite an exciting day and it feels good to get more and more familiar not only Palo Alto but San Francisco too.
If you would like to follow or participate in the ENVIENTA project, come and join our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1549322302054465/
