INNOVATION NEWS

Check out our news highlights and archive here.

NOTE: Our blogs are typically “assisted by AI”. We use AI to assist us in research and style the way a human editor would.

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Doug Erickson Doug Erickson

Win a SUP Shack Rental for Two People!

To celebrate SUP Shack's team-building experiences, we're giving away a SUP rental for two people at the Santa Cruz Harbor. Enter through Santa Cruz Works for your chance to win and experience a little of the SUP Shack adventure for yourself.

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Doug Erickson Doug Erickson

Startup World Cup Comes to Santa Cruz October 17

Santa Cruz Works is proud to sponsor Startup World Cup Santa Cruz Regional, landing at The Catalyst on October 17, 2026. Startups will pitch for a shot at $1M. Full details drop on September 9 at the Santa Cruz Works New Tech.

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Guest User Guest User

Measure D and the Blue Wall’s Coastal Protections

Measure D, on Santa Cruz County's November ballot, would extend 1986's voter-approval requirement for onshore oil and gas facilities to cover seabed mining too — locking in local control before federal leasing opens central coast waters to drilling and mineral extraction as soon as next year.

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Doug Erickson Doug Erickson

The Question Nobody in AI Wants to Ask

Forty years in tech, some of it alongside John Sculley and David Hancock, taught me one pattern: computing always migrates from the rented mainframe to the desk you own. Free frontier models, memory-rich Macs, and a $69 cable are repeating it now. The AI scoreboard is wrong. Apple is quietly winning.

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Malina Long Malina Long

SCWorks New Tech Returns Sept 9, 2026

Join us for an evening of innovation as Santa Cruz-area entrepreneurs share what they're building, from elevated transit systems to sustainable retail hardware to game design and immersive experiences.

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