Advanced Biofuels and Chemicals Leadership Week preview

March 30, 2012 |

Vilsack, Clark, New, Melo, Wolfson, Gruber, Schilling among the headliners as 120 C-level executives and more than 500 delegates converge on DC for Leadership Week.

What exactly goes on at a major biofuels summit – what happens on and off the platform when people like Tom Vilsack, Wes Clark, Phil New, John Melo, Jonathan Wolfson, Pat Gruber converge in DC?

All about the inside workings of a biofuels summit, and how to get noticed and succeed at ABLC.

In Washington, delegates are beginning to arrive for the biofuels industry’s annual Leadership Week, which will bring together an estimated 550 industrialists, policymakers, financiers, researchers, suppliers and press to DC for four days of dialogue, announcements and deal-making.

More than 120 C-level executives attending

More than 120 bioenergy C-level executives are expected to be on hand for a program led by US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, former NATO Supreme Commander Wesley Clark, and keynote addresses from CEOs at BP Biofuels, Amyris, Solazyme, Genomatica, and Gevo.

The speakers are fantastic but the highlight of ABLC and Leadership Week are the surprise announcements and sideline meetings,” said Biofuels Digest editor & publisher Jim Lane. “There’s a ton of business conducted both on and off the floor, and it’s great to see key companies building out their supply chains, financing and customer groups right before your eyes.”

40+ media on hand

Delegates from more than a dozen countries will be on hand, and more than 40 members of the press, including TV, online as well as print journalists, representing a sharp uptick in attention to advanced biofuels, especially after the Presidential campaigns of President Barack Obama and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich divided sharply over the role of advanced biofuels in the US energy plan. Half the press corps will represent the trade press, and half will come from mainstream media including Bloomberg, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, Politico, and AOL. Eight press conferences are expected to take place during the week with keynote speakers, and relating to product announcements.

The conference theme this year is “Go Big, Stay Strong” reflecting the scale-up efforts as advanced biofuels makes the wrenching transition from pilots and demonstration projects to full-scale commercial deployments.

Special announcements expected; companies tight-lipped

Also, a surge of financiers and analysts are expected at this years conference, with numbers expected to double to more than 50 participants from investment banks, brokerages, hedge funds, merchant banks, and buy-side and sell-side analysts.

In surveying speakers, major product and partnership announcements are expected to break in Tuesday’s session, which is the opening day of the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference, although companies have been tight-lipped on specifics in the days leading up to Leadership Week.

New research will be presented from the Energy Information Administration in their updated energy outlook, and BIO’s industrial biotech chief Brent Erickson will highlight findings from the latest Bioenergy Business Outlook survey, which looks at job creation, spending trends and capacity expansion.

The IPO queue and recently public companies

Recent IPO companies such as Solazyme, Amyris, Ceres, Gevo, REG, and Codexis will be represented at the conference. Also, numerous companies in the IPO queue, including Mascoma, Enerkem, Fulcrum, Genomatica, Coskata,  and Elevance will be on hand, though some will be restricted from presenting owing to “quiet period” restrictions relating to the IPO process.

Monday highlights

An expanded plenary program will be held this year on renewable chemicals, and will open the Leadership Week activities with Renewable Chemicals Live! program on Monday, headlined by a keynote from Genomatica’s Christophe Schilling.

Tuesday highlights

Highlights on Tuesday include the keynote address by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, the opening address by Amyris CEO John Melo, 15 CEO addresses including Solazyme’s Johnathan Wolfson, and a policy forum including the heads of the Advanced Biofuels Association, BIO’s Industrial & Environment section, National Biodiesel Board, Advanced Ethanol Council, Algal Biomass Organization, as well as USDA and DOE leaders.

Wednesday highlights

Wednesday highlights include a special breakfast session on Australia, special keynote from BP Biofuels CEO Phil New, and sessions on hot technologies, feedstocks and partnerships featuring 14 C-level addresses.

Thursday highlights

Thursday includes the third annual Military & Aviation BIofuels Markets sessions, and the first annual Bio-Based Investor Summit. Gevo CEO Pat Gruber, and former Supreme NATO Commander Wesley Clark and Deputy Assistant Navy Secretary Tom Hicks lead off the action. The military & aviation markets sessions will feature FAA, USDA, Alaska Airlines, United Airlines, CAAFI, and the US Navy among other distinguished speakers.

Over in the Bio-Based Investment Summit, sessions will feature analysts from Bloomberg and Raymond James,  debt raters from Fitch and S&P, venture capitalists, investment banks and attorneys as they look at the most effective capital structures for successful scale-up.

6 ways to succeed at ABLC and biofuels industry events

Well, you have to be there to win. But attending is not the same as succeeding. Here are some proven methods for success, especially for those working the floor as a delegate.

Overall tip? Have a nicely packaged, small item containing your info. A thumb drive is ideal. A CD is almost as good. A paper-based one-sheet is pretty darn good too. Thick brochures, and anything heavy? Fatal. Hotel room garbage bins are filled with well-intentioned leave-behinds that get left behind when its time to pack up and go home.

