Elena Vasconi is an innovator and marketer for leading-edge technologies that are driving the digital transformation of cities and utilities. As an evangelist for Itron Idea Labs, a lean start-up style group, Vasconi is leveraging her vast experience in working with entrepreneurs and executives to discover and create the next big thing using the Internet of Things. She began her career in San Diego at the Center for Astrophysics and Space Science as a research assistant tasked with developing software to simulate the performance of a novel telescope for extra solar planetary search. Moving from academia to the government contracting, she applied her digital image processing skills and abilities to sonar and satellite communications for military purposes. Vasconi was recruited to Silicon Valley where she joined the ranks of companies like Apple Computer, Adobe, Palm and Paul Allen’s Interval Research before branching out on her own. Throughout her career, she has worked with entrepreneurs, start-ups and public companies, to help leadership teams identify their core competencies, strengths and weaknesses and, more importantly, refine or develop their own voice, both within their organization and to the broader marketplace in which they operate. Vasconi volunteers with the San Jose Piano Competition, hosting international contestants in her home in summer. She received her Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of California, San Diego, loves to garden and is an avid home cook.