Tech Events This December

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December is here — time to “tech” the halls and toast to the end of 2016. Civic tech in the Bay Area and beyond has come a long way this year; let’s look back on what we accomplished, look ahead at what’s to come, and most importantly: let’s work together to use technology to make our world a better place in 2017.

Here are our top picks for civic tech events in and around the Bay Area in December.

December 1 — Playcrafting SFO December Demo & Play Night & Holiday Celebration

Live demos. Playtime. Pizza. Playcrafting SFO is the place to see the newest independent games being built in San Francisco and network with the people who built them. Each month, we get together to watch developers explain their mechanics and origins of their games while doing live game demos. Attendees then play each game with the developers behind them. Join our community of game developers, designers, creatives, investors and more building across multiple platforms and genres. Enjoy complimentary pizza as you meet the developers and network with game professionals from throughout our community. Plus our epic after party. Hope you can make it!

December 1 & 15 — Code for San Jose Civic Hack Night

We are a Code for America brigade — a volunteer civic innovation organization that welcomes citizens, coders, designers, data geeks, policy wonks and community activists with an interest in solving community problems through the use of technology. Our goal is to help open, improve, and engage local governments in the San Jose area, and to pursue projects that solve real problems in our communities. We hold bi-monthly “civic hack nights” in which our members work on a range of civic tech projects, such as building tools and services on top of open data.

December 2 — Bootstrapper Breakfast with Elena Krasnoperova: ‘Learning Hacks’

“Come join entrepreneurs who eat problems for breakfast. At a Bootstrappers Breakfast® we have serious conversations about growing a business based on internal cashflow and organic profit: this is for founders who are actively bootstrapping a startup.

Elena Krasnoperova, our featured attendee, will offer a briefing entitled “Learning Hacks for Bootstrappers,” Elena will introduce the AAA learning framework: Acquire, Absorb, Apply – and then teach us the hacks for each of the 3 stages. Attendees will receive a cheat sheet of learning tools to take home.

December 3 — Transformative Technology Hack Day

Calling all well-being and mental health hackers, creatives, and passion people! Join the Transformative Technology Lab for the re-launch of our signature HACK DAY on Saturday, Dec 3.

At Hack Day, makers and creatives will form interdisciplinary project teams and explore our most promising ideas on psychological transformation in an informal, action-oriented environment.

December 5 — Women In Tech Day of Code

To celebrate the end of a successful year, Women in Tech and Capital One Coders are jointly hosting a day-long event on Dec 5 9:30am-5pm to kick off the National Hour of Code week! Everyone is invited! This event is happening across all C1 Sites.

SF Women in Tech has accomplished a lot this year—from numerous events to a successful Lean-in circle series. The Capital One Coders program has been recognized by the White House #CSForAll initiative. We launched this program in SF this year with two onsite hackdays for middle school students, and a 10-week school program kicked off on November 10. Join us to celebrate these wonderful accomplishments!

December 5 — Black Girls CODE Bay Area Chapter Presents: Women of Color in Gaming Panel

The Bay Area Chapter of Black Girls CODE invites you to join us for a spirited and lively evening of conversation and connection, featuring some leading Women of Color in Gaming during Computer Science Education Week. This event will be an educational experience for girls, between the ages of 7 and 17, and their parents/guardians.

December 6 — Code for San Jose Social Mixer at SoFA Market

Come celebrate another year of progress with Code for San Jose! Please note: this is not a civic hack night – just a fun social event 🙂 Open bar sponsored by our good friends at Microsoft!

December 6 — Nerd Nite @ The Tech Museum of Innovation

Join us for the nerdiest night in the nerdiest city in the world: Nerd Nite Silicon Valley! Gather some friends (and come make new ones!) as we enjoy a round of slightly ridiculous, but always enlightening, presentations. We’ll have a performance by the singing-Stanford-science duo The Ten Thousand Ways followed by a spirited “ScavengerNerd Hunt” and a… ahem… “moving” presentation on the human microbiome by Egle Cekanaviciute Ph.D.

December 6 — Big in Japan: How Japanese Startups are Different Than Those in Silicon Valley

Over the past decade, the Japanese government has introduced dozens of programs to foster innovation. Clearly they are having some effect because we are now seeing both an explosion in the number of startups being founded and the number of smaller companies entering the Japanese market.

