Jon Arnold Joins Zpryme's Smart Grid Advisory Board

Some of my readers know that I wear a second hat in the smart grid arena, and have been active there for a few years. Aside from co-producing the successful Smart Grid Summit with TMC for two years and driving thought leadership for their Smart Grid Portal (which peaked at over 2 million monthly page views), I have been closely aligned with Austin-based Zpryme Research.

I've always been impressed with their work, and they have a thriving practice focused on smart grid and cleantech. In a prior life, I ran a niche market research consultancy for 15 years, and have been a practitioner of both qualitative and quantitative research for almost 30 years. Given my background and smart grid activities, it's not surprising for me to have a strong affinity with Zpryme. We've worked together on several projects, and around this time last year we published our first joint report, focused on the U.S. renewable energy market (it's still available for purchase!).

Today, Zpryme announced their Smart Grid Advisory Board, and I'm very pleased to be included in that group. Five others are on the board, including Andres Carvallo and Christine Hertzog, both of whom I've enjoyed working with in this space. Zpryme has a great niche and I anticipate getting busier with them as the year goes on and gas prices remain high!

If you're planning to attend ConnectivityWeek 2012 next week in Santa Clara, Zpryme will be one of the drivers of the Energy 2.0 track, and I've had a hand in that behind the scenes. I attended last year, as I see this being a great forum to bring the worlds of smart grid, IT and communications technology closer together. It really is a first rate event, and hopefully this board announcement will help raise Zpryme's profile there.