The Rising Tide Summit — Vipe Desai on Convening Business, Research, Entrepreneurs and Non-Profits for the Oceans

My latest Bloom in Tech podcast, “Rising Tide Summit — Oceans, Brands and Good Business,” is up! 

I talk with conference founder VipeDesai about bringing together non-profits, business, scientists and entrepreneurs to address problems facing our oceans, and everyone near an ocean. The conference is set for Wednesday and Thursday this week (March 28 and 29) at AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles. This link is to the conversation hosted on Anchor.fm, but you can also find it on Apple’s iTunes Store, PocketCasts and SoundCloud. 

Here’s an edited version of my conversation with Vipe: 

DB: Hey everybody, I’m David Bloom with Bloom in Tech. Today I am joined by Vipe Desai. He is the CEO of a (Huntington Beach-based) company called HDX, which makes environmentally friendly sports drinks. 

But the reason why we’re talking today is Vipe has created an interesting ocean-focused conference called the Rising Tide Summit and it’s going to be held (March 29 and March 29 in San Pedro, Calif.). We’ll get into where and when and all that in a minute. 

Rising Tide will bring together thinkers, innovators, business people, scientists, researchers, etc. etc. to talk about challenges facing the ocean and solutions that might help make it all better. So Vipe, welcome aboard.

VD: Hi, David. Thanks for having me on your show. 

DB: Now tell me a little bit if you would about the Rising Tide Summit and what got you interested in this subject. As I said earlier, it’s a bit of a jump from your day job

VD: Yeah, look, for the last 20 years, I’ve been very concerned about the health of our oceans. My journey started when I got an opportunity to join the board of directors for the Surfrider Foundation and I got to see the work that these grassroots activist organizations were doing and I just continued my involvement and diving deeper into what more of what I could do. 

And over the years, I realized that businesses can be used as a force for good. And that’s why I launched Hydration Mix, my environmentally friendly sports drink company. But also, with my service on nonprofit boards, I felt that there was an opportunity to bring this dialogue to business owners and innovators, because most of the conferences that are out there focus on the research, the science and the issues. 

But really, there isn’t a conference or gathering that really brings in the business owners and invites them to engage on these issues as to what more they can do as businesses. They are the market movers and that’s really what we need. We need businesses to step up and help to protect our oceans and that’s why I created the Rising Tide Summit.

DB: Okay, now that’s a fascinating extra wiggle there. But give me some examples as you have been pulling together this conference. This is the first one and obviously it’s a bit of a brand new world. 

But what are the kinds of connections that you’re hoping to make? Are there particular kinds of companies that you anticipate will be there? Can they take some of what they’re going to hear from some of the folks on the research side and turn that into really actionable, sustainable business opportunities?

VD: Yeah, absolutely. You know, look, the type of folks that are going to be there are obviously Jenny (Krusoe) and Tim (McOsker) from AltaSea. 

But we’ve also got Matt Mulrennan, who is the director of the Ocean Initiative at the XPRIZE Foundation. He and XPRIZE are really, really focusing around technology for our oceans. So if there are any businesses out there that are working on apps or any use of technology, robotics or anything like that, this is an onramp for them to get involved, get a better understanding of what others are doing and what they might do.

But we’re also talking about innovation in the surf industry. There’s a gentleman who’s going to be there talking about the first Zero-Waste surfboard factory, where they are taking waste that is taken from surfboard manufacturing and it is delivered to a mealworm farm, which then these worms devour all the foam waste instead of it going into a landfill and it turns into soil. 

So we’re really looking at bringing in businesses from all sectors. Others include renewable energy technology, apparel manufacturing, restaurants, all across the board here.

We’ll hear stories of other businesses that have initiated sustainable or cause-related marketing or socially responsible programs within their business. 

DB: Okay. And it is all basically ocean focused, is that correct?

VD: Yeah, we wanted to stay focused on our oceans. I’ve had a belief for many years that the ocean is the most powerful economic engine on earth and that without a healthy ocean, we don’t have healthy people, a healthy planet or healthy profits. I wanted to, you know, engage businesses to be part of this discussion and be the solutions that we need.

DB: Okay. Now, you mentioned Ginny and Tim there with AltaSea. What’s the connection between Rising Tide and AltaSea?

 VD: The connection there is I’ve been asked to serve as an ambassador for AltaSea. And over the years I’ve gotten to learn the work that they have been doing at their facility and I have fallen in love with this project. 

It’s in my backyard and the other side of it, honestly, personally, for me is the harbor. There is where I discovered the ocean. So for me it’s a bit of a homecoming to have AltaSea there on the port where everything began for me and to help them further their mission. 

The Rising Tide Summit just was the right fit. It was the right time, the right people, the right message, the right conversations and history and everything, so it couldn’t have lined up much better than what’s already happening.

DB: Give us an idea of some of the folks who are going to be speaking and presenting at the conference. 

VD: So we have a guy who is the executive director for Lonely Whale. It’s a fairly new organization that’s come up over the last couple years, but their work on raising awareness for plastic straws in some of the initiatives and campaigns that they have launched in the last year has already won awards.

 They have changed the dialogue of how people look at plastic straw waste and how they engage, so we’re going to be talking about the Strawless Ocean campaign that we launched. It’s called #StopSucking, so if anybody wants to look it up, just Google “Stop Sucking” and you’ll see some really amazing content stories and videos around that campaign.

