Progression 2024 hopes to establish itself as the premier platform for emerging environmental technology. This year’s conference June 13 at the Center of Excellence is in partnership with Protect Our Winters and other venture capitalists.
Progression is Ryan Bellissimo’s idea, who works in climate tech, environmental venture capitalism in Los Angeles. His goal is to bring mission-driven investing to the venture capital cycle.
“This is something that I realized that nonprofits can have by developing these corporate partnerships a lot earlier on in their lifecycle,” Bellissimo said. “That was the thesis I wanted to continue to pursue and by working with a Protect Our Winters team incubated into this style of event. We're really excited to be able to provide this platform in the future for nonprofits to engage in ventures to put a spotlight on companies that they think are really going to move the needle forward.”
Bellissimo has partnered with the organization Protect Our Winters, which is focused on legislation and lobbying for the clean energy transition. He says the hope is that through partnerships like this, nonprofits like POW, will be able to engage the private sector and put their brand and stamp of approval on companies that have the potential to make significant progress in the fight against climate change earlier in the investment cycle.
“And these companies are in need of the spotlight, because they're all fundraising. So, we've worked with Protect Our Winters to select six companies also with the help of the Rocky Mountain Venture Capital Association, who are all in the midst of fundraising. They're going to be coming to Protect our Park City to present and give potential investors and climate advocates the opportunity to support them and even potentially invest if they're interested.”
The conference is Thursday, June 13 from 2:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the US Ski and Snowboard’s Center of Excellence. The program will include a keynote address by professional ski mountaineer and POW’s athlete alliance member Amie Engerbretson.
Conference participants will have the chance to hear from six companies that both support POW’s mission and represent business opportunities. A panel, he says, will also discuss the future of clean energy investing.
“On this panel, we have Jam Attari, who's the founding partner of Pathway Power. We have Kirsten Suddath, who's the general partner of Next Frontier Capital and she focuses on their climate practice. And we have Tom Georgis who's the managing director of the University of Utah's Energy Accelerator.”
To register for the conference click here.
