San Antonio—An organization focused on promoting energy businesses and innovation in San Antonio is taking a unique angle for the topic of a summit it is hosting in May: technologies that can help the recovery process from disasters, such as hurricanes or even cyber attacks.
EPIcenter, which is redeveloping a 108-year-old power plant into a think tank, startup incubator, and exhibit space, plans to host the disaster recovery-focused event on May 3 at Pearl Stable in San Antonio. The half-day event is going to have speakers from both large and small companies working to aid in disaster recovery, both through discussions about their technology and experience surviving them, according to Kimberly Britton, EPIcenter’s CEO.
The event and EPIcenter’s broader work reflect the Alamo City’s ongoing effort to attract more business, particularly startups that often bring along investment dollars and tech jobs. And the topic is also significant to Texas cities like San Antonio and Houston, the latter of which suffered mightily during Hurricane Harvey last year. Xconomy’s Angela Shah has closely covered the tech community’s efforts to aid in the recovery from the severe flooding Houston neighborhoods suffered, from building apps to starting relief funds—potentially relevant to EPIcenter’s conference. Similar destruction was a possibility for San Antonio, though the worst of the storm wound up bypassing the city.
EPIcenter held a summit last year, its first since its founding in 2015, that was focused on connected devices and the Internet of things, or IoT. The goal for both events has been to discuss topics that haven’t yet been fully unpacked, and, in this year’s case, to bring attention to other work government and business groups are doing to promote disaster relief efforts.
“EPIcenter is extremely supportive of this effort and wanted to highlight the technologies that enable resilience and continuity,” Britton wrote in an e-mail.
EPIcenter is still accepting applications through March 25 for some speakers for six TED Talk-style slots at the event.
