Blue Tech: Joshua Berger of Washington's Maritime Blue Initiative

• Blue Focus is a communications and marketing campaign. We need to do a much better job telling the story of our sector and our members. We need to reach the tech sector and those in control of risk capital. We need to reach underrepresented communities and learn to communicate with diverse groups.

• Blue Forums are open, public knowledge sharing events. This is where we discuss the latest in technological developments, address community issues, or invite new audiences to the working waterfront to learn about the maritime industry.

• Blue Forward is where much of the work takes place. This is where we are facilitating Joint Industry Projects, connecting members and research institutions, providing training and business services to include trade missions and cluster-to-cluster connections.

• Blue Force creates industry driven workforce development programs.  We are starting with the coordination of the Youth Maritime Collaborative – a group of youth-serving organizations that provide on the water experiences for disadvantaged youths or underrepresented minorities that otherwise do not have access or awareness of the opportunities in  the maritime industry. 

• Blue Finance is supporting creation of a Blue Innovation Fund to drive investments in the Pacific Northwest’s maritime industry. We don’t intend to manage a privately capitalized fund but we do intend to encourage it and then offer our network of entrepreneurs and businesses as a investment opportunities, and our members and stakeholders as market experts.

• Blue Facility is the development of a Maritime Innovation Center and related programming which will be a focal point for all of the work mentioned above. With a hub and spoke model out to our more rural maritime communities, this Center will both house accelerator and/or incubator activities, public-facing events, and provide co-working space benefitting all types of our members, from large global firms to local startups. Although the physical building may be a few years out, we are currently working on recruiting a first round of entrepreneurs for a pilot accelerator program utilizing the existing network of accelerator programs in the area. 

David Hume's work experience covers numerous sectors within the Blue Economy including defense, ocean observation, tourism, marine robotics, offshore energy, and fisheries. Currently, he supports the U.S. Department of Energy’s Water Power Technologies Office on marine renewable energy research and development, leading efforts on market research and technical analysis. He holds a BS in Marine Engineering Systems from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, an MS in mechanical engineering from the MIT School of Engineering and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management with a focus on energy and sustainability. He is a US Coast Guard licensed marine engineer and a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserves. 

The views and opinions expressed above do not reflect those of his employers.