Cherish Joostberns | Principal Communications Analyst & Resource Manager
Employees of a certain age might remember “Meetings, Bloody Meetings” - a 1976 corporate training film starring John Cleese about a man dreaming he’s on trial for holding disorganized and terrible meetings. As corporate training films go, it is - improbably - a Monty Python-esque “classic”. And for all of us that ever watched annual training films, we know that’s an accomplishment! We’ve included the link to the original here, for anyone looking for a Halloween trick or treat!
With CANA being a remote company across multiple time zones, we think we’ve put a pin in running tight, productive meetings. When we have the opportunity to travel and meet the team, clients, and peers, we know it’s a big deal. Face-to-face events allow for learning and out-of-the-box thinking in a way a Zoom meeting or boardroom cannot. Conferences, so many conferences, will have their own sets of headaches - weak wifi, disappointing pastries, bad microphones, or even empty seats - but they are almost always a net positive in who comes to the table and what CANA gets out of every one of them.
We know we’ve crossed paths with many of you! In the past few months, CANA attended a number of live events so we could engage in, and promote, electric mobility ideas, initiatives, and opportunities. We’ve met a lot of people, shook a lot of hands, and shared a lot of passion.
First stop this August was Newport News, Virginia, for the Association of Marine Corps Logisticians (AMCL) Symposium. A great many of the CANA team were there, by way of first-hand Marine Corps and Navy logistics experience and their current CANA roles. Rob Cranston, CANA President; Jesse Kemp, Principal Program Manager; Tommy Kline, Principal Logistics IT Integrator; Terry Hagen, Principal Logistics Analyst; Jerome Dixon, Senior Operations Research Analyst, and Greg Lewis, Principal Logistics Analyst, among others, were panelists, moderators, and audience members for sessions like “Making 21st Century Logisticians”; “The Fully Burdened Cost of Energy”; and “Advanced Manufacturing”. These are the topics that continue to push issues of energy resiliency, security, diversification, and innovation to the forefront.
Several members of CANA flew to Hawaii in late summer for the Operational Energy Logistics Symposium, to include Greg Lewis and CANA’s Technical Director of Energy Solutions, Shawn Charchan. Of note, the symposium was a public introduction of the Advanced Operational Energy Toolkit (AERT), an ongoing effort CANA is establishing within the energy analytics community to research and explore energy systems and emergent energy-related technologies. It will enable users to understand how this emergent tech will enable future forces to use energy as a battlefield enabler and operate in new and novel ways.
Will Berry, CANA Principal Program Manager and lead for CANA Electric Mobility Initiatives, also attended the Tactical EV Expo in San Diego. Will met with an array of commercial vendors and federal and military stakeholders interested in developing an already available electric and hydrogen tactical transportation solutions. It was a perfect opportunity to share the continued progress of CANA’s partner, the SoCal Tech Bridge, and the eTHOR prototype partnership. SoCal Tech Bridge Director Ben Cohen was on hand as well, speaking about the challenges and opportunities in bringing electrification to the battlespace.
CANA wrapped up the government’s fiscal year in late September at the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar Air Show. When people stopped looking up, they checked out the ingenuity on hand at the Air Show’s Tech & Innovation Expo, where CANAers Will Berry, Chris Cichy, Principal AI Analyst, and Shawn Charchan were gathered with partners like AWS and DANNAR LLC to bring the eTHOR prototype and electric energy excitement to literally hundreds of thousands of visitors. Elements of eTHOR have already been involved in real-world missions, and that continued validation of its relevance is always exciting to share.
If you attended any of these events, or would like to connect with anyone who attended, we would love to hear from you! Let’s keep the coffee hot, the pastries plentiful, and the conversation going!
#electricmobility #tacticalvehicles #logistics #marinecorps #navy #operationalenergy #eTHOR #energysystems #electricvehicles #electrictechnology #sustainability #installationresilience
If you’d like to contact Cherish Joostberns, Principal Communications Analyst & Resource Manager, you can reach Cherish at cjoostberns@canallc.com