New York is in the can (what a great event!) and next up, for those of us in the US anyway, is NewCo Silicon Valley. I won’t be able to actually attend NewCo SV, as I’ll be on the road visiting NewCo Amsterdam and NewCo Istanbul. But If I could go to Silicon Valley, these are the companies I’d pick to attend:
Day 1 – Monday June 8th
5:00 pm – VIP Kickoff At SurveyMonkey – This is a bittersweet choice, in that our kickoff speaker was to have been Dave Goldberg, who suddenly passed away while on vacation earlier this month. It’s a terrible loss for all of us in the Valley community, and of course we reached out to his family at SurveyMonkey and offered to cancel or move our kickoff so that the company could mourn. But in an expression of what makes Dave such a beloved person, the folks at SurveyMonkey insisted on keeping the kickoff event on their amazing rooftop deck. Dave was extremely proud of the LEED certified building he designed in the heart of Palo Alto, and this kickoff, hosted by my partner and NewCo Board Director Brian Monahan, will be a very special event indeed.
Day 2 – Tuesday June 9th
10:00 am – GoPro. Zander Lurie, a good friend of Dave’s, was to speak, but is now interim CEO at SurveyMonkey. No matter, whoever speaks, I’d want to hear the story of Go Pro, which is truly one of the most inspiring new kinds of companies in the Valley. If there were two (or more) of me, I’d also want to hit Survey Monkey and LinkedIn (almost full).
12:00 pm – Google. Google is doing two sessions this year at NewCo SV, and this one on the future of search and apps promises to be a deep dive on Google’s mobile plans. You must prequalify to attend this session, as it’s intended for developers (I’m not sure they’d let me come!). Other great sessions include Silicon Valley Innovation Center and Quixey.
2:00 pm – Tesla. C’mon, you have to go to a factory tour if you can! This is another qualified session – they are looking for senior level attendees and it looks to be sold out already. That can change if the company opens up more slots, or folks drop out, but if you can’t make Tesla, there are a lot of other great options: Institute for the Future, CourseTalk, and CareLinx would be in the running for me.
4:00 pm – HighFive. Slick and affordable video conferencing for the other 95%? Sign me up. I’d love to check this out – as much as I love Google Hangouts, truth is it’s not very reliable. But I can’t afford a high end solution. Enter High Five. Not into videoconferencing? Check out StartX, Intel, or Cask.
Day 3 – Weds. June 10th
10:00 am – HealthTap. I’m fascinated by the intersection of the NewCo economy and healthcare, and HealthTap plays squarely in the middle of it. Though I’ll admit it’s hard to miss Walmart, Polyvore, and BetterWorks, which would be my runners up.
12:00 pm – Matternet. An Internet in the sky for drone-based delivery? Yes please! And if not Matternet, then check out HealthLoop (I’m an investor so I’m very familiar with the company) or Flipboard.
2:00 pm – Mozilla. I’m in the tank for Mozilla’s open web philosophy, and Mozilla’s storied founder is speaking. But if you’re looking for something else, check out Singularity University or Cloudera. Both are Diamond Pass only at this point, but worth the upgrade price IMHO.
4:00 pm – Unshackled. Fascinating NewCo story here, focused on empowering entrepreneurs on work visas. If that’s not your thing, check out Scanadu or Acxiom (I’m on the Board).
6:00 pm – Meetup at Location TBD. Well, I know where the meetup is…but we can’t announce it quite yet. Trust me though, it’ll be a lot of fun!
If reading my picks whetted your appetite to spend a couple days getting out of your daily routine and into the most fascinating companies in the Valley, register here and get to picking your schedule! Many companies are already sold out, but there are plenty of open sessions left. I’m sorry to miss it this year, but I’ll be reporting from Istanbul and Amsterdam instead. Not a bad trade!