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Silicon Valley Spring 2025 AI Symposium
Spring 2025 AI Symposium
May 8th 2025
San Jose, CA
What makes this event different?
Participants will represent each layer of the GenAI tech stack
This event is all about action. After hearing from top AI leaders, you’ll dive into real-world successes, tackle industry challenges, and leave with insights you can immediately apply.
With executives from retail, finance, telecom, and beyond—plus experts across the AI stack—we break down silos to drive real innovation. This isn’t just another event; it’s where strategy meets execution.
Industry Participants
Agenda
This inaugural IterateOn AI Symposium is all about peer-to-peer information sharing. All about AI. It’s designed to spark insights, accelerate action, and build connections—across industries.
The day includes:
- Quick-hitting Trend Talks to stretch your thinking
- Rapid-fire demos of AI solutions that are already successfully driving results
- The early formation of action-oriented Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
- Networking, conversations, cocktails, and food
This is the first in a continuing series of invite-only Symposiums, shaped by and for the participants.
The event also lays the groundwork for follow-up Webinars and the launch of SIGs—peer communities focused on taking action around shared opportunities and challenges.
Evening Before
May 7th
Cocktails, Conversation, & AI Insights
5:00pm — 7:30pm
Networking Reception
We’ll kick off our inaugural Spring AI Symposium with an informal cocktail reception to connect with fellow AI leaders and innovators from across the country. This will be in Iterate.ai’s San Jose office building, a fitting Silicon Valley backdrop for AI practitioners.
Sharing your perspectives on today’s most pressing AI topics: the rising tide of AI agents and autonomous systems; generative AI as a creative ally across design, content, marketing, and software development; AI in scientific discovery—from energy to biotech; the future of ethics, legislation, and AI governance; quantum- and AI-powered cybersecurity; and AI’s expanding role in healthcare and wellness. AI is touching everything.
Dinner is on your own—restaurant recommendations will be provided.
"If the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near."
— Jack Welch
A Full Day of Events
May 8th
Explore thought-provoking AI trends and real-world opportunities through engaging discussions
8:00am — 9:00am
Breakfast
9:00am — 9:15am
Welcome & INtroductions
We’ll begin the day with a warm welcome from Ekta Chopra, Chief Digital Officer of e.l.f. Cosmetics and Jon Nordmark, Chief Executive Officer of Iterate.ai.
9:15am — 10:30am
From Silicon to Swarms: The New Architecture of AI in Business
We'll kickstart the day by spotlighting what’s new, next, and possibly nerve-racking in AI.
Topics include pressing questions related to Edge AI and AI Agents. Agents alone, require a lot of thinking—from solo, sequential, and swarm agents ... to integrating institutional knowledge into models ... to the rise of open-source and private AI ... to the growing trend of enterprises building proprietary nano- and small-models.
Seven rapid-fire topics will be woven into a single, shared mission: to stretch our thinking and spark real-world action.
- The Impacts of Chips and Hardware on AI and the Enterprise
We’ll kick things off at the foundation—the silicon layer. AI’s speed, cost, and accessibility are being reshaped by custom chips, powerful accelerators, and the rise of edge computing. The impact of Agentic AI on cost structures. If inference will unlock the next industrial revolution, this is the engine that will kick it into gear. - Growing MCP Systems and Services
As enterprise AI gets real (with inference), we’re seeing the rise of Multi-Component Platforms—modular stacks built to orchestrate models, agents, data, and UI. We’ll explore how these platforms power flexibility, experimentation, and speed-to-deployment. - NLMs, SLMs, and LLMs
Not all models are created equal—and bigger isn’t always better. We’ll explore use cases for large, small, and nano language models, and why many organizations are now building models tailored to their private data (RAG), devices, and domain. We’ll also explore how organizations will use LLMs to unlock long-dormant enterprise data—once buried in systems like Pure Storage—to power RAG and real-time action. - Expectations of Rapid Agentic AI Growth in Enterprises
Autonomous AI agents are no longer theory—some are now being deployed to orchestrate workflows, automate decision-making, and execute tasks. We’ll look at solo, sequential, and swarm agents.We’ll explore why this paradigm is scaling fast, and what it means for teams, tools, and trust. - Touchpoint Theory: Every Human Step Is an Error
Jeff Bezos famously argued that every time a human has to touch a process, it’s a design flaw—not a value add. We’ll unpack that idea in the context of agentic AI and what it means for designing enterprise workflows with fewer bottlenecks and more autonomy.
10:30am — 10:45am
Break
"Data is the new oil. It’s valuable, but if unrefined it cannot really be used. It has to be changed, processed, broken down, and analyzed for it to have value."
