10 Reasons to go to Vator Splash Oakland

Here's why 700 people have already registered to attend

In the last decade, VC money shifted north from Silicon Valley to San Francisco. In other words, Silicon Valley moved north. 

SF accounted for 36% of all venture dollars invested in the Bay Area last year, up from under 5% in 2003, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. More impressively, SF saw $2.2 billion dollars invested in the area in the first quarter of this year, accounting for 49% of all venture dollars in Q1. 

But SF is full (rents are skyrocketing).  

The money is moving to the East Bay, partly because there's a cultural and demographic shift in entrepreneurship, and urban dense areas, like Oakland, will be beneficiaries of that startup energy.  

That's why we're bringing Splash to Oakland and why the money is following us. We believe just like SOMA (South of Market in SF) was transformed in a period of 10-15 yrs, Oakland's Jack London Square could see the same transformation. (See above image). 

Check out the roster of investors and entrepreneurs going to the event. Register before prices go up for all of you last-minute procrastinators and learn why and how the East Bay could see SOMA-like growth at Vator Splash Oakland, on the waterfront in Jack London Square.

Here's 10 reasons to attend:

1) Learn how to build a tech ecosystem for good:

May 6, Session 1: 9:40 am to 10:10 - Fireside Chat with Mitch Kapor (Founder of Lotus Notes and Kapor Center for Social Impact). Interviewer: Bambi Francisco. Here's a sneak peak of Mitch's views. 

Oakland is on the cutting edge.  

2)  Learn how Oakland's Jack London Square can become SOMA

In the first quarter, Oakland saw $97 million in venture dollars invested, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. That's up from $92 million invested in the same quarter a year ago, and nearly 80% of the $124 million invested in 2013. While Q2 and Q3 may slow down, if the money continues apace, Oakland may see the strongest year since 2010, when $485 million was invested in the area. The same year that the total Bay Area saw $11 billion invested. We also see Jack London Square as equivalent to SOMA (south of market in San Francisco). We'll elaborate more on our thesis, which you can read here:

How Oakland can see an entrepreneurial renaissance

3) Learn how accelerators are helping their local economies:

May 7, Session 2: 10:10 am to 10:40 am - City/State-focused Accelerator Programs- Continuing with our theme of building tech ecosystems, we'll take a look at best practices across accelerator programs with an eye toward creating jobs in their respecitve local economies. Moderator:  Bambi Francisco; Panelists: Charlie Brock (CEO & President, Launch Tennessee), Chris Redlitz (Founder, The Last Mile), Ginger Imster (Executive Director, Arch Grants).

Here's a sneak peek at Imster's views on how Arch Grants is helping St. Louis. Funding startups can change a region.

4) Learn how Facebook, Yahoo, Kiip and others will monetize mobile

May 6, Session 8: 2:45 to 3:15 pm - The FUTURE OF Mobile Monetization:  A look at challenges and investment opportunities across this fast-growing market segment from leading founders/CEOs leading the charge and investors making big bets. Moderator:  Tom Patterson (Serial entrepreneur); Panelists: Brian Wong (Founder & CEO, Kiip), Ashu Garg (Partner, Foundation Capital), Yousuf Bhanjee (Disney/Zynga), Rob Goldman (Facebook), Steven Fan (Yahoo)

Here's a sneak peek at Brian Kiip's view: Forecasting the future of mobile monetization  
Plus: How will Facebook, Yahoo, startups monetize mobile?

5) Learn why Blue Bottle is the next Starbucks

May 7, Session 1 - 9:40 am - 10:10 am (30 min) - "Coffee Talk" - Fireside Chat with James Freeman (Founder & CEO, Blue Bottle Coffee); Interviewer: Tony Conrad (Partner, True Ventures). Check out a little of preview of this segment in a brief interview with Freeman. 

Interview with Blue Bottle Coffee founder & CEO James Freeman.

6) Learn why Sungevity is the next Solar City

May 7 Session 7 - 1:40 pm to 2:10 pm (30 min) - THE FUTURE OF Solar; Danny Kennedy (Co-founder & President, Sungevity) Danny Kennedy is the founder of Sungevity, a big player in the solar space. Sungevity has raised some $175 million in venture capital financing and is helping to provide solar to tens of thousands of residential homes around the world. With all the IPOs teeing up in 2014, Sungevity is certainly poised to be amongst them. 

Check out our little sneak preview interview with Kennedy. 

7) Check out promising startups!

Check out 15 awesome startups in our Splash Oakland Global Competition. They'll be presenting 5 at a time at these times:  May 6: 10:50 am to 11:35 am; 3:55 pm to 4:40 pm and on May 7: 10:50 am to 11:35 am. The Finalist showdown will be 3:55 pm to 4:40 pm.

Check out 5 awesome startups for the Oaktown Competition, sponsored and hosted by Oakland Forward. You'll see the 5 top startups from the East Bay in a live competition on May 6 from 2 pm to 2:45 pm.

8) Learn about entrepreneurship and investing in our Palm Tree Stage room:

Listend to Founders Lessons Learned from Lyle Fong (founder of Lithium Technologies) and Ali Partovi (Serial Entrepreneur). Learn how to scale your business from Sharon Wienbar of Scale Venture Partners. Laern how to use crowdfunding platforms from Alex Mittal of FundersClub. Learn how to bootstrap your company. 

From investor side, learn best practices from accelerators, like StartX, and how they're changing the investment landscape. Learn how the VC landscape is changing from Jeff Clavier (SoftTech) and Patrick Chung (NEA), and more. 

Check out our agenda for times.

9) Listen to MC Hammer's view on investment and Oakland's future

Session 2 - 10:10 am to 10:40 am (30 min) - Tech Startups, the A's and Oakland's Bright Future. Fireside Chat with MC Hammer (Celebrity, Entrepreneur) - Interviewer: Erik Moore (Base VC

10) Oakland is super easy to get to:

Whether it's a $25 free ride courtesy Uber to a beautiful ferry ride from San Francisco, you have no excuse. Vator's 3 top ways to get to Vator Splash Oakland