East Bay Global Forum
East Bay EDA is excited to host the East Bay Global Forum on Thursday, September 11, an event highlighting our region’s international partnerships, collaboration, and innovation. Join us for conversations with local international leaders, business representatives, and trade officials. Honored guests will include Consul Generals from our region’s largest trading partners. This event is presented by Sutter Health.
Keynote Speaker
We are excited to welcome Caroline Winnett, Executive Director, Berkeley SkyDeck, for our keynote presentation. Skydeck is UC Berkeley’s official startup accelerator. The Berkeley SkyDeck Fund is the investment partner for UC Berkeley’s SkyDeck Accelerator Program. The Fund invests $200K into each startup that goes through SkyDeck, and can participate in later stage investment rounds with Berkeley founders. One of the most active seed investors in the Bay Area, the Fund has made over 130 investments in 3 years.
Industry Partners
Amber Kinetics – Amber Kinetics is the industry leader in manufacturing flywheel energy storage systems (FESS). As the only provider of long-duration FESS, Amber Kinetics extends the duration and efficiency of flywheels from minutes to hours—resulting in safe, sustainable, reliable, efficient, simple, and flexible energy storage solutions. Amber Kinetics is based in Union City.
AVEVA – AVEVA is a global leader in industrial software for energy, infrastructure, manufacturing, and other industries. It offers smart software, cloud infrastructure, data integration, and sustainable results. AVEVA joined forces with OSIsoft in San Leandro in 2021.
Bayer – Bayer’s primary biotech site for the development and manufacturing of protein therapeutics and emerging cell and gene therapies is located in Berkeley. This site also serves as the global supply center for Bayer’s portfolio of medicines to treat the life-threatening blood disorder hemophilia, serving patients in more than 50 countries.
Ripcord – Ripcord uses robotics and AI to unleash the power of data trapped in documents, whether they’re paper or digital, structured or unstructured. Ripcord, headquartered in Hayward, is the only intelligent document processing (IDP) company that ensures paper documents are part of your data set.
International Partners
Canada – Canada is California’s fourth-largest source of foreign investment. California exported $18.4 billion and imported $16.3 billion in goods from Canada in 2024.
Germany – Germany is California’s fourth-largest investor and one of the state’s largest trading partners. German companies like Siemens, Bayer, Infineon, Zeiss, and SAP have established significant operations within the state.
Japan – Japan is California’s second-largest source of foreign investment. It is California’s sixth-largest partner in the world for two-way trade. California imported $27.7 billion and exported $10.9 billion in goods to Japan in 2024
Mexico – Mexico is California’s 13th-largest source of foreign investment. It is California’s top export market, with the state exporting $33.5 billion in 2024. It is also California’s second-largest import market, with the state importing $64.3 billion in goods in 2024.
Title Sponsor
