San Francisco stands tall because the AI Capital of the World. Should you’re delving into the realm of AI, now’s the proper time to be on this city. A big a part of this phenomenon revolves across the surge of AI-focused events.
The past couple of years were difficult for event organizers within the Bay Area, however the fall of 2023 is witnessing a frenzy of AI-centric conferences, meetups, and hackathons occurring nearly daily.
The AI upswing within the SF Bay has lured back entrepreneurs and tech professionals who had previously left as a result of Covid restrictions. The town has witnessed a groundbreaking $10.7 billion in funding for generative AI startups announced in the primary three months of 2023.
Whether you are a founder, enterprise capitalist, or corporate worker, if you may have even a distant interest in AI, you are more likely to end up at one among these events. Connecting with like-minded builders and investors is a key value, and there are specific business goals achievable through energetic participation, including fundraising, recruiting top talent, acquiring best-in-class teams and startups, exploring revolutionary services and products, and more.
As an example, the SF Tech Week by a16z is per week stuffed with quite a few events hosted by VC firms, corporations, and outstanding startups. Any business objective you may have in mind may be fulfilled here. Personally, I hosted an AI Tea party in collaboration with DVC, M12 and Microsoft for Startups. We had a panel with a VC, a founder, and a company executive sharing their perspectives on how most GenAI projects and corporations lack a moat – “Now, here, you see, it takes all of the running you’ll be able to do, to maintain in the identical place. If you should get someplace else, you have to run no less than twice as fast as that!” was the motto of the event which represents the undeniable fact that it’s not enough to create an AI product, but quite you’ll must be twice as fast and resourceful to amass the user or client base to achieve this red ocean of AI startups and technologies.
Only within the Bay Area are you able to attend a 100-person hackathon and witness Sergey Brin or Eric Schmidt in person, delivering inspirational talks in regards to the fundamental shift in technologies and business to builders. Just a couple of weeks ago, I attended a free event hosted by the Robot Heart Foundation where Sam Altman was discussing the challenges and way forward for the intersection of Art and AI with Android Jones. Sam addressed concerns artists had regarding their mental property and the long run of Generative AI. The essential subjective takeaway for me was that the following leap in AI would involve generating entirely latest knowledge beyond what humanity has already created and achieved.
Most meetups and hackathons are free but often have limited spots, so act quickly to secure your spot and present yourself well on the registration page. Some conferences may be expensive, but one effective strategy to participate is by volunteering. I do know individuals who gained access to the $1500 Ted AI Conference by assisting organizers – as an organizer myself, I can say we appreciate help and support.
One other aspect to think about is how one can kickstart an AI event within the Bay Area. Let’s examine the best format – meetups. It’s difficult, but my suggestion is to work inside your budget. If it’s limited or non-existent, consider one among the numerous coworking spaces or academic organizations, a few of that are willing to host events without spending a dime or at a really inexpensive price.
The following crucial element is securing good speakers. You do not need many, however the event won’t succeed without no less than a few known speakers. Even when they are not widely popular, having speakers from outstanding startups, corporations, or VC firms could make a major difference.
Marketing is usually essentially the most difficult part and relies on the primary two items. The higher the venue and speakers, the simpler it’s to draw people. A vital first step is listing the event on as many free platforms as possible to generate organic traffic (Eventbrite, Lu.ma, Partifull, etc.). Second, send personal invitations via email and LinkedIn – there are many tools to automate this process.
Monetization is one other consideration. Since we’re talking a couple of meetup, tickets are typically free, so the one other option is attracting sponsors. The essential value for sponsors is the guests, so, for instance, if the meetup focuses on developers and founders, the essential goal sponsors can be cloud providers and firms aiming to sell their services and products to those groups. If it’s a company meetup, vendors ought to be interested. It is not trivial, but once the connection is established, it gets easier. No connections? No problem – attend other AI events and meet sponsors.
Food and drinks – people often don’t expect fancy dinners at meetups, so essentially the most common fare will probably be pizza and quite a lot of canned or bottled drinks.
That is the best strategy to kickstart a meetup, but with larger ambitions and budgets, anything is feasible.
I’ve successfully organized conferences with 50-150 speakers in lower than 2 months, and I’ll share perhaps a very powerful takeaway – attempt to involve as many individuals and organizations as possible. Community partners can assist in various ways, resembling bringing in speakers, sponsors, and promoting the event. I’ve experienced a number of success with partnerships, and that’s the single most significant advice I’d give to anyone planning to host a tech event.