Green Music Center :: News Clip

Telecom Valley reunion for 'Innovation Hall' at Green Music Center

Thursday, May 29, 2008

By Marie Surber

On Saturday a large gathering of Sonoma County millionaires and would-be millionaires gathered for the Telecom Valley Reunion at Sonoma State University's Green Music Center. The purpose was a fundraising dinner and guided tours of the center's large concert hall, which the group hopes to raise enough funds to hold the namesake "Innovation Hall" after the "pioneering spirit" of the telecom boom of the 90s.

The reception and tours went from 4:30 until about 6 p.m. and offered snack foods, drinks and a chance to catch up with old friends and colleagues. Tours were conducted by knowledgeable personnel that are intimately connected to and overtly passionate about the Green Center. The event was sponsored by Don Green, a telecom pioneer himself, and Sonoma State University, with a little help from their friends.

This fundraiser hopes to promote the effort of SSU and the Telecom Valley's Entrepreneurs' desire to raise at least $7 million that would aptly name the main concert hall at the Green Music center. Though funding still isn't finished and may top $100 million in total, the project is expected to be finished and open by fall 2009.

The Telecom Valley dinner convened at the Doubletree Hotel in Rohnert Park after the reception. Although the tour was a hard act to follow, the dinner proved even more fun and exciting. It was reunion time for many Telecom startup colleagues and friends, joined by Sonoma State University President Ruben Armiñana and Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey.

Dr Armiñana spoke passionately about Don and Maureen Green, and their mutual dream to finish the world-class concert hall, modeled after the famed Tanglewood music complex in Lenox, Mass. Armiñana's speech was a tribute to the Greens and all the Telecom Valley Innovators. Woolsey, on the other hand told an entertaining tale of her former employment as Green's secretary, where she apparently enlisted Green's entire staff to join her in attending a Peace Rally. Woolsey noted, "I think he forgave me."

For many of the guests, it was a very nostalgic time indeed. There were certainly many conversations about telecom millions made and lost, not to mention beer busts, all-nighters and last minute software and hardware miracles.

The festivities continued with select stories from many of the telecom heroes from various startups like Advanced Fiber Communication (AFC), Next Level Communications (NLC), Mahi Networks, Cisco Systems, Calix, Mariposa, Harris DTS and Optilink, to name a few. Photos of telecom heroes in their startup days ran in a slideshow in the background. The evening also commemorated the 20 year anniversary of the beginnings of the North Bay's own "Telecom Valley", as it later became known, and some of the people there could truly say they saw it from the start.

Everyone who attended the event had another vital thing in common also; a love of music, as well as a desire to keep it alive and well in Sonoma County. The final treat of the night was an unexpected group of talented musicians and singers that entertained with a wide variety of musical styles and selections. Their performance was well rehearsed and well-received by all, a good note on which to wind down the evening.

From SSU's future world class concert hall to the meager auditorium at the Phoenix Theater, which was "saved" from being torn down by telecom pioneers from Cisco Systems years ago, the innovators are putting up cash to save our history and enrich students' futures through music.

Naturally, it won't just be students that will enjoy the generosity of these brilliant benefactors. Residents and visitors from afar are expected to come and enjoy the music and experience the finely-tuned acoustics of the Green Music Center Concert Hall.