By Kristen Morquecho — November 15, 2013
Yesterday, the LA tech scene came together at the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica to participate in the first
LA Tech Summit (#latechsummit).
The event programmers,
Cornerstone on Demand, did a stellar job bringing out key influencers and leaders from all around the city. In typical LA fashion the traffic getting there was nothing compared to the battle to find parking, but I looked past these little roadblocks to take in good news about how our community is thriving and what our new mayor will do to drive that momentum.
I moved into the crowded ballroom just in time to hear Mayor Garcetti recognize our city’s issue with traffic. As quoted by
LA Weekly’s coverage of the event, Garcetti said, "I would love to find a neighborhood, and be the first big city in the world to have a driverless car neighborhood.”
Moving on, I floated with the crowd to breakout sessions downstairs. Though I wanted to check out the panel on Cloud, Social Mobile (especially to catch Sean Lynch at
Metacloud) I opted to embrace my womanhood and check out the Women in Tech panel. Though the room was packed, I haven’t seen any press coverage of this discussion. Nevertheless social media did not disappoint, the event was
tweeted! Julie Schoenfeld (from Pasadena-based
Perfect Market) joined the lively panel discussion and offered advice on how to best manage teams. It seems most of the women agreed, our success should not be measured by how long we work but how efficient we can be with the work during the day so we can enjoy life with family. A belief all tech employees and leaders should consider.
The afternoon sessions jumped into the critical topic of funding in LA.
Inc magazine covered the discussion well, be sure to read their report on the startup scene.
Idealab’s own Bill Gross joined this conversation.
The afternoon featured more breakout sessions on the topic of tech-based entertainment, mobile, education, and more. Of course we wrapped up the day with a fast pitches from early stage startups. I always get so nervous for these guys! After we all voted for our favorite (
Preact), we were rewarded with cocktails and chatter in the bungalow. Thanks Cornerstone On Demand! Looking forward to the event next year, but perhaps at a more centrally located venue downtown, mid-town, east side or to that driverless car neighborhood (hey, a girl can dream).
Kristen Morquecho (@kristenw)
VP of Corporate Communications,
Spokeo & Innovate Pasadena Board Member