INNOVATION NEWS

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Doug Erickson Doug Erickson

New Tech Comes Home to the River

Santa Cruz Works brought its June New Tech gathering to River Row — a new riverfront venue beside the San Lorenzo — and debuted an expo-style format that let founders, engineers, and community members actually talk to each other. Seven companies showed what innovation looks like when it grows from this place.

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Malina Long Malina Long

Here For You Is Almost Here

Here For You is a platform that makes it easier for people to show up for one another during life's hardest moments, bringing together communication, task coordination, fundraising, gift registries, and resources all in one place.

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Doug Erickson Doug Erickson

The Crowded Sky

The same hunger that turns a perfect empty peak into a zoo is now pointed upward — and this time, there's nowhere else to paddle.

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Doug Erickson Doug Erickson

Workshop: The AI Amplification Problem

A behavioral science-backed workshop for people leaders ready to move past AI hype — discover your leadership style, understand how AI amplifies it, and leave with a concrete strategic roadmap in hand.

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Doug Erickson Doug Erickson

A Successful First-Ever Student-Led Mayoral Forum

In a historic first for Santa Cruz, elementary school students took center stage as forum moderators, drawing strong community turnout and sparking an authentic civic conversation between mayoral candidates and the next generation of city residents.

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Alex Lund Alex Lund

Cornell's Rootline Robotics Takes Top Prize at Farm Robotics Challenge

The Farm Robotics Challenge unites the brightest young minds in agriculture and engineering to solve real problems happening in fields right now. From autonomous weeders to AI-powered pest detection, competing teams design, build, and test robotic systems that could reshape how the world grows food — and the best ideas don't just win prizes, they become companies.

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Neil Erickson Neil Erickson

The Dragon Gate: Remembering Santa Cruz’s Forgotten Chinatown

Santa Cruz’s Dragon Gate tells the story of the city’s forgotten Chinese American history along the San Lorenzo River. A short film from the Coastal Watershed Council traces Santa Cruz’s five Chinatowns, the last of which was destroyed in the 1955 flood, and highlights the monument now standing at Chinatown Bridge as a reminder of the people who helped shape the city. The article also connects that history to today’s riverfront revival, including Laurie Egan of Coastal Watershed Council speaking at New Tech at River Row.

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