SoCal Community Events

Connect with the innovation community in Southern California by checking out these regional events.

Upcoming Community Events

The events listed are not hosted or organized by the Alliance unless specified

April 16-21
Irvine Tech Week
Hosted by: Various
Location: Irvine
Irvine Tech Week, an exciting week-long event series that showcases the thriving ecosystem of Irvine. Presented by VCs, accelerators, startups, and the City of Irvine, this celebration is not to be missed. Stay in the loop and be among the first to know about next year’s festivities by signing up for our updates. Stay ahead of the game and join us for an unforgettable experience!

April 20
Earliest Stage Funding: What precedes Pre-Seed when your company is 3 PhDs and a dog?
Hosted by: Caltech Entrepreneurs Forum
Location: Caltech, Pasadena
Can entrepreneurs launch a new venture in the current environment when they are still “3 PhDs and a Dog”? Is there funding for them other than “Friends, Family and Fools”? Can partnerships fill the void? Can they mix equity funding with Federal Grant funding? Join us to explore the options with expert speakers who are investors, successful entrepreneurs, technology transfer leaders and government funding officials. After keynote presentation and panel discussion there will be audience Q&A along with plenty of networking.

May 1-2
Tech Innovation Forum (part of OC Innovation Week OC April 29-May 2)
Hosted by: Octane
Location: UCI Beall Applied Innovation | AV Irvine
Experience Octane’s Tech Innovation Forum, the premier event propelling technological advancement. As a gathering of visionaries, industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts, this forum sparks collaboration and presents cutting-edge ideas. Encounter top-tier speakers, emerging trends, and essential networking opportunities. We’re excited to announce Palmer Luckey, the visionary entrepreneur behind Anduril Industries, as the keynote speaker. His insights are set to inspire as we navigate the forefront of innovation. Don’t miss out on your gateway to the future of tech, investment opportunities, and optimal networking.

May 1
New Venture Forum
Hosted by: Cal Lutheran University
Location: Thousand Oaks
The New Venture Forum (NVF) is a valuable part of Cal Lutheran’s entrepreneurial education experience, in which student teams share their innovative startup projects in a competitive environment. The NVF is a dynamic and exciting event where the community gets its first look at Cal Lutheran’s exceptional student entrepreneurs and vote for their favorites.

May 2
IGNITE22 Global Tech Showcase & Summit
Hosted by: Braid Theory
Location: Altasea at the Port of Los Angeles
At IGNITE22, entrepreneurs, innovators, and future thinkers come together to network & explore the blue tech industry with exhibits and demonstrations on land and in the water. A curated & experiential event, brings together innovators shaping the 22nd century: entrepreneurs meet investors; industry leaders discover emerging technologies; and researchers explore market opportunities for their scientific discoveries.

May 7-8
CogX Festival LA: AI, Impact & Transformational Tech
Hosted by: CogX
Location: Fairmont Towers, Los Angeles
Europe’s leading, invitation-only festival of AI and transformational technology comes to LA. Join our global community of change makers and explore the hottest topics, from generative AI to climate tech and from life sciences to quantum.

May 8
Winning SBIR/STTR Proposals — Workshop
Hosted by: University Lab Partners
Join University Lab Partners for a 4-part SBIR/STTR series with experts from Eva Garland Consulting. The experts will guide you through the process of writing a winning SBIR/STTR proposal. The 4-part series kicks off Wednesday, May 8th at 9:00am via Zoom. Don’t miss out on this invaluable opportunity!

May 9
San Diego Angel Conference Finale
Hosted by: San Diego Angel Conference
Location: San Diego
Everyone is welcome at the finale. Join us to watch the top companies pitch in the finale. Investors will share what they learned in Due Diligence, and one company will walk away with an investment of $200,000*.

May 16
AI on the Lot 2024
Hosted by: AI LA
Location: Los Angeles
Join us at AI on the Lot, the premier summit where Hollywood’s creative minds meet the innovators of AI technology. This event is set to revolutionize the way we think about filmmaking and storytelling. From the writer’s room to post-production and beyond, explore how AI is reshaping animation, VFX, and even entertainment business models. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the future of film and television, where independent filmmakers, studio executives, and AI tech leaders come together to redefine the boundaries of creativity and technology.

May 20
Nucleate Los Angeles – Final Pitch Showcase 2024
Hosted by: Nucleate Los Angeles
Location: Luskin Conference Center at UCLA
We are holding our annual showcase of our 2024 Activator Cohort for all biotech enthusiasts from the student to industry levels. Seven teams spanning across the greater LA area will present their startup decks to a live audience, including panel of VC judges. Food will be provided to attendants and an open networking session will follow the presentations.

May 21
First Look SoCal Innovation Showcase 2024
Presented by: Alliance for SoCal Innovation
Location: Los Angeles
Join us at the Skirball in LA to meet 24 of the best early stage startups commercializing frontier tech (Cleantech, Software/Computing, Hardware/Devices) and life science (Medtech, Therapeutics, Diagnostics) breakthroughs from SoCal’s top research institutions. Each quick pitch is followed by live Q&A from a panel of subject matter experts (VCs, Corporate Execs). Opening keynote by Keith Strier, VP Worldwide AI Initiatives at NVIDIA. Stay for the networking reception to connect with the community.

May 22
AWS Summit
Hosted by: Amazon
Location: Los Angeles Convention Center
Enjoy an action-packed day at AWS Summit Los Angeles 2024, where the latest in cloud innovation comes to life. Explore how cutting-edge technologies, from generative AI to analytics, are revolutionizing industries and empowering businesses to lead in the digital era.

