The Future of Everything

Leadership is evolving rapidly, and being an effective leader in the 21st century requires a fresh perspective. Creativity is at the forefront, with concepts like priming and enclothed cognition gaining prominence. Today's leaders must foster psychological safety, encouraging necessary risks, experimentation, and learning from mistakes. Simple acts of recognition have evolved beyond the mundane, offering leaders a chance to infuse creativity. For those inclined towards technical aspects, chaos and complexity theory provide innovative approaches to leadership. Join us for an engaging, interactive exploration of these topics, and leave with practical ways to enhance creativity in your leadership.

Kimberly Wiefling is a physicist turned leadership expert. Recognizing the importance of human skills, she transforms managers into leaders and groups into cohesive teams, achieving together what's impossible. With a client range from Silicon Valley startups to the Global 1000, including over 50 global Japanese companies, Kimberly's impact is global. Her book, "Scrappy Project Management," has taken her to global stages. Her keynotes and workSHOCKs go beyond teaching, enabling positive changes to tackle leadership, team, and organizational challenges. Never boring, always transformative!

Sustainability is a global imperative. California Software Professional Association (CSPA) is thrilled to invite you to our highly anticipated panel discussion on The Future of Sustainability (Part 3). Join the conversation to learn the global corporate sustainability perspective and how startups can land large corporate customers.

Our Esteemed Moderator, Ron Erd, brings his wealth of experience and expertise to guide our discussion towards a sustainable future. Ron is a Growth Executive and 5x CEO with 20 years of P&L leadership. His passion is to make the economy greener. Ron is an advisor at Activate and Berkeley SkyDeck, and a mentor at Plug and Play Tech Center and SOSV.

Our Distinguished Panelists:

Kevin Fields, a Partner at Perkins Coie, Kevin is a co-founder and leader of the firm’s Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) practice and advises on ESG programs. Prior to joining the firm, Kevin worked for the U.S. Department of Justice,

Dr Thomas Kiessling, CTO at Siemens. Thomas is a transformative leader and entrepreneur in the Clean Tech, Energy, smart buildings, EV and Industrial IoT sectors. Thomas has been a CEO, Founder and CTO, excels in both startup environments and growth phases of larger enterprises.

Abhishek Singh, founder and CEO of AiDash, a SaaS company that helps industries become more efficient and sustainable through satellites and AI. Abhishek is a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful exits.

This event promises to be a melting pot of ideas, where you'll have the opportunity to network with prominent investors and international VIPs who share a common goal: driving sustainability forward. Join us for an evening of stimulating discussions, food, and drinks.

Sustainability is a global imperative. California Software Professional Association (CSPA) is thrilled to invite you to our highly anticipated panel discussion on The Future of Sustainability (Part II), where industry leaders, renowned experts, policy makers and influential investors will converge to share their insights and drive impactful changes. Our Esteemed Moderator, Ron Erd, brings his wealth of experience and expertise to guide our discussion towards innovative solutions. Ron is a Growth Executive and 5x CEO with 20 years of P&L leadership.

Our Distinguished Panelists include:

Greg Tanaka, founder and CEO of an AI startup Percolata which provides Forecast as a Service (FaaS). Percolata is funded by Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Ventures, and others. Greg is a Palo Alto City Councilman and US Congressional candidate. 

Dr Sarah Placella is a scientist, inventor and entrepreneur. Sarah is Founder and CEO of Root Applied Sciences which informs farmers of airborne pathogens in agriculture. 

Koichi Arimitsu, General Manager of Energy and Environment at Venture Lab Niterra Group with a $100M fund focusing on mobility, energy & environment, and health. 

California Software Professional Association (CSPA) is thrilled to invite you to our highly anticipated panel discussion on the future of sustainability; where industry leaders, renowned experts, and influential investors will converge to share their insights and drive impactful changes. Our esteemed Moderator, Ron Erd, brings his wealth of experience and expertise to guide our discussion towards innovative solutions. Ron is a Growth Executive and 5x CEO with 20 years of P&L leadership. Our panelists include:

Dr. Faramarz Maghsoodlou, an innovative technology executive at Qualcomm with a career spanning across energy, IT, and communications industries.