The 3/100 rule. If you come home with 3 new ideas and 100 new contacts, 2012 will eb areally fun year. Come home with 100 new ideas and 3 new contacts, frustration is in your future.

1. Meet speakers. The best time to meet speakers is right after their presentations. There will usually be a line, and especially if lines are long, time will be short. But the wait’s worth it. When your turn comes, compliment their presentation, they work hard on them. Have a one-sentence description of what you hope to accomplish with the speaker, exchange cards, and write your topic on the back of your card: for example, “interested in your feedstock,” “like a copy of your report,” etc. Then, follow up by email.

If you can’t wait or miss a session, there’s a picture of speakers in the ABLC program. Find them at cocktail receptions or elsewhere on the floor. Cardinal rule. Be brief, and make your comments 99% about them and their concerns, 1% about you and your concerns.

2. Meet delegates. Best time to meet delegates is at the networking receptions. Don’t be shy, walk up to individuals or groups and say hello. As long as you are exchanging cards, making pleasant small talk and are quick about it, you’ll be welcome. But wait until individuals are finished, if it looks like they are discussing business.

The 99% rule applies to delegates as well as speakers. If you’re pitching, you’re failing. At ABLC, whatever you say better be all about the person you’re talking with, or you are going to see the glazed-eyes from a potential partner who’s simply overwhelmed with trying to follow what you’re saying, amidst 100 conversations that are taking place each day. Put your pitch on a business card, and exchange cards.

Besides, you’ll find that quickly scanning someone’s business card collection is an excellent way to understand a lot about them, and who they are meeting, and thinking about.

3. Meet the media. Media can be powerful allies in amplifying your message. Best place to meet them is in or near the press room, and especially after a major press conference. Wait until the press conference is over, study the badges while you wait to pick your preferred contact opportunities, then go over and say, hello. Never, ever approach a press person unless you know their byline and have read their work. If you treat them like a commodity, you’re unlikely to make any headway.

4. Meet the event staff. Especially towards the end of an event, when time is short, conference staff can be invaluable in identifying or tracking down someone you wish to meet. Be careful about asking a lot of them on the first morning or two – they’ll be harried with getting everyone registered and oriented. But the last day, especially, there is a lot less to do at the registration desk, and by then, they may know the faces even better than you do.

5. Meet the exhibitors. An invaluable source of tips, scoop, industry data and scuttlebutt are the exhibitors. They know a lot even before they get to an event. By the end of a four-day conference, they’ve heard the rumors, the facts, and everything in between. Take advantage, and get to know them. Who knows, you might also pick up a key supplier or two.

6. Meet the trade association heads. They are there to serve members, and in conference events they know a lot of faces you might not, and can perform introductions between members, and they love doing that. No need to ask for special favors, or make complaints – plenty of time for that later in he year. At events, their networks will be invaluable to you – keep it quick, simple and upbeat and you’ll find allies who can help you get noticed and known.

7. Early bird gets the worm. ABLC and most major conferences have extensive networking tools for setting meetings in advanced. Use them. Its far easier to get time before the conference than during.

Insiders Guide to ABLC

OK, what really goes on at ABLC, and where does it happen?

First of all, there’s the public program, which is to say the presentations and the conference-wide events, such as the awards reception on Tuesday night.  Invaluable opportunities for networking and gaining perspective, but there’s a lot more.

Next, watch some of the pre-session activities. For example, the trade association heads usually have an informal get together right before they get to the platform on Tuesday morning, often to discuss opportunities to make unified statements, for example in support of key tax policies or legislation.

Another key area to watch is the lounge area right below the main conference floor. That’s where a lot of the one-on-ones are held.

There are a number of broader meetings that take place during the event as well. In the past], CAAFI has held sessions onsite at ABLC with their membership, and the Advanced Biofuels Association usually does a series of meetings with their members either at ABLC or during Leadership Week.

There’s a lot of job hunting that goes on at ABLC. There are a number of key headhunters always on the floor. Good people to know – they not only hear of opportunities for you, they know where the key people are and who’s happy and who’s not, when it comes time for your company to grow.

Since there’s a lot of financiers and analysts at Leadership Week and ABLC, it shouldn’t surprise that there’s a lot of meet-and=-greet with respect to future transactions. Watching the attorneys is always a pretty good predictor of future action.

There are a lot of dinners and breakfast events all week. The Victory Plant organization will be meeting on Monday, for example, throughout the morning, off the conference floor. And, if you can score a ticket to the Austrade breakfast on Wednesday, its’ not only a terrific introduction to the Land Down Under, it attracts a lot of key companies looking for expansion opportunities.

Then, there are the mystery announcements. There are usually at least a couple of major ones during Leadership Week, often orchestrated weeks in advance but kept under tight wraps. Some of the ambitious ones don’t quite come off, including a plan to synchronize the first trans-continental biofuels flight with the ABLC schedule, or a plan to have algae-powered vehicles transporting congressman from ABLC back to the Hill for key votes.

This year in no exception – no transcontinental biofuels flights planned, but there are some powerful mystery announcements we expect to hear about during ABLC week. Stay tuned.

Category: Fuels

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