We have Fred Keeley, who’s a former California Assembly member, and David Wilmot of Ocean Champions. They’re going to be talking about how political hardball can save the ocean. That’s one area that is still a little soft in the conservation community of what can we do politically. This organization, I serve on their board and I’ve been working with them for years. They are really working hard to elect those people to Congress and Senate who are going to put forth good ocean policy, so they’ll have a unique conversation to share that is rarely heard any other conference.

And then we’ve also got folks like Jim Moriarty. Jim is former CEO of the Surfrider Foundation. He instituted a lot of technology into Surfrider to reach more people. He is now the director of brand citizenship at 72andSunny, which is an award-winning global marketing agency. He’s going to be talking about the age of activism and the rise of brand citizenship. So we’re really going to be putting a wide array of conversations out for the attendees to plug into that’s really interesting. 

DB: 72andSunny has certainly kind of blown up in recent times, but this notion of brand citizenship is like a step beyond even the Corporate Social Responsibility stuff into this next level of engagement.

And, you know, a lot of the research shows that Millennials and the generation behind them, the Gen Z kids, will make decisions about who they engage with, what brands they support, based in part on the companies’ policies on all kinds of interesting things, like their inclusiveness for people of color, gender, gender neutrality, non-discrimination against gays, lesbians and others, etc. etc. That helps decide for these up-and-coming consumers what brands they want to connect with. In turn, this is forcing a lot of brands to, they used to want to sit on the sideline, but they don’t want to do that anymore, right?

VD: Yeah, absolutely. And I think the other thing that’s happening is that this is this is evolution of brand stewardship. I think brands are turning into the defenders of our democracy and everything that our country stands for.

Before brands were doing these one-off, cause-related marketing programs here and there. Then some brands started to initiate that (corporate social) responsibility on a day to day basis on how they source materials or products for their end goods and everything like that. And then you’ve seen that brands have started to engage in a lot more storytelling and talking about their values, which is great. 

But now this next level is what you touched upon. It’s this next level of engagement, and brand citizenship is a great way to frame it. You can’t just talk about what your values are and what you stand for, but you also have to step up and stand up against things that will do harm to your values. 

I think a perfect example of that is Patagonia. You look and see what they’ve done recently as soon as the administration came out against our public places and the monuments and so forth. You saw Patagonia come out hard and strong and swinging, to sue this administration. 

I think that really was a good use of their brand and in all honesty, if you look at it, their customers want Patagonia to defend these outdoor places, because that’s where people recreate. 

I think it’s the same opportunity for the people that we’re talking to. Look, restaurants, hotels, if you have a business that is on the coast, you should defend that coastline, because without a healthy ocean, you won’t have customers. So this is a really big opportunity to open up this conversation. 

That’s why I think Jim’s presentation around the rise of brand citizenship is going to get a lot of people interested. It’s a way for them to engage, but it’s also kind of a how to on what more can you do and how do you do this right.

DB: It’s fascinating to me. Ten years ago, 12 years ago, I was at USC in the business school as an administrator and they brought in their first social entrepreneurship professor and and they began to have those kinds of conversations (about corporate engagement). 

Some of that got interrupted by the 2008 economic collapse, a couple of years later, but that sentiment didn’t go away. Those kids still believe that stuff and and it’s really hard to argue against them as we see various challenges. So, how would people be able to take part, as presenters, exhibitors or just as attendees of the Rising Tide Summit. 

VD: Right now our panel and our speaker roles are already filled. So we’re set on that side. But we have room for people to attend. They can do that by visiting RisingTidesSummit.net 

We do have a few more spots for businesses as exhibitors, if they want to showcase their product or service. We have a few spots left for that and they can do that through the website as well.

DB: Now, is there a social media presence as well on Facebook, on Twitter, etc? 

VD: Yeah, the best thing people can do to engage with our summit is use the hash tag #risingtidesummit. That’s the best way they can engage. They can be part of the overall conversation, as opposed to getting stuck in one social media feed. But if they use#risingtidesummit through their social channels, we will be listening and will be quick to repost and reshare. 

DB: And what do you hope comes out of all this beyond conversation and some enhanced awareness?

VD: There are a couple of things that I would like to see. I would like to see a new dialogue, a new level of dialogue start to take place amongst nonprofits and government and businesses, and really, businesses driving these innovations and solutions. 

This is the first year for the summit. So for now, all we want to do is get it off the ground, get the conversation going and then to learn from it. But the big advantage is that we want it to be back next year. Our goal is to bring it back every year. It will always be here in Southern California, hopefully at AltaSea, if they’ll have us. Instead of moving around, we will always be here. Whereas other conferences tend to move around globally, we’re going to stay put. So really, the first year, let’s just get the conversation going. Let’s bring people in for a conversation. 

DB: It’s just build this momentum and, as you say it, will be held at the gigantic space controlled by AltaSea, which has 35 acres in one of the oldest portions of the Port of Los Angeles, which is part of the busiest port complex in the country, and one of the busiest in the world. 

They have these 100-year-old wharfs that they’re converting into a space for all kinds of interesting stuff, including an incubator for blue economy-oriented new businesses. They have facilities for STEM-related education for kids through the Boys and Girls Clubs down there, to try to train some of the kids who eventually can have jobs with the businesses they’re trying to start. 

They’re also working closely with a consortium of major research institutions , colleges and universities up and down the coast. So Rising Tide is going to be at their facilities in the harbor and you can find more information and all that at risingtidesummit.net.

Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it and look forward to the conference. It’s going to be what days 

VD: It’s March 28 and March 29. 

DB: Coming right up. Well, thank you so much and hope to see you there. Everybody take care.