Our annual event series pulls the founders, investors, innovators, and operators driving grid modernization into one room. This year's program is built for the powerful ecosystem of utilities, startups, and leaders connected by Joules — and the key questions driving all of our work: How do we remove barriers to innovation and deployment? How can we accelerate the pace of progress to meet the needs of the moment? And, what does cross-industry collaboration look like? 

We're thrilled to share that Dr. Vanessa Chan will deliver this year's keynote. As the former Chief Commercialization Officer and Director of the Office of Technology Commercialization at the U.S. Department of Energy, Dr. Chan helped develop the Adoption Readiness Level (ARL) framework — a tool for assessing the non-technical risks that determine whether a technology actually reaches scale.

If you have ever watched a strong technology struggle to find market adoption, you know why this conversation matters. Grid innovations are especially prone to stalling out on the way to commercialization during the “valley of death” due to market complexity and technical risk. Dr. Chan has built a career addressing these commercialization risks, and will share her insights on the Future Grid mainstage.

It's a rare chance to hear directly from one of the architects of how the field now thinks about commercialization risk. Whether you're trying to de-risk your own path to scale, scouting the next breakout company, or building the talent pipeline behind it, this is the room to be in. 

Registration is officially open. July 27 – 28, Charlotte, NC.

Spots are limited, and we'd love to see you there. Reserve your spot.

A refresher: ARL to Scale

ARL to Scale (A2S) is our commercialization-risk assessment program, built on the DOE's Adoption Readiness Level framework and developed with strategic advising from framework co-author Dr. Vanessa Chan. The premise is simple: most startups know their technology readiness but underestimate the adoption risks waiting downstream. A2S surfaces those risks early, while there's still time to act on them.

Here's how it works at Joules. Our graduate fellows and undergraduate research associates deliver diagnostic assessments and concrete, actionable recommendations to our startups. They pinpoint where a company's path to commercialization is most exposed, then map what it would take to de-risk it.

Startups get a clearer, faster route toward commercialization. We build a workforce pipeline of early-career talent who are fluent in the real-world barriers to bringing hard tech to market — exactly the people this industry needs more of.

Dr. Chan's work is woven into our core programs and the work we do every day. Having her take the stage is a full-circle moment for our community.