Theme: Ideas & Ideals

Join us for a dynamic event celebrating the intersection of innovation, creativity, and governance. "Ideas & Ideals" will feature a diverse lineup of speakers from various fields, including science, technology, policy, art, and entrepreneurship.

Explore how cutting-edge technology and creative thinking can reshape our world. Attendees can look forward to inspiring talks on topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Unlocking Progress in an Era of Polarization, Reversing the Tide of Authoritarian Populism, The Future of Sleep, The History of Hostage-Taking, Revitalizing American Manufacturing through Robotics, and more.

Guild Theatre
949 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, California, 94025
United States

Abraham Sofaer

Legal adviser to US State department , Hoover institute fellow, lawyer, author

Abraham D. Sofaer is the first George P. Shultz Distinguished Scholar and Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, a position he has held since 1994. His research focuses on war powers within the US government, international law, terrorism, diplomacy, and national security. Sofaer served as Legal Adviser to the US Department of State (1985–1990) and as a US district judge in New York (1979–1985). He was Professor of Law at Columbia University, 1969-1979. His books include Taking on Iran (2013) and The Best Defense? (2010). Sofaer received the State Department's Distinguished Service Award in 1989.

Crying Uncle Bluegrass

Bluegrass Band

Widely recognized as one of the most exciting bands in acoustic music, Crying Uncle Bluegrass plays a unique mix of bluegrass, Dawg (David Grisman music), jazz, and modern originals. Brothers Miles and Teo Quale are joined by bassist Andrew Osborn and guitarist Ian Ly, all outstanding young musicians of the vibrant California bluegrass scene. Founded in 2016 as a Duo band, Miles and Teo formed the bluegrass band in 2017 and since then, they have continued to make waves in the world of bluegrass and acoustic music. The bluegrass band was the recipient of the 2023 International Bluegrass Music Association’s Momentum Band of the Year award. In 2024, the band had their Grand Ole Opry debut.

Gunhild Carling

Musician

Swedish musical sensation Gunhild Carling is an internationally acclaimed superstar with over 50 million viewers on social media whose show is a can’t-miss event! Whether she’s singing favorite swinging jazz standards, playing one of many 11 instruments (trumpet, trombone, harmonica, oboe, harp, flute, recorder, or jazz bagpipe!) or juggling and tap dancing, Gunhild’s sublime showmanship shines. And just wait for the finale – spoiler alert – she plays three trumpets at once!

Jonathan Berent

neurotechnologist, author, CEO, lecturer

Jonathan “JB” Berent is the CEO and Founder of NextSense, Inc., a neurotechnology company spun out of X, Google’s Moonshot Factory. With a mission to unlock human potential through biosensing wearables, JB has led research in sleep science and consciousness, briefed the National Academy of Sciences on brain-monitoring technology, and spoken at prestigious events like Stanford's Big Data and Precision Medicine and regularly lectures at Stanford Sleep & Dreams class. His work has been featured in Wired, and he continues to pioneer digital health advancements, publishing papers on sleep metrics and brain technology.

Larry Diamond

Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University.

Larry Diamond is William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. His research focuses on global trends affecting freedom and democracy, and US and international policies to advance democracy and counter authoritarian influence. He was the founding coeditor of the Journal of Democracy and he remains a consultant to the National Endowment for Democracy. Among his books is Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency.

Leila Takayama

Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) specialist

Dr. Leila Takayama is a Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) specialist in the psychology of people's interactions with robotic products and services. She is the VP of Design and HRI at Robust.AI. She has contributed to over a dozen robotic products that have shipped, including drones in the air; industrial, service, and consumer robots on the ground; and uncrewed robotic systems in the ocean. Before joining Robust.AI, she was a tenured associate professor at University of California, Santa Cruz; researcher at GoogleX; and scientist at Willow Garage. She completed her PhD at Stanford University and Bachelors degrees at UC Berkeley. Her work has been recognized by the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society Early Career Award, MIT Tech Review TR35, Fast Company, and World Economic Forum.

Liam deClive-Lowe

Co-Founder & Co-President at American Policy Ventures

Liam deClive-Lowe is Co-Founder & Co-President at American Policy Ventures, an organization that works to de-risk cross-partisan problem-solving on the critical issues of our time. He also serves as Executive Director of Humanity Forward, where he led the creation of a bipartisan impact fund focused on economic opportunity. In 2020, Liam led a campaign to enable the successful passage of historic bipartisan economic recovery legislation. Prior to his work in DC, Liam advised and worked on federal and statewide campaigns across the country. A native of Kentucky and Hawai’i, Liam lives in D.C. with his partner.

Marylene Delbourg-Delphis

Author and serial entrepreneur

Marylene Delbourg-Delphis is a serial entrepreneur who became one of the first European women to co-found a technology company in Silicon Valley, alongside Guy Kawasaki. She later led three additional companies as CEO and has advised many others as a “shadow” CEO, board member, and strategy advisor in fields such as AI, Big Data, and digital transformation. A prolific author, she has written several books, with her most recent work on innovation, Beyond Eureka!, published in June 2024. She holds a Doctorate in Philosophy from l’Ecole Normale Supérieure and has received honors like the Legion of Honor in 2018 and the Woman Leadership Award in 2023.

Saman Farid

founder and CEO of Formic

Saman Farid is the founder and CEO of Formic, a company revitalizing American manufacturing by deploying robots. So far they’ve helped 100+ facilities adopt robots for the first time. Before Formic, he led Baidu Ventures' $600M AI investment fund and founded Comet Labs, an AI-focused incubator where he invested in 25+ AI startups. He has built and sold two software companies and holds engineering and business degrees from MIT, Tsinghua University, and The Cooper Union. Saman is passionate about community empowerment, supporting local growth and development, and mentoring youth.

Sophia Velastegui

AI

Sophia Velastegui is a renowned tech industry leader with wide-ranging expertise in corporate strategy, product development, and AI for Fortune 200 companies, startups, government, and academia. She is the former General Manager, AI Products and Chief AI Technology Officer at Microsoft and an alum of Google, Apple, Aptiv, and the World Economic Forum. Sophia currently advises Fortune 500 companies on planning and executing right-sized and scalable AI business strategies. She also serves as a board director at Blackline, as a board member of Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering President's Board, and as an AI advisor for the National Science Foundation.

William (Bill) Welser IV

CEO, CTO, and Cofounder of Lotic.ai

William (Bill) Welser IV is the CEO, CTO, and Cofounder of Lotic.ai, a privacy-first, story-powered insights ecosystem. Welser is accustomed to tackling, communicating, and solving complex problems using expert multidisciplinary teams and state-of-the-art methods and technologies. Welser previously was an executive for a handful of advanced technology start-ups. Before entering the for-profit space, Welser spent 10 years at the RAND Corporation, leading the Engineering and Applied Sciences Department, while also executing a research portfolio exploring human behavior and advanced technologies. He began his career designing and building complex technology systems (e.g. satellites and high-powered lasers) as an USAF officer.