May 22
SDIC Innovation Showcase
Hosted by: San Diego Innovation Council
Location: Scripps Research Auditorium
A full day of company presentations and networking, with high quality investment opportunities in the software, engineering, cleantech, bluetech, and life sciences sectors. The SDIC will present innovations created at top academic centers in San Diego and Southern California. These academic centers come together annually to present investment opportunities, commercialization success stories, and opportunities to develop new enterprises based on technologies developed by their researchers.

May 23
LABEST 2024
Hosted by: UCLA TDG
Location: Luskin Conference Center at UCLA
The premier showcase for bioscience innovation in Los Angeles County produced by UCLA Technology Development Group (UCLA TDG). This event is a collaboration of ~1,000 participants across the Los Angeles area, including UCLA, Caltech, Cal State LA, City of Hope, USC, and Cedars Sinai. The event’s mission is to promote Los Angeles as a center of excellence for biotech innovation and to foster partnerships between academic institutions, the investment community, and the biopharma industry. Faculty members present their latest scientific breakthroughs, leading to tomorrow’s critical therapies. Leading bioscience translational research programs and startups will be showcased where Southern California Institutions have significant expertise, pioneering research, and resource commitments directed toward developing innovative patient therapies.

May 25
What I Learned From My Startup Getting Screwed
Hosted by: Caltech Entrepreneurs Forum
Location: Pasadena, Caltech
Education for entrepreneurs comes in many forms but learning from setbacks is often one of the keys to their success. In truth, failure is often a better mentor than initial success, especially in highlighting lessons critical to a new venture’s longterm success. Join us for presentations from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists sharing their “war stories” about painful lessons they learned. After the presentations there will be audience Q&A along with plenty of networking.

June 2
Blue Knight Symposium
Hosted by: J&J (JLABS) and BARDA
Location: San Diego
The BLUE KNIGHT™ Symposium is a dynamic event designed to bring together our global community for collaboration and knowledge exchange, and an opportunity to forge new partnerships and take action to drive advancements in early-stage health technologies. More than 1,200 individuals, representing early-stage life science and biotech companies, investment firms, academia, government agencies, medical centers, and pharmaceutical companies, registered for the 2023 event. If you are inspired by the power of health innovations and cutting-edge science to transform the way we address global health security and preparedness, we invite you to join us as we come together in San Diego to Catalyze the Breakthrough Solutions of Tomorrow.

SoCal Venture Pipeline Program
Deadline: Ongoing
SoCal Venture Pipeline Program powered by Banc of California
Startups receive targeted introductions to investors through our unique no-cost program (no fees, no equity, totally free). SoCal entrepreneurs raising institutional funding are carefully selected and directly introduced to capital providers from our deep nationwide relationship network. To see info about each company and the newest accepted startups in the SVP program, visit our website.

Community Deadlines

Application Deadline: April 27
UCLA Anderson Venture Accelerator — Summer Activate Program
Activate supports founders at the earliest stage of their journey. This two-month summer incubator program (July – August) works with both idea-stage and prototype-stage companies to build a defensible foundation toward a viable venture. The program is industry agnostic, but primarily focuses on healthcare, cleantech, and tech-enabled businesses. Activate is conducted in-person with hybrid participation available. The cohort will include UCLA students, UCLA alumni, and members of the Los Angeles community.

Application Deadline: May 9
Life Science Startup Symposium
Pismo Ventures’ Startup Symposium provides startups and founders with invaluable exposure to investors from across the nation. Several companies in previous events have received millions of dollars largely due to their participation and exposure to our investor network consisting of angels, angel groups, VCs, family offices and other funds. Additionally, this Symposium provides invaluable webinars and expert panels with topics ranging from finance, legal, marketing/sales, pitch deck, and much more.

Application Deadline: May 21
Pepperdine’s Most Fundable Companies competition
Get objective feedback on how your business will be viewed by potential investors beyond your introductory pitch. We aim to help you think about how to structure your business and position your service or product so that you are seen as a worthy investment. In 2023, over 3,000 startups across all 50 US states were screened into the nation’s top startups selected for the annual Pepperdine Most Fundable Companies list.

Application Deadline: May 22
Techstars San Diego (Powered by SDSU) 2nd Cohort Application
This accelerator is for startups in all industries that are interested in tapping into one of the fastest growing and collaborative startup ecosystems in the world. The program will bring expertise and resources to founders from SDSU, San Diego and beyond. Techstars San Diego will initially be located on SDSU’s San Diego campus, and then will be uniquely positioned in the SDSU Mission Valley Innovation District in 2025.

Application Deadline: June 9
Michelson Prizes: Next Generation Grants
Michelson Prizes: Next Generation Grants are $150,000 research grants given annually to support promising researchers applying disruptive concepts and inventive processes to advance human immunology, vaccine discovery, and immunotherapy research for major global diseases.

Application Deadline: Open Ended
SA&M Preccelerator Program
We work hand in hand with early stage ventures throughout their term to know their market and users, foster their leadership skills, build and test their products, avoid legal pitfalls, ensure the defensibility of their products, acquire users and partnerships and prepare them for the fundraising process. We have an open application process for new companies interested in the Preccelerator Program.

Startups Apply to the SoCal Venture Pipeline Program

Get matched with the right Seed and Series A investors. These are warm introductions that could change your life.

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Investors: Join our relationship network

The Alliance has established a nationwide network of over 200 institutional investors who receive curated personal introductions to high quality startups ready for Seed and Series A funding who match their investment thesis and previous investments. Join our relationship network to get connected to high potential startup founders.

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Upcoming Alliance Events

Check out our events calendar to see upcoming opportunities to connect with the innovation community in Southern California.

Alliance Events