Well, that was cool.

The first #SeattleAIWeek just wrapped up after 50+ events and 3,500+ attendees celebrated all things AI in Seattle.  Not bad for version 1!

Back in September, Geekwire covered a Forbes article about the Top 50 AI Startups, and none were from Seattle. What? I don’t think that’s right. 

I’ve been in dozens of committee and board meetings during my time at WTIA where we’ve lamented how often overlooked Seattle is in terms of global tech hubs and innovation economies. We talk about our world-class tech talent, we talk about the enterprises here driving global innovation, and we talk about all our amazing startups. But again and again, we’re overlooked.

So a bunch of us decided to do something about it.

The community came together a few months ago to plan a week-long celebration of AI in Seattle (Take that, Forbes!). With initial funding from Microsoft and the Dept of Commerce ICAP Program, our planning committee kicked off with about 15 people on March 27th. After 2 weeks, we had 15 events committed and were driving towards a public announcement on April 15th.  Then things just kept growing.  Eventually, our weekly meeting had 36 people on the invite, we had new events added daily, and we had volunteers reaching out to help with whatever we needed

So I’m pretty pumped about how all this went. 

Here’s a recap of my experience during the week along with some quotes from folks on the planning committee, some photos, some fun stats (or at least I think they’re fun), and a general summary of the week.

Thanks to everyone who made this possible including 30+ event partners, 13+ sponsors, and the thousands of people that came out to celebrate AI in Seattle!

Monday

Our week kicked off with AI Fundamentals: Demystifying AI Concepts and Terms because why wouldn’t you start from the beginning?  Though while the ceremonial start to #SeattleAIWeek began thusly, my week started transporting a couple car loads of Costco supplies from my house to the NFT Museum (first learning for next year: get supplies delivered directly to venues!)

Then it was set-up time at the Seattle NFT Museum (which btw what a cool place!.  Tech and art collide! Foreshadowing narrator voice: this will be a theme throughout the week). We had about 100 people gathered for a live recording of the Shift AI Podcast (oh and Geekwire wrote about it, no big deal), and then another 125 joined in to party afterwards. #SeattleAIWeek was underway! 

Live Recording of Shift AI Podcast

A goal we had for the week was to bring together the ENTIRE community. No more silos. So it was cool to see all the people that came out to kick off the week: techies, academics, investors, entrepreneurs, folks working in government, artists, and even my mom and stepdad! 

“Seattle AI Week reflects our city’s genuine passion for innovation. I’m excited to see people coming together to explore the promise of AI and to try and understand the potential use cases. Seattle’s tech community is dynamic and forward-thinking, providing the perfect setting for meaningful conversations about this emerging technology,” Boaz Ashkenazy; Co-founder and CEO, Augmented AI and Host of the Shift AI Podcast.

My biggest takeaway from day 1: people are pumped this is happening. Valerie Trask, Founder of Tofinio and Stealth Summit agrees: “These events provide a space for learning and growing together in a way that our community so desperately needs. I’m grateful to have been a part of AI Week.”

Fun Stat for Monday: I got 11,138 event steps in on Monday, part of my approx 50k steps at events for the entire week.

Tuesday

Tuesday I got to enjoy the views from Madrona Venture Labs all day, while two other tracks took place: The Tech Alliance Seattle AI Investor Summit and Business Leader AI 101 Half-Day Workshop and AI Startup Demo Day at AWS Skills Center.  

“Three events at once!?  What madness!”  

There was a method. The Investor Summit showcased the amazing startups we have to offer, and the Business Leader AI 101 taught folks how to implement AI into their businesses.  The theme of my day was AI & _______.  On Monday we got AI & Art, and on Tuesday we got AI & Policy, Ethics, Web3, and Space. There were 600+ attendees across all three events – woah with like 5 weeks notice?  Cool.

