We brought it, we rocked it, we won it. Inovateus’ own Rev. Ray and the Everlasting Incentives took top honors at the sixth annual Solar Battle of the Bands during Intersolar North America 2016 in San Francisco. The music from all the bands was great and the competition was fierce fun, but our boy-band flavored funk ‘n’ roll captured the hips and hearts of the packed house at the Mezzanine.
We put our own sweaty spin on the Backstreet Boys’ “Everybody,” the Rolling Stones’ “Loving Cup,” Queen’ “Fat Bottom Girls,” and other classics, with the inimitable Rev. Ray proving his legit harmonica-blowin’ frontman credentials once again. The Inovateus executive team represented big time, with fearless leader TJ Kanczuzewski tickling the ivories and Lindsey Foley making her case as the CFO with the best dance moves in the industry.
The Midwest U.S. solar tribe was out in force, with first-timers Fronius rocking the house as the Fronicators. Congrats to the other participants from SunPower (DC/AC), SolarCity (PV Wonder) and Exosun (The Original Suntracks) as well as the QuickMount PV house band. Thanks to QuickMount and the rest of the organizers and sponsors for putting on one of the highlights of the solar industry social calendar. (For more info on the Solar BOTB, click here.)
The music didn’t stop there, as Inovateus hosted a private party the night after the Solar BOTB at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael. The club, owned by Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, will soon be getting its own solar system installed, thanks to Inovateus and its partners.
The Solar Crossroads party featured a full set by Rev. Ray and the gang, which also effectively reunited the Funk Harmony Park band that TJ and his pals played in during high school and college. Special guests and headliners Midnight North (which features Phil Lesh’s son, Grahame, on lead guitar) wowed the crowd with their danceable mix of classic rock and Americana-flavored jam-band pyrotechnics. Both sets featured members of the bands cross-pollinating, with Nick “Rev. Ray” Kovach and TJ sitting in with Midnight North on several tunes.
But Intersolar week was about much more than rockin’ music and good times. The Inovateus team connected with many of our partners, made significant progress on adding to our development pipeline, and conducted media briefings with the trade press. At the Intersolar conference, Inovateus VP Tom Brown entertainingly presented a compelling case study about the solar-plus-storage off-grid system we developed for the CuisinArt resort on the island of Anguilla. [VIDEO]
Inovateus also cosponsored, along with NEXTracker, Tor “Solar Fred” Valenza’s and Impress Labs’ annual Intersolar Tweetup at the Thirsty Bear, which brought nearly 200 solar social media devotees together for a networking lunch. We were thrilled that our Indycar auto-racing ally, #ThinkSolar founder, and avid Tweeter Stefan Wilson also made an appearance at the event.
All in all, it was a brilliant Intersolar for the Inovateus team, and we are looking forward to keeping the positive momentum flowing.
