CAFE: Symposium Finds Synergy In New Venue

The CAFE Foundation has been through big changes over the last year, with new leadership and a new venue for their 10th annual Electric Aircraft Symposium, and program coordinator Yolanka Wulff told AVweb this week the new strategies are working well. "We moved our conference to the Bay area, and part of that was a re-visioning on the part of CAFE about our mission," she said. The symposium had previously been held in Santa Rosa, in Sonoma County, but now has moved to the Marriott Waterfront in San Francisco, less than 10 minutes from the airport. The location is more convenient for those attending, Wulff said, and also is just 10 minutes away from the concurrent Maker Faire, an annual event drawing more than 150,000 people, in which CAFE took part.

Participating in the Maker Faire advances CAFE's goal to engage and educate the public, she said. "We had an exhibit area that drew an enormous amount of attention to electric flight," said Wulff. "The amount of interest was incredible." Another goal is to help develop market opportunities for electric flight technology, she said, and the new location, close to Silicon Valley, also advanced that agenda. "We had a number of investors and venture capitalists in the audience who hadn't come before, and there were good discussions between the technology developers and investors," she said. "One of the themes that really came through was the importance of understanding the business case while developing the technology." CAFE plans to offer the conference again next year at the same venue, concurrent with Maker Faire, Wulff said. She added that several of this year's participants, including representatives from e-volo, are interested in bringing full-size operational aircraft for display at next year's event.