Hack the Beach: Contest Launch

Mayor Kevin McKeownCity of Santa Monica

Kevin McKeown has been a Santa Monica renter for almost 40 years. He moved here to become general manager of KROQ, a career path begun at Yale's campus radio station.

He also has been an award-winning advertising writer, done voice-overs, and owned a small radio recording studio on Main Street. McKeown now serves local children and teachers as Macintosh computer consultant for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.

On the Council, where he is in his fifth term, McKeown focuses especially on affordable housing and environmental sustainability. He devotes much time and energy to responding to residents, and his leadership in helping people become more involved in local governance is longstanding. McKeown came to the Council after chairing a neighborhood group, serving on the Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights steering committee, and sharing his professional expertise as a founder of the city's Public Electronic Network (PEN) and member of the Santa Monica Telecommunications Working Group.

McKeown has helped engage regional cities in working together on issues of homelessness, which he brought to the table as Santa Monica's alternate to the Westside Cities Council of Governments. He is an elected member of the Democratic Party State Central Committee, and Southern California vice-chair of the party’s Irish-American caucus. He has twice (2010 and 2013) been named our Assembly District Democrat of the Year.

McKeown is committed to protecting Santa Monicans' quality of life.

Understanding the link between pressures for overdevelopment and private political donations, McKeown continues to work in support of community efforts for local campaign finance reform.

Rick ColeCity Manager,
City of Santa Monica

City Manager Rick Cole has 30 years of experience in public policy and administration. Most recently, he served as Deputy Mayor for Budget and Innovation for the City of Los Angeles where he was responsible for a budget of $8.6 billion and oversaw five city departments with more than 3,000 staff. He also supervised LA's Chief Sustainability, Technology and Data Officers.

For 15 years, Mr. Cole was City Manager of two Southern California cities, Ventura and Azusa. He has been recognized as one of America's Public Officials of the Year by Governing Magazine and one of the "Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers" by Government Technology Magazine. He has won awards for municipal management excellence from the American Society of Public Administrators and the Municipal Management Association of Southern California, as well as for urban planning leadership from the Congress for the New Urbanism.

Mr. Cole served 12 years on the Pasadena City Council and was Mayor when Pasadena adopted its landmark General Plan, an early model for smart growth. Called "one of Southern California's most visionary planning thinkers" by the Los Angeles Times, he has been an active leader in the International City Managers Association and the City Managers Department of the League of California Cities.

As Santa Monica’s City Manager, Mr. Cole is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the City of Santa Monica, which includes implementation of City Council ordinances and policies, oversight of all City departments and a budget of $564 million.

City of Santa Monica

Santa Monica is home to a mix of commercial districts, residential communities, recreational and art venues, three miles of wide beaches, high-profile corporate headquarters, hi-tech and entertainment companies, small entrepreneurial start-ups, and retail businesses. Santa Monica is also a full-service city. City departments provide police, fire, transit, water, wastewater, refuse, streets, parking, planning, building, engineering, free public Wi-Fi, a high speed fiber optic network, parks, affordable housing, economic development, sustainability, library, rent control, recreational, social, cultural, and educational services to the community.

Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce

The Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce advocates and represents business’ interests and issues facing the community. We provide the environment to help our members prosper and succeed through a proactive working partnership with all levels of government and community organizations to achieve a healthy local economy and quality of life.

Expert Dojo

Imagine a place where you can get all your business questions answered for free from the community, where everyones expertise is then rated by that same community. Imagine never having to worry about lack of knowledge in marketing, HR, sales, tech, legal, growth hacking, business skills or any other area where you are not an expert.

That’s real business support, which makes a difference. In our community we are all experts in our field and our level of expertise is transparent. Join today and fuel the mentoring revolution.

CrossCampus

Cross Campus is the leading collaborative, on-demand work space and business event venue in Los Angeles. With a focus on design & user experience, best-in-class event programming, and a diverse community of innovative members, Cross Campus has become known as "the nerve center of Silicon Beach."

Founded in 2012 in Santa Monica, Cross Campus is expanding throughout Southern California. We opened our Pasadena campus in March 2015, and we’re actively exploring new opportunities throughout the Downtown LA region.

WeWork 

WeWork's mission is to create a world where people work to make a life, not just a living. WeWork has 30,000 members in over 40 collaborative workspaces across four countries. This includes 5 buildings in London, providing space from single person hot desks up to 40 person offices. We’d love to personally invite you to learn more about joining our community!