Mayor Ronald Loveridge welcomed technology professionals and educators at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Inland Empire Technology Week held May 12-14 in Riverside.

The four-day event was hosted by SmartRiverside, an initiative launched through Mayor Loveridge’s High Technology Task Force, to bring the best of high tech thinking and technology to Riverside and the Inland Empire.

The conference, which had 500 registered attendees, featured an expo of 50 technology vendors and focused on topics such as video security and call center management, was designed to put the spotlight on the Inland Empire as Southern California’s emerging hub of high technology.

“Riverside is making important infrastructure changes to enhance the high tech environment and working with technology companies moving into the city,” Mayor Loveridge said addressing attendees.

He also pointed to the fact that Riverside will soon be launching a comprehensive citywide WI-FI network that will enable almost anyone in the city to access the Internet. Later, at a conference session on “Digital Cities,” more than 300 Riverside residents were introduced to the WI-FI network and the changes it will bring to the city.

On May 14, Mayor Loveridge addressed delegates to UCR’s 2008 Tech Horizons, a two-day conference on sustainable technologies that was part of the IE Tech Week. He said that the conference was the first major outcome of a four-party declaration that he signed on behalf of Riverside in Sendai, Japan in November 2007 as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the historic Sister City relationship between the two cities.

The declaration was signed in large part at the urging of Mayor Loveridge who sees university relations as key to the next 50 years in the relationship between the two cities. It provides a platform for collaboration between Sendai’s Tohoku University, UCR, and the cities of Riverside and Sendai within the framework of an annual conference held alternately at Riverside and Sendai.

In the spirit of the declaration, nine Tohoku University professors and researchers as well as three senior staffers from the City of Sendai participated in the conference. The City of Riverside was represented by Mike Bacich, Sustainability Officer, at the session on solar technologies and applications.