Last week, the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Regional Economic Development Initiative, or REDI, entered its next phase with a public unveil during the inaugural REDI Summit. You may recall from a previous blog post that REDI is harnessing regional collaboration to advance innovation in key industries that are all contributing to the acceleration of IoT (Internet of Things).

The event featured key speakers from each of REDI’s four action teams — Agile Manufacturing & Development, Transportation R&D, Smart Buildings, and Health Technology — sharing key updates, findings, and next steps to put their priority projects into action in 2016. In summary, here are the action items and next steps for each working group:

Agile Manufacturing & Development

  • Develop an ongoing forum to promote Business-to-Business connections in Silicon Valley;
  • Advise creation of an online resource directory and connection hub to generate stronger local buyer-supplier relationships, including a map of local manufacturers;
  • Develop compelling rationale and brand for manufacturing in the region, including case studies of Silicon Valley manufacturers.

Transportation R&D

  • Showcase event with senior public and local elected officials to raise awareness of transportation technologies being developed in the region, and the opportunity for these technologies to address key regional challenges: congestion and safety.

Smart Buildings

  • Partner with PG&E to work on opportunities with small and medium businesses to improve building efficiency;
  • Work with the City of San Jose to identify potential pilot/demonstration projects for innovative smart building technologies;
  • Create a marketing/outreach strategy to reach target audiences and build awareness of smart building technologies and improve efficiencies.

Health Technology

  • Convene an initial forum in Fall 2015 to provide a venue for startups to understand customers and real-world barriers to execution, as well as institutions/health systems to find solutions to healthcare problems.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, get involved! The REDI team is actively seeking industry expertise to lend perspective and guidance to this effort.