Silicon Beach

Silicon Beach Fest

“What is Silicon Beach?”

I asked this question when I attended the annual Silicon Beach Festival in Santa Monica.  This year is the second year of the festival, 2012 was the first.  While the idea of ‘Silicon Beach’ has received notable press over the last year, since the first year of the festival, the question of what exactly ‘Silicon Beach’ is remains for many, including myself.

            The name ‘Silicon Beach’ is derived from the concept of Silicon Valley.  The banner of ‘Silicon Beach’ implies it is a branch of, or related to, Silicon Valley.   This begs the question:

“What is Silicon Valley?” 

“Silicon Valley is the southern region of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California, in the United States. The region, whose name derives from the Santa Clara Valley in which it is centered, is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations as well as thousands of small startups. The term originally referred to the region's large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers, but eventually came to refer to all the high-tech businesses in the area, and is now generally used as a metonym for the American high-tech sector.”   -- Wikipedia

Silicon Beach can therefore be the name / metonym given to the tech/startup community of Los Angeles County.  

Some people don’t think the name ‘Silicon Beach’ makes sense because you won’t find the production of Silicon chips which gave Silicon Valley its namesake.  While other names have been thrown around, like ‘LA Tech’, for me the name ‘Silicon Beach’ is fitting.  Unlike other burgeoning tech communities, as in New York, Austin or London, Silicon Beach actually has close connections to Silicon Valley, and increasingly has the direct investment of Silicon Valley companies like Google, and connections to Pixar (Disney) via Apple computer. 

The idea of a “Silicon Valley of the South”, a tech industry like Silicon Valley in Los Angeles County is easy to get behind for LA locals and the state.  Who in California wouldn’t want a tech boom in Los Angeles County?  Not many Californians (and fewer Southern Californians) are against more good jobs, more economic growth and more wealth in the local economy.  The idea of a ‘Silicon Valley of the South’ would imply just that.  The feeling that ‘Silicon Beach’ has the potential to be a “Silicon Valley of the South” is palpable. 

The energy of the festival and the LA Tech community is that of a startup, an idea with the essential elements of a good startup: value and story.  The Los Angeles community of tech interests appear to be getting behind and investing in the idea, which makes it prime to take off in a big way.  Is it possible for ‘Silicon Beach’ to become something like ‘Silicon Valley’?  “Anything is possible” and “think big” was the mantra the echoing throughout the four-day festival.  

What most sets Silicon Beach apart from its tech industry sister in the North is fact that Silicon Beach is more entertainment/content/media and creatively focused, less about hardware and an algorithms.  If the Festival schedule is any indication, Silicon Beach is decidedly focused on entertainment, with topics like Hollywood, social media, gaming and content distribution the subject of many panels.  The historic focus of Los Angeles on entertainment is a benefit to Silicon Beach, as the creative community of Hollywood and the associated creative industries (gaming, advertising, fashion) has the effect of making the Southern California tech scene that much more unique, and maybe even gives it a creative edge.

Los Angeles County has long been home to technology related industries like Aerospace, so Silicon Beach has a local base of skilled computer and engineering talent to draw from.  Only a few miles down the beach south from Santa Monica and the Silicon Beach Festival is a the city of El Segundo, which has Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Xerox among it’s top employers.  Also within the county are several world renowned science and technology research universities, CalTech, USC and UCLA.  CalTech made an appearance at the festival and displayed some of it’s 3-D printing technology; very cool I might add.  USC recently completed state-of-the-art facilities for film production, virtual reality and gaming on its campus, and operates the Institute for Creative Technologies in Playa Vista.  UCLA is also an incubator of talent for startups, and was involved in the creation of the internet as we know it.  Throw in Idealabs and the Pasadena tech scene which was present at the festival and all of this is like water on the seeds of potential in the garden of Silicon Beach.

With the growing dependence, focus, and investment by Hollywood in technology (3-D, visual effects, digital distribution) and social media (for advertising, metrics, distribution), the presence of tech startups all over the county already, and skilled and motivated human resources nearby, the stage for a new hub of tech startups is set and lit.  Google (as well as others) are also building/operating facilities (Google’s YouTube Studios in Playa Vista is a perfect example) in Los Angeles to follow the trend of Silicon Valley integration with Hollywood.  Digital LA and the founders of Silicon Beach Fest are definitely on to something

So what is Silicon Beach?

Silicon Beach is the triumvirate of Los Angeles based Technology resources/talent, Global Media Conglomerates, and Creative artists (content creators).  Silicon Beach is the love-child of Silicon Valley and Hollywood.  It’s a banner and metonym under which Los Angeles County startups and tech scene can form a community to learn and grow together. 

Silicon Beach is a startup.

"If you are successful in your startup what does that look like?"  "What is the heart and soul of your business idea?"  -- Matt McCall, New World Ventures

If the Silicon Beach “startup” is successful, the Los Angeles tech and creative communities have a new incubator of innovation, a way to attract talent and new business, and economic growth.  The ‘heart and soul’ of the idea is to form a community of innovators with common goals and interests to promote and grow the community, and its interests.

The Silicon Beach Festival is a great way to meet the LA Tech community!

The opening party at Viceroy in Santa Monica started out small, but quickly grew to a packed house.  For the first day I wasn’t able to view the website for the Festival schedule because, as I was told, the site was overwhelmed with traffic and crashed -- too much of a good thing I guess.

The Festival, much like the Silicon Beach community itself, is fractured and decentralized.  The panels took place mostly in two locations ROC and Cross Campus in Santa Monica, and at these locations there were usually three compartmentalized ‘tracks’ of panels going on in the building.  At any given time during the festival there were always at least six (sometimes more) panels or events all happening at once.  Hollywood, Gaming, Startups, Advertising, Social Media, and other topics were topics being discussed in different rooms or as part of certain tracks.  This is reflective of Silicon Beach, which itself comprised of many different elements.  However it makes for difficult choices for someone like myself who wishes they cold be in two places at once.

This can be frustrating at times because there is no way you can see it all.  I recommend planning what panels or tracks are most interesting to you ahead of time.  Ideally the entire festival could take place in one location to make floating from discussion to discussion easier, but most people have a ‘track’ that is their focus, so the structure is workable.

There was so much to see and do it was almost overwhelming.  Hackathons, Lunches, Parties, Fashion shows, demos, and after parties.  I recommend trying to get in as much as possible, but not spreading yourself too thin.  Don’t try and see everything and end up not really getting into the meat of anything.  For me, it’s also important to not be too rigid, sometimes it’s nice to go sit in on something I know nothing about, talk to people and see what they are doing, and be open to exploring other topics you thought you didn’t have interest in.  You may have more interest and connection to the topic/discussion than you thought, and it may have more connection to your goals than you realize.

If you love technology and or entertainment, and have interest in startups and innovation, as I do, you would definitely enjoy this festival.  Even if you aren’t really into technology, but you create content, or work in Hollywood, gaming or advertising you will likely enjoy the festival.  Anyone that loves a party will enjoy the parties.

I look forward to next years’ festival, and have a feeling it’s only going to get bigger and better in the years ahead.