By The Way, This Guy Is Coming To Our Event

Yep, Sacramento's new Mayor, Darrell Steinberg, is going to join us this Monday evening, January 23, as we partner with Comstock's magazine for a panel on the future of innovation in Sacramento.

Mayor Steinberg will start things off by taking about his hopes and dreams for Sacramento as an "Innovation City," and his plans for making that happen. Then we'll ask six great Sacramento-based innovators about how they're going to help him out.

Free admission. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Get there early to grab a seat -- the Mayor kicks off the event at 6 pm.

The Podcast for Our "Policy and a Pint" on Pot and Prop 64 Is Up

More than 140 people came to Ruhstaller on January 11 for a standing-room-only discussion on the future of pot now that Propsition 64 has passed. Big thanks to the great panelists - Lori Ajax, Hezekiah Allen, Nate Bradley, Gabriel Garcia, Councilman Jay Schenirer and Andrea Unsworth -- and everyone who attended, especially those who stood for the entire 1 hour and 45 minutes.

You can sit down, kick back, relax and listen to our "Pot Is Legal . . Now What?" podcast on Soundcloud. Listen to the entire 1:45 hour podcast at once, or listen to segments you're most interested in -- we broke it down in the "Podcast Timeframe" section at the bottom of the page.

Pot Is Legal . . . Now What?

Join us for our first "Policy and a Pint" discussion of 2017 -- all about cannabis, California's biggest cash crop. Marijuana is newly legit, and that will soon will have a major impact -- economically, socially and politically -- all over our state.

California's "pot czar" is one of our panelists. Lori Ajax,  Chief of California's Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation, will talk about the differences and similarities of regulating medical marijuana and recreational cannabis, how the state plans to manageboth, and whether it can meet Proposition 64's timeline do so.

Here's an Q&A with Ajax in the Los Angeles Times -- come ask her your own questions on January 11 at Ruhstaller's Beer, starting at 6 p.m.

We're Famous!

Our first press mention. Thanks to Sacramento Magazine for the great writeup in its November 2016 issue about our org and what we're doing.

Robots, Drones and Dozer the Detector Dog: Our "Future of Food" Podcast

Listen to the great panelist discussion "The Future of Food: How Yolo County Is Shaping It," which we held last month at Sudwerk Brewery in Davis and find out more about the AgTech innovations, startups, people and yes, even canines, that are springing up in Yolo County. As panelist Kristy Levings from AgStart put it, "On a scale of 1 to 10, we're at a 1 for progress, but for potential, we're at an 11."

Go straight to the podcast (there's a timeline of discussion topics so you can jump to specific parts), and/or go to the List of Resources on the event page so you can read up more on the people, places and things that are creating the massive AgTech economy in Yolo County.

Policy and a Pint: Shaking Up the Election Process

Another Weekend-before-the-election special: A heartwarming, enlightening, uplifting discussion about the 2016 election -- Trump is only mentioned once, Hilary none.

Here's the Policy and a Pint podcast of our "Shaking Up the Election Process" panel at Ruhstaller's taproom a few weeks back, with Caity Maple, Paul Mitchell and James Schwab using no filters whatsoever to discuss, opine and predict the outcome of the election next week, and the next one coming up in two years.

Listen to the podcast here

A Contentious Issue: Placer County's Measure M

A Weekend-Before-The-Election podcast special: Four panelists go head-to-head on Placer County's Measure M. It's one of 16 ballot measures in California counties that ask voters to increase their sales tax to pay for transportation improvements (Sacramento has Measure B).

Placer's Measure M is certainly an interesting one -- both the Tea Party and the Sierra Club are against it. Two of their representatives came onto our "Policy and a Pint" panel last week in Roseville to debate against a Placer County supervisor and the Yes on Measure M campaign manager.

As you'll hear, it was a passionate debate over a contentious issue -- but everyone shook hands and saluted each other at the end.

Listen to the podcast here

6 Ways UC Davis Is Supporting and Promoting AgTech Startups

UC Davis is the top school in the U.S. for Agricultural Sciences. Now it's turning that science into AgTech startups This AgFunder article explains how, and we'll be going into the details this Wednesday at 6 pm -- "Future of Food: How Yolo County Is Shaping It" at Sudwerk Brewing in Davis.

Podcast for "On the Waterfront: Revitalizing the Sacramento River"

We've got Old Sacramento and now the Barn, but what else do we have along the Sacramento River? Why can't we have the hike/bike trails, the boat launches, the water taxis, and work/live/play options along the waterfront? Both West Sacramento and the City of Sacramento say they're making waterfront revitalization a priority, but what's do-able and what's not?

For our second event at The Barn in West Sacramento on September 22, we asked questions to people who know the Sacramento River well about what's in the works for the short term -- and what needs a lot of work to happen in the long term -- on both sides of the riverfront.

Listen to the discussion via our Soundcloud podcast page.

West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon bicycled by the Barn on his evening commute home and stopped to join us (photo by Rich Beckermeyer).

Read This Before Opening a Brewery

"During the final session of this year's California Craft Beer Summit, a moderator asked three veterans of the industry if they'd start a new brewery in the state's current beer landscape. The answer was a unanimous "no."

In this Thursday's "Future of Beer" discussion at The Barn in West Sac, we'll be addressing pretty much of all of the topics and comments covered at last weekend's Summit, as it's obvious there's a lot of change ahead for the state's brewers and beer drinkers.

Tom McCormick, exec director of the California Craft Brewers Association (which put on the Summit), is on the panel and will give his take.

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