Over the past weekend both Kyle and I were at startup events, and if you think with all the events so far this month the two of us have been covering is enough you’d be wrong. Later this month I’ll be covering Silicon Beach Fest in Santa Monica California from June 21-23rd. Organizes by Kevin Winston formally of MySpace, and current CEO of Digital LA. Jason Crilly, CEO and Founder of Pagewoo and Efren Toscano. Founder of TechZulu an independent news organization delivering an insightful story of the technology industry by showcasing the very people creating it. Brought together he top Startup Incubators in the Los Angeles area such as Start Engine, io/LA, Idealab, Amplify and others. For this start studded event. When Kevin Winston was questioned about what brought him to creating Silicon Beach Fest, he mentioned to me.
The whole thing came about because I realized we didn’t have a tech / entertainment / startup conference in LA yet with the recent growth of Startup activity. Since I’d been doing Digital LA events for the past 4 years related to all these topics, and know the speakers and venues, I figured we should go for it and create our own conference. A lot of people jumped on board to help out, and suddenly we have a great line up of speakers from Startups, advertising, tech, creative, etc.
From Thursday night at 6pm till Saturday night, Santa Monica, Silicon Beach Fest will be one stop Hackathon, Party, Reception and all out fun. Those putting their names behind this event to build this is impressive no matter which Tech hub city you are in.
Bill Gross– Founder of Idealab
Paige Craig – Co-Founder of Betterworks and a prominent angel investor
Howard Marks – Founder of StartEngine
Jason Nazar – Co-Founder of DocStoc
Idealab – Founded in 1996 by Bill Gross to create and operate pioneering companies.
AmplifyLA – An accelerator with rolling admission for its portfolio companies including TidePool, Look.io, and Invested.In.
Launchpad LA – An accelerator founded by Mark Suster, providing $50,000 in funding to its portfolio companies
Start Engine – Founded by Howard Marks and Paul Kessler, aims to launch hundreds of companies in 5 years.
MuckerLab – Muckerlab is a 12-week program that includes up to $21k in funding, focused on serving internet software and media entrepreneurs.
Science – With Mike Jones, includes subscription commerce startups Dollar Shave Club, Wittlebee, etc.
K5 Launch –An accelerator in Orange County founded by the Tech Coast Angel s community.
Originate – Headquartered in Silicon Valley with an office in Westwood.
Coloft– Community and work space focused on empowering startups & freelancers.
CoWorks – Collaborative community for freelancers and startups.
Io/LA – Co-working space which also incubates select companies.
NextSpace – NextSpace provides physical and virtual infrastructure.
BlankSpaces – Coworking community in Los Angeles where entrepreneurs and freelancers collaborate.
Cross Campus – Flagship campus, purpose-built from the ground up to meet the needs of startups and entrepreneurs
The Hub – Co-working space emphasizing social good, green tech
Working Village – Collaborative workspace designed for independent or small businesses
Thinking Pitches and Hackathons will be all that is going you’ll be wrong, Startup Village is where Startups can promote them selves as well as vendors. Companies such as Wormhole, Ziptask, Pop-Up Pantry, and Charge All are just a few so far that has booked a space in what is sure to be a packed room with both Startups and companies vying for your attention.
Friday, the Panels start, with Meet the Accelerators with Howard Marks, David Carter, Adam Lilling and William Hsu. After that, the ability for Startups to learn more about PR talk starts with something called Pr Tips for Startups headed by Emily Scherberth of Symphony PR & Marketing. Continuing the effect to educate Startups in PR and Press, is followed up with Press in Silicon Beach with Debtra Benson and others. Those are just some of the many panels that’ll be going on that you’ll be able to go to.
Hackathon Schedule
Thursday – June 21st
5:00pm – 6:00pm – Registration
6:00pm – 7:00pm – Pitches
6:30pm – 7:00pm – Hacker Draft
7:00pm – 7:30pm – Game Plan Breakout
7:30pm – 8:00pm – Rapid-Fire Presentations
8:00pm – 11:00pm – Open Dev
Friday – June 22nd
8:00am – 10:00pm – Open Dev
Saturday – June 23rd
8:00am – 4:00pm – Open Dev
4:00pm – 4:30pm – Semi-Finals
5:00pm – 6:00pm – SBF Hackathon Judging
6:00pm – 7:30pm – SBF Closing Keynote(s)
8:00pm – 2:00am – SBF Closing Party
Image via Tony Payne
For Tickets, visit Eventbrite