It’s been a while since I reflected on my career journey on what many of us in the industry have affectionately begun calling “The Solarcoaster.” Rather than look at events in the industry as a whole over the 2011-2012 period, I wanted to take a more personal view; a view as a big fish in a very small pond that has become a small fish in a big pond with all the humility and lessons-learned that went along with it. Continue reading
Casual meeting spaces were at a premium at this year’s Intersolar, the four-day solar conference and trade show co-located with SemiCon West in San Francisco, CA. With estimated attendance at around 15,000, over 120,000 square feet of exhibit space, and three days of panels discussions and presentations, it seemed like the only thing missing was more places to have impromptu meetings. Many industry colleagues packed their days tight with conference sessions on market analysis and new products, pounding the carpet in the four floors of trade exhibits, and- of course- meetings. Continue reading
Solar Power International has invited Chaolysti to share expertise in the expanding Northeast US residential market with conference attendees as part of the panel “Expanding Residential Solar Markets” as part of the Markets conference track. Continue reading
Join Chaolysti and Heatspring Learning Institute for a free webinar short course entitled “Strategies for Small Business Solar Success: Lead Generation and Operational Efficiency” which will take place on September 13th.
Learn successful tactics for solar lead generation and managing those leads to improve profitability and customer service. Set your small renewable energy business up for success with a Total Digital Office(tm)! Using Google Apps, cloud-based data storage and applications, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and social media, today’s renewable energy companies can save money, manage more operations internally, track data better, scale faster, and spend more time on what’s really important- providing stellar customer service and focusing on driving sales through marketing.
Is it “Keeping up with the Jones,” predisposition to sympathy with environmental concerns, like owning a Prius or electric vehicle, or marketing by solar companies that is driving adoption? A webinar recently put on by Agrion explored recent research exploring why and invited Sungevity‘s Danny Kennedy to speak about how their company is revolutionizing delivery of solar energy systems. Continue reading
I’ve written previously about how those working in the solar industry can help journalists write better articles about solar energy and how to use current events as a PR platform. Unfortunately, it seems as though I should have also included PR advice about the danger of positioning your own product or company against another within the solar industry. A June USAToday article highlights exactly how infighting in the solar industry of “my next-gen product is better than your dinosaur 1960′s-NASA-tech” serves as fodder for mainstream press to make the solar industry look like a child throwing a tantrum. Continue reading
Join solar industry Twitter users for a fun “tweetup” lunch on July 13th during Intersolar. SolarFred, Free Hot Water, and Go Green Solar are spearheading the event.
Take time for an intimate lunch at Thirsty Bear, a microbrewery a few blocks away from the Moscone Convention Center. (Address below.)
It’s PFYOL (pay for your own lunch), so please bring cash to make it easy on the waiters.
We’ll gather at 11:30 AM, so that we’ll beat the rush and have time to catch up. PLEASE RSVP here via Twitter or Facebook, so that we can give Thirsty Bear an accurate head count for the number of tables.
As a long-time attendee and organizer-emeritus of Green Drinks, I thought the event had cornered the market on green-focused networking events. Unfortunately, over the years my frustration has grown with the open format, to the point where I threw in the towel when Green Drinks SF announced it would be adding Speed Dating to the evening, confirming my suspicions that a lot of people use these events as an interest-targeted dating pool. Then I discovered EcoTuesday this week. Continue reading
Are you an entrepreneur with your own small solar or renewable energy business or considering starting your own business in these fields?
Are you attending SolarFest this year?
Join Pamela Cargill on Saturday July 16 at 1PM for an hour long presentation/discussion under the USA Solar Store Tent for “The Green Marketing How-To” and MORE! The presentation will cover low/no-cost start-up tactics from Total Digital Office to setting up effective business operations to developing sharp marketing techniques- many of which you can do yourself no matter what your technical aptitude!
Bring your questions, stories, advice, best practices, and lessons learned to share.
Recently, there has been a lot of discussion on the American Solar Energy Society LinkedIn group after their April issue included an article highlighting some market research conducted by the Shelton Group, confirming many biases about the marketing of solar that I have held true and previously written about.
The editors of “Solar Today” magazine reprinted comments of mine left on the ASES LinkedIn group about this article in their reader response section in the June issue. Based on these comments, the new associate editor, Alex Abdallah, contacted me for a full interview. The results of this interview should be featured in the July issue of Solar Today so keep your eyes peeled!