[applause] >> good evening. welcome to the third annual palo awards. thank you for allowing me to participate in this event. i hope you understand how out of place i am here. i mean that sincerely. it is an occupational hazard i have encountered the past few years, taking on this role in "the big bang theory." this is not the first invitation to events for which i am ill suited. i once introduced nobel prize- winning physicist george smoot, because i play a character who is a physicist and a genius. i am neither. science class was the only class i ever failed.

while i am not an absolute dunce, i learn the signs phrases i speak on the show. i memorize them the same way you learn english phonetically. it is a good trick. i often speak at comiccon, because i play a character obsessed with, and books. i don't know anything more about comics ben -- than "cathy" or "calvin and hobbes." i finally had to admit i had never seen an episode of "star trek." i am so sorry. i never know if my thumb is supposed to be in and -- in or out when i do the hand signal. i do not know what it means. i apologize to all of you. tonight, i have the privilege of speaking at the tech awards.

regarding technology, my knowledge is limited to a few facts. i know the character i play on tv uses a pc. i use a mac at home. the only difference to me is i think the mac is prettier. i just joined facebook in the past year. i have for the friends. [laughter] -- 40 friends. i joined twitter around the same time. i have no followers. i changed pseudonyms a dozen times. i sent messages to politicians and athletes to congratulate them on living after loss. despite all of this, i am here with you, the most tech-savvy people of all. i am grateful. i will not understand most of what you talk about, but i will listen carefully, and may be able to parrot back a phrase or two. i have very good memory. the pact follows award honors 20 individuals for their outstanding achievement in one of four critical areas of

entrepreneurship -- general management, disruptive innovation, product marketing, and engineering. for each category, 5 tech fellow awards will be permitted. to be fair, ask everyone to hold their applause until all the winners have been named. i always find it difficult, so i apologize. tonight, we recognize the men and women who have revolutionized the way we communicate. the rest of us will populate what they invent with videos and dancing babies. they will be only the third class admitted to the fellowship. the winners will invest over $2 million. this event honors the creative individuals to this great --

displayed courage in pushing the envelope and believing the genius of their own ideas. the world needs more of you. without further ado. san francisco is, of course, famous for many things. there are cars, the golden gate bridge, alcatraz, the forty- niners. it is known as an incubator for innovation. more than 500 technology firms call this city home. a major reason for this is the welcome and support the city gives those who are willing to take big risks and think different. tonight, it is my honor to introduce a man who is a great friend to the technology -- technology committee, and the leader of this great city. please welcome the 43rd mayor of this great city, mr. ed lee. [applause] mayor lee: good evening. thank you for that introduction.

welcome to the third tech awards in san francisco, the city of innovation. i want to welcome you here. i understand there are 20 awards, $100,000 each. i think there will be 21 awards. i slept in one nomination that you might recognize. i want to thank the hosts here, techcrunch. a little over a year ago, they invited me to their media center and announced me as the first non-politician office holder. i want to thank the founders and the founders fund, our partner, and new enterprise associates. thank you for being the host of this great event. i am also very excited to hear all the nominees. so many of them are part of san

francisco bay companies. i am proud to see their names pop up. they are all great companies. every week, i do not know if you know this, but part of my schedule every week is i get to visit a new technology company and find out what is behind the name i do not understand. i was trying to understand that. look out. of course, i had a chance to google square and all these other companies. each time i have gone there, they had wonderful questions for me. the employees as well as the ceo's. i am glad to understand what they are doing here, how they are building themselves up, but the recruitment is like, and what we can do as a city to support your growing and staying here in san francisco. i am busy myself.

these are forged with interactions with you, the dialogue i have with you on a weekly basis. it should not surprise you that we began over a year ago getting rid of the payroll taxes in market. for those of you who do not want to be taxed, that is a good sign. it is a good sign when the mayor can agree with that. we are going to go beyond mid- market and change the peril tax and eliminate it, so we can find a way to support this growing industry. in addition, we got rid of something the city wanted, stock options taxes. with those two things, which allow you to -- [applause] we open up the door so you can converse with us. we are taking a few more steps further. as you know, i am one mayor in a country of mayors. but guess what? the cities are where things are happening?

