Apple, Google, Facebook, Uber, and Airbnb have taken over the way we communicate, collaborate, work, and even travel. They’re not just disruptors but leaders in their own right.
But there’s another thing that binds them together: Calling Silicon Valley their home. The bay area in Northern California is the mecca of modern innovation and automation we all idolize.
Silicon Valley has singlehandedly overhauled the 21st-century start-up ecosystem and pioneered how we interact with our surroundings. Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara, Mountain View, Cupertino, Menlo Park have all redefined talent, hard work, and entrepreneurship while transforming the tech landscape.
All you entrepreneurs, start-ups, and professionals heading down to Silicon Valley, you’re in luck. We’ve gone ahead and compiled an exhaustive list of seminars, workshops, meetups, and hangouts that give you a sneak peek into the workings of the Valley (and San Francisco because we’re awesome!).
Why should you care? Because you’ll be in the birthplace of the digital world we now live and breathe. You can’t spend those few, precious days staring at some building or dot-com wonders when you can work that charm of yours to meet, network, and bond with big thinkers like there’s no tomorrow.
For women in tech
Women Who Code SF: Hosts Ruby and Web Tuesdays, Mobile Development meetups (talks, workshops), and much more at various SF locations.
Write/Speak/Code SF & Bay Area: Women and non-binary meetup to collaborate and become thought leaders, conference speakers, and open source contributors.
Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners: An open platform to talk, share, and learn from fellow women tech professionals.
PyLadies SF: A support network for women that acts as a bridge to the larger Python domain.
In the good company
Google Developers Group Silicon Valley: Rejoice as you discuss Tango, Daydream, Angular, Firebase, or Android Studio and native development with other experts.
Advanced Amazon Web Services: The right place for Advanced AWS topics that assume the deep knowledge of AWS services.
SF Amazon Alexa meetup: Join the fun to share Alexa skills, learn tricks, watch demos/presentations.
Uber Engineering Events: Find out what makes Uber one of the fastest growing and influential companies through the work and people who drive Uber Engineering.
Can’t-miss events, meetups and workshops
SF Investors and Startups: Paid meet and network event hosts celebrity VCs including Tinder’s founder and CEO Sean Rad, Spark Capital’s Megan Quinn, and Kabam’s Holly Liu.
StartupDigest: A comprehensive aggregator on all things start-ups, including local news and events.
StartupWeekend: An active platform to meet mentors, investors, co-founders, and sponsors for your start-up.
Tech in Motion: A great event to feed your enthusiasm by interacting with other professionals you wouldn’t cross paths with.
Free Code Camp: An open and regular (weekly) meetup to code collaboratively.
TechCrunch events: Enough said!
Lean Startups: A directory of all lean start-up meetups around the globe, with quite a few, active ones in Silicon Valley and San Francisco.
AngelList: A well-known platform to connect with peers and seed investors in the tech community.
Hackers Dojo: A tech hub in the Bay Area that’s a working space, events venue, and a maker space.
TechShop: You can make ‘virtually anything’ here. Not our words – theirs!
Xerox PARC forum talks: An invited speaker series since 1977. It’s a free and open platform to share insights and network with leading experts in a variety of areas.
Co-working allies
Don’t limit yourself to just meetings and events. Silicon Valley has some distinguished co-working spaces like Citizen Space, NextSpace, or Founders Den where you can find start-ups slogging their days away. Use this opportunity to meet, interact, or better still work together.
Food over tech
Silicon Valley’s favourite hangouts to sit down, eat, and build companies.
In Palo Alto
- Chef Chu’s
- Coupa Cafe: Start-up founders hashing out team formation and fundraising discussions is a common sight here.
- University Café
- Peninsula Creamery: A fave of engineers building start-ups.
On Sand Hill Road
- Buck’s of Woodside: A regular breakfast joint of VCs.
- Village Pub: If you missed the breakfast, no worries. You can catch them here at lunch finalizing deals.
- Madera
- Sundeck: The heart of old “VC central”.
In Mountain View
- Red Rock Cafe: Watch the coders in action.
Silicon Valley is all about interactions. It’s where innovation amalgamates technology and hard work in a glamorous setting. With this list, you’ll have the perfect opportunity to not only witness this spectacle but also leave your footprint along the way.
Have you been a part of a Silicon Valley event or meetup? We would love you to let us know if it helped you, and how, in the comments section below.
About the author
Sphoorti Bhandare is a PR consultant with a heart of a digital nomad. Sphoorti studied Electronics (B.Tech.) and pursued Masters in Public Relations in New York. A Bollywood dancer by nature, Sphoorti keeps busy by finding new PR trends, learning about social media tools and planning her next travel destination. She’s usually found mastering Zumba, making whipped coffee and hopping from one country to another.
