It’s interesting, I’ve been travelling to the US for over 20 years on business and I’m still excited by the prospect of heading there again on the Clean and Cool Mission 2010 with 19 other CleanTech entrepreneurs from the UK. I’m like a kid on Christmas Eve, I keep waking up during the night wondering if Santa has arrived yet – sad isn’t it!

This trip is a little different however; it’s my first trade mission and clearly focused on the CleanTech sector, so my hope is that it will provide my company, Juice Technology, with a number of business and funding opportunities. The company is perhaps a little different from the others on the trip in that it is already established in North America having started a Joint Venture called JuiceWorks there 18 months ago with one of the largest US lighting companies. In fact the first LED lighting fixture developed for the JV has just won a Next Generation Luminaires Award, the most prestigious award in the US lighting industry.

Juice is also in the process of putting another business together with a group of investors in Northern California to address a separate market, integrating high efficiency power and data communication into office furniture.

My key objective for the trip is to build on this start by looking for other groups and companies with which Juice can build partnerships with, where the company’s background Intellectual Property and skills can create value. I’m particularly interested in the prospect of working with electric vehicle developers, where there is the opportunity to create lighter, more efficient wiring networks using Juice’s power and data distribution technologies.

The second aim is to build relationships with potential investors. Juice is currently looking to raise equity capital to grow its activities in Europe while the JuiceWorks JV is also raising funds to grow the North American opportunity and further leverage Juice’s technology, particularly its power and control system, branded LumiNet in the US.

Finally I hope to enjoy the trip. San Francisco is one of the world’s great cities and my favourite in the US, fantastic food, wine and people. Should be a brilliant week!

Ian Turner is the founder and CEO of green lighting firm Juice Technology and is currently taking part in the Clean and Cool Mission

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