-- are worse things are happening. in my first u.s. conference of mayors, held in d.c. a few weeks ago, i had a chance to do a couple of things, with your advice and support. we announced the city of san francisco, the first city to oppose pipa and sopa. [applause] thank you. we started a dialogue with other cities who had blindly signed on to those things, not knowing what they were about. now we have a conversation going that we cannot use the excuse that just because we are trying to end piracy that we curtail innovation. coming from san francisco, it means a lot to the city. i took advantage of our staff. i went to the president of the u.s. conference of mayors and said, "since we are innovating in san francisco, why not allow us an audience with the rest of the mayors across the country? could we create a task force?"

they said absolutely. i get to head the task force for the u.s. congress of mayors. when you innovate, and i talk to you about what you are doing, and get to present those on an annual basis to the rest of the mayors. if you are going to win tonight, that is the list i am going to start working from. i will then give you a national audience, so that if, by chance, your innovation would not only have the attraction of san francisco, but might have the attraction of several other mayors, the great merits of all the other cities -- that is the first, and i will be excited to introduce that on a daily basis, when we start the first task force with the u.s. conference of mayors. we are already working on this year. i want to tonight announce an exciting program i have, that my staff and i are going to be

presenting. tonight is the first announcement of our innovation portfolio for 2012. it takes three parts to it, and the first part is we are going to continue inviting you to help us change the way we do government. in gauge san francisco. that is first. that is where we announced that. something we have done, during the budget time, when we asked our citizens to give us the best ideas -- we are going to do that year round. we are going to make that improve san francisco year round and engage you on a daily basis. you are tech companies and cities of san francisco. give us your best ideas. that improves san francisco year round. that is objective number 1. objective two, we are going to change the business process in the city. we are going to use your technological expertise to help us figure out how, when you

start a business now, you go to five or six different agencies and challengers up with different bureaucracies and strategies and fees. how about putting that all online, centering that, so you can go to one place and get all your form's online, pay all your fees, and understand the city in a more collaborative way? that is is in the business challenge it in the city. number three, working with code for america, we are going to hack our way into solutions, whether it is taxis, muni, or other things we are challenged with. this saturday, i get to participate in our cities first -- city's first hackathon to fix our taxis in the city. we are getting ready for america's cup. [applause]

we have to be able to at least get taxis to where people need them, so they can get around the whole city. the dispatch has been plagued with munich cannot do this and taxis cannot do that. why not use our spirit of innovation, our peerless ability to disrupt our cells, and get ourselves into a culture where we invite technology and hack away at the solution? i think days after that saturday, we will have solutions to get taxis to were ever people need them at whatever time they need them. that is how we figure out problems in san francisco. these three announcements are part of my 2012 objective in the innovation portfolio. i am excited to announce those tonight. i am excited for the 20 nominees tonight that will be winners. a great start, great support for you. you are listening to a mayor who

is excited to work with you and make life more convenient, more efficient, much richer, with the information and technology solutions you have. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, maor le -- mayor lee.

patty: filing for social security online, 9 out of 10 experts agree, it's groovier than a brooklyn hot dog! cathy: or a crepe suzette! ♪ when cousins are two of a kind! ♪

>> sanrio famous for the designs for hello kitty. i thought i would try to make it as cute as possible. that way people might want to read the stories. then people might be open to learn about the deities and the culture. ♪ they reached out to make about five or six years ago because of the book published. they appreciated that my work was clearly driven from my research and investigation.

after i contributed my artwork, the museum was really beside themselves. they really took to it. the museum reached out to me to see if i would be interested in my own space inside the museum. i tell them that would be a dream come true. it is the classical, beautiful indian mythology through the lens of modern design and illustration and storytelling. they're all of these great sketch as i did for the maharajah exhibition. i get a lot of feedback on my artwork and books. they complement. they say how original the work is. i am the first person to say that this is so derived from all of this great artwork and storytelling of the past. the research i put into all of my books and work is a product

of how we do things that a-- at pixar. sometimes you will see him depicted monkey-like or as superman. i wanted to honor his monkey coloring. i decided to paint him white with a darker face. it is nice to breathe new life into it in a way that is reverent and honors the past but also lets them breathe and have fun. it is almost a european notion to bring these symbols and icons from southeast asia. they decorate their deities. it was a god they interacted with every day in a human way.

the most important thing has been to create work that is appealing to me. i want to see vishnu to pick did in a modern way. it dawned on me by reinterpreting the deities in a way that is modern and reverent to the history, i am building a bridge for young and old audiences to make friends with the culture and these icons to learn their stories. ♪