It is hard to believe that we are already into the second month of the New Year! We look forward to each new year in the valuation business as it rewards us with new clients, new projects, new friends, new adventures, and new learning opportunities. Although we enjoy every new aspect of each year, we also value and enjoy our relationships with returning clients and acquaintances we have made in the business. For these reasons, we love what we do. Everything we do gives us an opportunity to learn and grow as a company and as individuals. We have some exciting changes coming to the Pellegrino & Associates firm in the near future, but for now, we would like to highlight moments from 2019.
Our projects last year covered a number of topics, such as the following: chemical looping, pork, motion-detecting electronics, wireless electronic vehicle charging technology, inverters, USB connectors, plastics, product teardown, malware, telepresence robots, artificial intelligence, satellites, trading strategy software, backtesting software, optogenetics, international student education requirements software, municipal solid waste sorting technology, RFID sensors, among others. As you can see, our job is never boring! Each project gives us an opportunity to learn about various topics, making our job interesting and enjoyable.
In addition to our projects, throughout the year we attended a variety of conferences and were invited by several organizations for speaking engagements, such as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, American Society of Appraisers, Rutgers University, Indiana Health Industry Forum, and AUTM Annual Conference.
Projects, speaking engagements, and conferences take us many places each year. In 2019, we traveled throughout the country to the following places: Las Vegas, NV; New Brunswick, NJ; Austin, TX; New York, NY; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; Washington, DC; Delaware, MD; Los Angeles, CA, San Francisco, CA, Boulder, CO, and Montreal, Quebec.
In addition to our projects and speaking engagements, IAM published Mike’s article, titled “Not All Patents Are Created Equal: The Wizard of Oz and Patent Portfolios” in its IAM Magazine March/April edition. The article discusses the tactics companies use to play analytics tools and the patent system to their advantage. It provides examples of how companies grow their portfolios faster and how patent portfolios differ.
At our firm, we acknowledge the hard work it takes to provide excellent products to our clients. Therefore, we find it necessary and valuable to take time out once in a while to reward ourselves with fun, sometimes challenging, and team-oriented excursions. For one of our excursions, we flew to Phoenix, AZ to hike the Camelback Mountain at the elevation of 2,704 feet. We also attended the Bondurant High-Performance Driving School where we enjoyed learning valuable driving skills for all kinds of unforeseen circumstances. Once we graduated from the class, we all enjoyed some high-speed chasing on the track! Not to be outdone by the physical challenges we endured in AZ, we decided to try out a local spin cycling class. For some of us, it was a new experience, while others pushed themselves to a new level. Either way, it was a win-win situation as we squeezed in a workout while hanging with staff. Let’s face it, working out is always more fun with others!
As you can see, we keep busy throughout the year with a variety of tasks. There is never a dull moment! We can’t wait to see what is in store for 2020 with new projects, conferences, speaking engagements, company outings, and so much more. We appreciate all of our connections and the opportunity to continue learning and providing our expertise in the intellectual property valuation realm.