In this presentation, Japan-based entrepreneur and podcaster Tim Romero will explain why the Japanese model of innovation, however, is developing into something very different from what the government expected and very different from what we’ve seen in Silicon Valley. Longer sales cycles, lower availability or growth capital and the relative rarity of strategic M&A have forced many Japanese firms to be more focused and operationally sound, and there are both good and bad aspects to this situation.

December 6 — Silicon Valley NewTech #SVNEWTECH

Learn about hot new web technologies and mingle with 200+ fellow entrepreneurs, investors, bloggers, and tech enthusiasts. The first hour of the meetup will be live product demos. The second hour is for networking and talking to the presenters. Pizza, beer, and wine will be provided. More information on SVNewTech.com

December 6-7 — FTC 2016 – Future Technologies Conference 2016

FTC 2016 attracts researchers, scientists and technologists from some of the top companies, universities, research firms and government agencies from around the world. The conference is predicated on the successful conferences by The Science and Information (SAI) Organization that have been held in the UK since 2013.

December 7 & 14 & 21 — Code for San Francisco Weekly Civic Hack Night

All you need is your brain, your passion, and your openness when you come to Code for San Francisco’s weekly Hack Night. We welcome all interested people, including residents, activitsts, business folk, designers, and developers. No need for tech experience of any kind! Code for San Francisco is a Code for America “brigade” or local chapter focused on improving San Francisco. You’ll be surrounded by folks who are interested in working together to change The City for the better.

December 7 — Holiday Party: 2016 Top Tech Trends and Investing; Predictions for 2017

Enjoy our annual Holiday Mixer, hear about top tech trends and investments for 2016; and predictions for 2017. SPEAKERS:

  • Curtis Feeny, Managing Partner, Voyager Capital
  • Prosod Gosavi, VM Ware
  • Michael Minkevich, Partner, Maxfield Capital
  • Ryan Han Liu, Investor, IPV Capital
  • Mahbubul Alam, Moviment Group (Automotice and IOT)
  • Moderator; JB Su, Principal Analyst Atherton Research; Tech Columnist, Forbes

December 8 — Engage the Bay

Explore 21st century civic engagement! You are invited to spend an amazing day learning from speakers, panels and your fellow colleagues about a wide range of civic engagement strategies – brand new ideas AND field tested programs alike! Stay for a second day of workshops and load your toolkit with participatory budgeting solutions, civic engagement frameworks and best practices.

December 8 — Tech in Motion: Silicon Valley’s End of Year Celebration

Join Tech in Motion for an unforgettable celebration of the people and organizations driving innovation in Silicon Valley and beyond. Tech in Motion’s End of Year Celebration is a can’t-miss opportunity to network with 1,000+ tech professionals and enthusiasts across our 11 chapters. We’re celebrating everything we love about this community! Join us December 8th for an evening of cocktails and keynotes. We’ll toast to the year we’ve had and share in our excitement over what’s to come in 2017.

December 9 — Closing Event for the 2016 CA Water Data Challenge

In partnership with the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the State of California (acting through the State Water Resources Control Board, Department of Water Resources, Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Government Operations Agency and the California Department of Technology) is planning a Water Data Challenge to leverage information technology and available water information to support decisions around California water reliability and sustainability of resources. T

A closing event on December 9 will feature presentation of the entries and recognition of the winners, who will be chosen by a panel of water and data experts. Participants will be asked to give a brief (5-10 minute) demo or presentation of their entry at the closing event, either in-person or remotely via webconference.

December 12 — Man vs Machine: The Potential of Artificial Intelligence and Universal Basic Income

Will advances in artificial intelligence make an unemployment crisis inevitable within the next twenty years? The man vs. machine argument is far from novel, but some contend that this moment in history is unique. Is this the latest manifestation of techno-pessimism or will truck drivers and other American workers soon become endangered species?

December 15 — Tech & Tinsel 2016: Holiday Product Demo Night @ Computer History Museum

The NextGen Board at the Computer History Museum invites you to a holiday fair of product demos, snacks, shopping and sweaters. Come check out (and buy) the latest and coolest products from startups in the Bay Area: Tile, Nomiku, Sprayables, Yono, Decadent Minimalist, Palo Alto Innovation, Acton, SmartyPans, Prynt, BeeLine Reader, Nibble, Imperfect Produce, and Joyloop. We will also be hosting a raffle benefitting Second Harvest Foodbank, featuring the Sphero BB8 and several sets from GoldieBlox.

December 17 — Tech4Teens Benefit Event

An event to celebrate the work that went into the Tech4Teens Fresno campaign. There will be presentations and showcases in the theatre room. Scholarship recipients will receive their awards.