— Clive Humby, British mathematician and architect of the Tesco Clubcard, 2006
10:45am — 12:05pm
Practical AI: Lightning Round 1
“Real results, rapid-fire format.”
This is a big reason we’re all here: each one of us is interested in practical AI.
So here we go—eight rapid-fire demos, each just ten minutes, spotlighting real-world AI in action. Presenters will walk through their most successful initiatives, unpacking practical applications, key performance metrics, and business impact.
As you listen, you’ll jot down which demos spark your curiosity. You can ask questions at the end of each presentation.
We’ll use your questions and input to shape afternoon breakout groups, giving you the chance to connect directly with the presenters and your peers.
12:05pm — 12:50pm
Networking & Lunch
“Fuel up. Connect. Keep the ideas flowing.”
Relax, enjoy lunch, and recharge while connecting with fellow participants. Reflect on the morning’s sessions. Use this time to share reactions, find common ground, swap contact info, or float ideas around forming a peer-to-peer SIG you’d like to join, as part of our effort to carry today’s momentum into longer-term collaboration.
12:50am — 1:10pm
Intel Presentation
Every company will be an AI company as inference takes hold of the enterprise.
1:10pm — 2:00pm
Practical AI: Lightning Round 2
“More wins. More sparks.”
Let’s keep the momentum going. In this second round, we’ll see 5 more rapid-fire demos—one every 10 minutes (with some time to spare)—highlighting successful, real-world AI use cases across industries and teams.
2:00pm — 2:15pm
Break
"Every company is going to become an AI company. It’s not a question of if, it’s a question of how quickly."
— Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud
2:15pm — 3:00pm
AI Expectations and Realities: From the Boardroom to the Breakroom
As AI continues its rapid evolution, expectations are multiplying—from boardrooms seeking strategic advantage, to legislators drafting guardrails, to employees adapting to a new wave of intelligent tools. In this dynamic session, three distinct perspectives will converge: a board member serving on four boards—from public companies to private equity firms—will explore how directors are weighing AI’s risks, rewards, and required pace; an AI-focused attorney will unpack the fast-shifting expectations of lawmakers and regulators; and a strategist will ground us in the cultural realities of deploying Agentic AI within organizations. Together, they’ll illuminate the tension between ambition and adoption—and what it takes to align AI vision with real-world execution
3:00pm — 4:30pm
The Struggle is Real: Unpacking AI Challenges in this AI Mastermind Session
Now we turn to the harder side of the AI story. In this session, a handful of real-world challenges will be candidly shared. Each challenge will have been submitted in advance by participants so that names and proprietary details can be anonymized.
A facilitator will describe these real-life challenges, one at a time. A challenge could include obstacles encountered while implementing AI, cultural resistance, technical friction or even to legal, fiscal, environmental, and ethical concerns. These use cases could highlight practical friction points, like navigating open-source licensing, working within the limits of proprietary models, and balancing innovation with governance.
In short, each is a “request for advice or help.” These aren’t theoretical concerns; they’re real obstacles from the field, ripe for problem-solving by this AI Mastermind group.
It also builds momentum for the formation of future webinars or SIGs—spaces designed for continued collaboration around today’s roadblocks and tomorrow’s unknowns.
4:30pm — 4:45pm
Wrap-up
Ekta Chopra and Jon Nordmark will begin the wrap-up. We’ll close with a look at what’s next—including our second AI Symposium this fall in Boulder, America’s epicenter of quantum computing—where four Nobel Laureates and hundreds of startups are actively shaping the quantum future and the first state to pass broad AI legislation (SB 205). We’ll also preview our upcoming schedule of monthly webinars and the formation of peer SIGs to support ongoing collaboration.
These aren’t just follow-ups. They’re the next steps in growing a connected, action-oriented community of AI leaders and innovators.
As you head out, please jot down your thoughts on Lightning Webinar topics that would be most valuable to you and your organization.
We’ve come a long way today—from inspiration to insights to next steps.
Au revoir… and Let’s Iterate!
IterateOn!
4:45pm — 6:00pm
Networking & Happy-Hour
"This isn’t about replacing humans. It’s about expanding what humans can do—amplifying creativity, insight, and decision-making."
— Fei-Fei Li, Professor at Stanford, Co-Director of Stanford HAI
Book Your Stay
This year’s AI Symposium will take place at the DoubleTree Hotel in San Jose. Stay just steps from the action by reserving a room at the event hotel—availability is limited, so don’t wait!
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel San Jose
2050 Gateway Place, San Jose, California, 95110 📍
Book Today
Let’s Connect—The Future of AI Starts with Conversation
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