A spirit of innovation has pulsed through the desert communities since “Mother” Nellie Coffman arrived at the turn of the 20th century, opened The Desert Inn sanitarium turned luxury resort, and made pre-incorporated Palm Springs the go-to destination for relaxing in the sun.

Coffman’s vision and gracious hospitality drew a steady stream of visitors, and eventually, the “village” that is today’s downtown began to flourish.

The desert has since become a place where great ideas are born and often come to fruition. The most impressive feat of vision, engineering, and pure will might be the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, the world’s largest rotating tram, which carries visitors 8,600 feet up Mount San Jacinto. The iconic attraction made its first trip to the top 60 years ago this fall.

The modernist aesthetic that prevails in Palm Springs offers another example of novel ideas. The architects behind our undulating sea of cantilever rooflines, brise soleil walls, and clerestory windows came to the desert for the space and freedom to experiment with minimalism. Today, buyers, buffs, and looky-loos covet homes by Frey, Krisel, Wexler, and Williams, and the annual Modernism Week draws tens of thousands of visitors to the area for weeks at a time.

From the first golf cart (designed at Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage) and the Studebaker Avanti (designed by Raymond Lowey in Palm Springs) to the scene-shifting Coachella music festival and Desert X art exhibition, great ideas seem to root and thrive at every level in the desert.

We’re seldom surprised when we meet visionaries realizing their dreams and adding to our region’s legacy of innovation. On the following pages, we introduce three entrepreneurs — Guy Assif of Moducan Corp., Rossana Jeran of Hello Computer Inc. and StoryTime International, and Karina Melgar of LEAPS Services — who are not only bringing their ideas to market and thriving in Greater Palm Springs.