Hey AI LA Community,

It’s been a busy October for the AI LA community, and there’s more ahead. Our November 14 Life Summit has new speakers and sessions confirmed. Make sure to register by Friday, October 23, before ticket prices increase. In this edition, explore the lineup, revisit highlights from LA Tech Week and our hands-on workshop with Popcorn, and find your next opportunity to join us at meetups and workshops in November.

We’ve confirmed new speakers and programming, with conversations spanning clinical adoption, mental health, and the changing healthcare workforce. Here’s a look at what’s ahead:

The day will also include a founders and investors conversation, networking, and a closing reception, with more programming to be announced soon.

Register by Friday, October 23, to secure early-bird pricing. General admission increases and member tickets increase on Saturday, October 24.

Life Summit Partnership Opportunities

We’re also inviting partners and sponsors to showcase their work and connect with the people advancing health innovation. Opportunities include program sponsorships, startup showcases, executive roundtables, wellness experiences, and the networking reception, with partnership levels to suit a range of goals and budgets. Reach out to [email protected] to find the right fit.

This week, AI LA and Popcorn.co brought our community together for The Agentic Marketing Workshop: Build Your AI-Powered Content Engine. Popcorn CEO Adi Sideman demonstrated how to guide the platform’s agentic showrunner with a clear brief, brand materials, and creative direction. Participants then created video prototypes for their businesses, products, and campaigns, followed by a screening and collaborative feedback session.

Throughout the evening, we explored how AI’s production capabilities can work alongside the human judgment that gives content its purpose, voice, and relevance. Thank you to Adi, the Popcorn team, and everyone who joined us to create and experiment!

We had one busy and thrilling week, with so many people to thank. During a16z’s Tech Week, AI LA brought together founders, investors, engineers, creatives, and community leaders across Los Angeles. From conversations about AI in aerospace and defense and women shaping creative industries to connecting LA’s tech community with Canadian and German innovators, the week offered plenty of opportunities to learn, exchange ideas, and meet future collaborators. Thank you to our speakers, partners, volunteers, and everyone who joined us—here’s a look back at the moments that made it memorable.

We started the week strong with an Oktoberfest celebration in Venice complete with pretzels, beer, bratwurst, and learnings about transatlantic business opportunities. Leonie Neuhäuser, Research Manager at DeepL, opened the evening with a keynote sharing DeepL’s voice-to-voice translations. Then Christian Temath, Dr. Tobias Schimmer, Philipp Depiereux, and Joerg Rose took the stage to share their perspectives on Germany’s AI ecosystem.

Andrea Sasse, German Consul General in Los Angeles, and Ronja Baller of NRW.Global Business, also shared about other opportunities to connect our communities across the Atlantic.

A warm thank-you to our partners at NRW.Global Business and everyone who joined us. You made this a wonderful start to the week.

The week continued with more international events. We joined the Consulate General of Canada and Los Angeles Venture Association (LAVA) to bring Canadian and Southern California founders, investors, and community partners together for an evening of conversations and poutine. Thank you to the Honourable Kamal Khera for her opening remarks and for sharing opportunities for cross-border investment, entrepreneurship, and collaboration.

The middle of the week brought us to El Segundo at THE BR-DGE x DTI for an afternoon exploring the use of artificial intelligence in the aerospace and defense industry.

Our first panel focused on AI in defense operations, featuring Col. Jennifer Krolikowski, USAF/USSF (Ret.), COO at GetChkd and former CIO at Space Systems Command; Angel Martinez, President & CEO at Celeris Systems; Solita S. Scott, Senior DOW Cybersecurity Consultant; and David Baska, Growth at Smack Technologies. Karim Ali, AI LA Ambassador and Principal Consultant at ACTsavi, moderated the conversation.

The second panel explored how AI is changing the way aerospace companies design, build, test, manufacture, and operate. Cameron Sinko, Software Engineer at Revel; Alex Tacescu, Director of Software at Inversion; Armand Awad, CTO at AstroForge; and Jordan Maxwell, Director of R&D at Scout Space, joined moderator Loic Chappaz, AI LA Ambassador and Principal Flight Science Engineer at AstroForge, to share perspectives from their work.

The conversations continued over networking and happy hour, alongside demos from the Resilient MilComm cohort and the official launch of Launchpad II. Thank you to our speakers, moderators, and volunteers for bringing their expertise and energy, and to our sponsors, THE BR-DGE, Wells Fargo, and Goodfin, for making the event possible!

At AI Unscripted, we partnered with Momentum Impact to bring together women across music, entertainment, design, business, and emerging technology. Ann-Marie Paz, Joanna Popper, Julie Pilat, and Lauren Eve Cantor explored AI as a creative collaborator, questions of ownership, and the growing importance of human taste, judgment, and curiosity.

Thank you to our panelists, Mo Hiromoto for opening the evening with a moment of grounding, and AI LA Policy Ambassador Lauren Bradley for representing our community. We’re grateful to Momentum Impact, Helms Design District, Suggafoot, and Teddy Tears Cocktails, and everyone who joined us in Culver City for a thoughtful conversation.

We closed out the week at Google’s office in Playa Vista for the AI LAX Summit. Builders, founders, investors, creatives, and policymakers came together to explore the future of humans and AI agents working together. Featured speakers from NVIDIA, Sophia Space, Google, Hasbro, and more discussed enterprise adoption, governance, infrastructure, and the emerging agentic economy.

From hands-on workshops and demos led by IV.AI to conversations with founders in the Startup Alley, the summit offered opportunities to see what teams are building and discuss what responsible, practical adoption looks like. A fitting close to a week of learning and connecting across LA’s AI community.

Wednesday, November 4, 6-8 PM | Highland Park Brewery

Saturday, November 21 | BLANKSPACES Venice

Participants will learn to separate signal from noise, use AI to enhance rather than replace human discernment, frame the right problems, make consequential decisions, and align teams around a clear direction.