The very first festival was held in 2012 as the Silicon Valley Sound eXperience (SVSX). It was just a regular music festival. The next year, its program expanded to add a technology conference. To reflect this change, the festival was renamed to Creative Convergence Silicon Valley. As we’ve already mentioned above, C2SV is not the only event of its kind. It is modeled after music and technology events held in other cities, first of all the South by Southwest (SXSW) that takes place in Austin, Texas and North by Northeast (NXNE) held in Toronto, Ontario. Such blended festivals and conferences have been called “four-letter festivals” in the industry.
The inaugural C2SV opened on September 28, 2013. The opening concert featured a performance by Iggy and The Stooges (an American rock bend led by the punk rock guru Iggy Pop) in the St. James Park. During the festival, a number of well known rock bands gave club performances at 12 venues across San Jose. The festival featured The Lemonheads, The Limousines, Deafhaeaven, Off!, Mondo Generator. However, C2SV doesn’t focus solely on rock music. It also welcomes other music genres such as hip-hop and funk.
Creative Convergence Silicon Valley showcases both well-known performers and emerging artists who are still seeking their audience and are yet to be discovered. Its program includes the C2SV Emerging Artists Showcase, live performances, DJs, and surprise performances and other special events.
The technology conference hosted by C2SV is a three-day event that includes lectures and speeches by the legends of the IT industry, well-known entrepreneurs, scientists, evangelists, and other speakers. They explore opportunities, trends and issues in the rapidly evolving technology landscape as well as the interaction of art and technology.
The conference covers a variety of topics such as mobile computing, applications, hardware, cloud computing, privacy and security, energy and environment, media and entertainment, wellness and health, emerging technologies, etc. For example, the inaugural conference hosted discussions on self-driving cars, Bitcoin, robotics, drones, space travel, augmented reality, and open source web standards.
Just like the musical festival attracts many well-known musicians, the technology conference at C2SV features industry legends and luminaries, game-changing VCs and thought leaders. Previous speakers include former editor-in-chief of Wired magazine Chris Anderson, Match.com founder Gary Kremen, primary developer of the Apache web server Brian Behlendorf, Eloan co-founder Chris Larsen, developer of the first commercial anti-virus program John McAfee, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, and others.
Photo by Peter Adams