Wade Bitaraf, founder of Energy & Sustainability practice at Plug and Play. Wade works closely with entrepreneurs, corporate innovation leaders, and investors with a focus on the energy industry value chain.

Dr. Lukas Hackl, co-founder and CEO of Aepnus Technology, a startup making the manufacturing of battery chemicals more efficient and less carbon intensive. 

By popular demand, we are delighted to present Part II of "Silicon Valley: Past, Present, and Future” hosted by California Software Professional Association (CSPA). Please join us as we bring together three exceptional leaders—Daniel Kottke, Dr. Ekta Dang, and Axel Kloth—for an engaging and thought-provoking fireside chat

California Software Professional Association is honored to bring you legendary Daniel Kottke & Keith Koo to share SV's Past, Present and Future in an interactive thought-provoking fireside chat. CSPA is a volunteer based, 501(c)(3) non-profit founded in 1988. Our mission is to promote leadership, entrepreneurship, and education among our professional members across all segments of the technology community.

Freedom Preetham is the founder and CEO of Kena.ai, a first asset-backed, decentralized marketplace for music. Kena uses advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) to teach music to people on behalf of creators and redistribute the wealth to said creators. They will be discussing the role of collaborative AI in the music industry and the ways that the advancing technology can be applied to the field.

Founder and CEO Abby Sugar will be in conversation with Shawn Flynn, Investment Banker and Host of the Silicon Valley Podcast, about the future of fashion, next generation consumers and how they're shopping, and the impact of technological advances on fashion in the real world and the metaverse - what are they, and why are they significant?

CSPA is honored to have Palo Alto City Councilman Greg Tanaka, CEO & Founder of Percolata to share his vision for The Future of Government.

CSPA is proud to present Dr Axel K. Kloth, President and CEO of Abacus Semiconductor Corporation and Shaw Flynn, Investment Banker and Host of the Silicon Valley Podcast. Dr Axel will discuss the Future of APIs for Accelerators in Open Source and Shawn will moderate the conversation.

The decentralized finance, or DEFi, exploded over the last year, with a total value locked of around $90 billion. As a new paradigm of finance, characterized by being open, permissionless, and disintermediated, DeFi is currently going through an experimental phase, operating with no or minimal regulation compared with traditional, centralized finance.

CSPA is honored to have Palo Alto City Councilman Greg Tanaka, CEO & Founder of Percolata to share his vision for The Future of Finance.

Marc Andreessen famously said that "Software is eating the world" in 2011. Now AI is eating software. The software industry will continue to grow and become one of the largest industries of the future. In this presentation, Dr. Tieren Zhou, founder of the hybrid Agile Development Methodology SpecDD, will share his research and experience on making agile processes scalable and balanced. 

Unlike centralized finance, decentralized finance (DeFi) enables consumers to conduct loans, derivatives, exchanges, trading, earn interest, et el without intermediaries such as banks. As a disruption of the current financial system using blockchain technology, DeFi has reduced transaction costs, improved financial services, enhanced security and eliminated intermediaries. It will have a huge impact on the way we manage wealth and circulate money.

Marc Andreessen says the web has a BIG missing feature - Annotation. The ability to layer knowledge on web pages was always supposed to be part of the web, but Netscape dumped it in 1995 because of commercial and tech reasons. A better future of the web is possible. The Overweb is the next level of the web - a trust layer over the webpage that enables people to go visible and layers knowledge and interactions on webpages. Over any content on a webpage, there can be worlds of information, interactions, transactions, and experiences. 

Curriki (curriculum + wiki) is an independent 501(c)(3) organization, building tools that enable open access for all to the technologies that can transform the way educational experiences are designed, created, and delivered to the 21st Century student. A technology leader driven to improving the educational opportunities and breaking down the barriers that divide those who have access to high-quality education and those who do not.

Mr. Westly will talk about the revolutions occurring in smart energy, mobility and buildings. We are all concerned about global warming, Steve will talk about which companies are reshaping our future. As a former Tesla Board member, Steve will talk about how Tesla will continue to reinvent the auto industry and which companies have the potential to be the next Tesla!