Bits and Bytes: A 2013 Wrap Up!
By Office of Innovation
In Uncategorized
Dec 23rd, 2013
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Before we head on home for the holidays, there’s just a few more things to celebrate!
- Lit San Leandro: At year’s end, Lit San Leandro has connected over 3 million s.f. of building space to its fiber optic network, representing a 1,000% increase since February 2013! That represents at least 70 businesses as Lit San Leandro customers, with many more businesses connected through these customers who are often the building owners.
- EDA Conduit Expansion Grant: Work continues behind the scenes to begin construction on the expansion phase of the Lit San Leandro network. Once completed, the City will have constructed an additional 7.5 miles of conduit, in addition to the existing 11.5 miles, that will enable hundreds of new businesses to connect directly to the Lit San Leandro’s fast fiber.
- San Leandro’s two largest retail centers, Bayfair and the West Gate Centers, were connected to Lit San Leandro this year.
- West Gate Center: The owners, SKB Companies, have committed hundreds of thousands of dollars in improvements designed to position West Gate’s 2nd floor industrial/tech space as the Center of Innovation for the Bay Area Maker Community. Recently rebranded The Gate, this 350,000 sf 2nd floor is successfully building a community of makers that are taking advantage of the fiber optic technology provided by Lit San Leandro. At least 50,000 sf of new space has been leased since April, when Lit San Leandro went live at West Gate. We have also held two very successful San Leandro by Design: Innovation Café events at The Gate, designed to gather tenants and other interested stakeholders together to create a connected community that innovates through collaboration.
- Bayfair: The LSL network went live at Bayfair in October, just in time to kick off the first San Leandro by Design event at the Bayfair: Out of the Box! event. This tremendously successful event was held outdoors on a long-unused parking structure, transformed into an event space that featured a showcase of San Leandro manufacturing businesses, both startups and established, as well as food, drink and music. This was followed in December by a final Meet the CIO event at the East Bay Maker Lab space in Bayfair: Cool Tools for Makers. Wonderfully innovative ways to use traditional retail spaces!
- Meet the CIO and San Leandro by Design events: Hundreds of people from San Leandro, San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, Emeryville, Berkeley, Alameda and other cities around the Bay Area have been to one of these many events. We’ve learned the importance of co-working space in innovation ecosystems, explored San Leandro’s innovation ecosystem through showcases and events, discovered each other and learned how to have fun doing it! While I will retire the Meet the CIO events, these will transform into the broader San Leandro by Design events, promoting meetups, networking, education and all things tech and innovation!
Keep reading www.sanleandronext.com to keep up with San Leandro’s rapid developments in 2014. Happy Holidays!
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