2 minute read time.
This was originally an article in IET Member News



The IET Southern California (SoCal) Local Network (LN) was recently given the opportunity to have a tour of Google Irvine. Since its reformation in early 2012, the SoCal LN has gone from strength to strength. It now averages eight meetings/tours a year and interest continues to grow – so much so that it now often has more guests than IET members in attendance!



This may be due in part to the range of special events it offers, as LN volunteer Julian Harvey highlighted: “We’re concentrating on one off, difficult to organise events, which started in January 2014 with a tour of Space X. Later we arranged a meeting on radio astronomy at CalTech, which was another first for us. The Google meeting was the highest attended event since the LN reformed in early 2012”.



The Google event came about over an LN Christmas lunch conversation. IET member John Mack regularly attended events with his son Anthony, who works at Google. Anthony’s passion for the company was clear, and so Julian asked him whether he’d consider giving a talk. This began as an idea focusing on the Google Car, evolving to become the Google Car and Culture event that took place in February.



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"My dad has been a member for more than 50 years and I drive him to all the local events,” said Anthony. “I’ve enjoyed the talks and tours for many years now, so I was happy to give back to the IET with a tour and talk about Google”.



The event was made up of a presentation, Q&A, tour and lunch, with Anthony giving his personal take on the business and its projects. During his presentation Anthony discussed the culture of working at Google, plus current and future products, as well as showing the guests Google’s nap room, massage room and semisecret speakeasy! “It was fun telling everyone about the perks we ‘Googlers’ enjoy everyday plus I talked about current projects including YouTube for Kids and Google Fiber,” he said.



“I also discussed Google[x] projects, starting with Loon, an ambitious attempt to provide internet access to the unconnected and under-served. Then I spoke about Project Iris, a contact lens we think one day might allow people to continuously monitor their blood glucose levels. Project Wing is another fun one – the development of an aerial delivery system that uses selfflying vehicles, but the project that most interested people was the self-driving car. It was a blast talking to the members – we get into such interesting conversations, plus I learn a lot!”



The LN has used the momentum raised by the Google visit to plan further special events. “We’re currently working on a Toyota meeting on the new fuel cell vehicle, the Toyota Mirai, in October,” said Julian. “We’ve been going from strength to strength under the leadership of our chairman Richard Tregaskes. We’re running under a yearly LN budget and plan to move ahead with eight or nine events for the 2015/2016 session,” he added.



To find your Local Network and what events they have coming up go to our Local Network Index Page.