I thought the AI & _____ panels were awesome.  Now in full disclosure, I had a big hand in picking the topics so I did choose ones that I nerd out on. But still, these were super interesting. AI touches everything and that provides a ton of opportunity for the region with our strengths in agriculture, maritime, aerospace, forestry, healthcare, and so many other industries that AI affects. Today we had Policy, Ethics, Web3, and Space.

AI & Policy

A cool thing about my job is getting to work with the WTIA Public Policy team – makes me feel like I’m a part of the action! So an hour-long discussion with Microsoft, Google, and Responsible Innovation Labs about privacy, competitiveness, security, and a myriad of other topics related to the complex nature of legislating fast moving technologies was a great way to start my Tuesday. Seems to me Washington can and should be a leader in tech policy – why not us?! Why not now?

 

AI & Ethics

Then we moved into AI & Ethics, hosted by Seattle U (check out their Ethics & Tech Conference coming June 27th).  One of my highlights was hearing from 3 Seattle U philosophy teachers on the intersection of ethics, philosophy, and AI. As a former philosophy minor, I was locked in. Discussion of how to express philosophical theories through AI algorithms? Yes, please.  

 

AI & Web3

Seattle has a great Web3 community, and WTIA has been doing a ton of work in that sector the past few years. We’ve educated policymakers on the technology, we’ve worked with the Dept of Revenue on tax strategies for NFTs, and we helped get a Blockchain Work Group passed. My takeaway from this panel was the same takeaway I had for the week – let’s build the future together and capitalize on synergies and strengths. No more silos, please! Web3 can add a lot to AI from incentive structures for sharing data to being a source of truth – let’s build together!

 

AI & Space

This panel won the award for the most popular event of AI Week. We had 150 registered, 160 on the waitlist, and we sold out two weeks before the event.  We’ll be doing that event again soon. (Shout out to SpaceNorthwest and Seattle Space Week!) Did you know that more than half of the satellites in space were built here and that percentage is growing? Damn, we got some cool stuff going on, y’all! Oh and Geekwire wrote about this one too!

 

One thing I appreciated about all the panels – we had some disagreement and debate! I love when that happens on panels, and I think that’s especially important for figuring out policy, ethics, and standards on AI. Bhaskar Gangipamula, Co-Founder and President of Quadrant Technologies, said it well when talking about what he enjoyed about the week: “Connecting with so many passionate experts and exchanging ideas has been invaluable in shaping our perspective on the evolving AI landscape. I’m looking forward to more insightful discussions and meetings like these as we continue to explore the incredible potential of AI.” 

Next up for me was networking at the AWS Skills Center and watching some startup demos; and specifically startups building business applications for AI. ChatGPT came out during my last quarter of business school (shout out the Seattle U Executive MBA Program!) and everyone in my class was curious to learn how they could implement AI to become better business leaders and managers. That was the point of the Business Leader AI 101 and the subsequent demos. AI is a tool and we should all be using it.

Takeaway from Tuesday: One constant refrain from Tuesday: “I want to attend multiple things happening at the same time.”  Message received and also me too!  I want to go to the Investor Summit and Business Leader 101 next year – those sounded sweet. 

 

Fun Fact for Tuesday: We signed and officially submitted the Blockchain Work Group report right before the AI & Web3 panel. Cool things happen at #SeattleAIWeek!!

 

Wednesday

Wednesday was the first of three straight days at UW Startup Hall.  We had Seattle Enterprise AI Day with OneSixOne Ventures, The Future of AI: Applications in Industry with the Seattle Chamber, and Starting a Career in AI with Parna Khot, who launched multiple AI products at Amazon. I got to attend a bit of all these sessions – each another testament to our strengths and our potential. We’re an enterprise town, and so being a leader in enterprise AI makes so much sense it almost hurts. And we also have a ton of strong industries other than tech – agriculture, maritime, aerospace, space, forestry, clean energy, and so on. The Enterprise AI Day and the Applications in Industry panel shed some light on where we might plant our flag as a state and region to contribute to the future of AI innovation. To build that future, we need to increase and upskill our workforce so it was great to hear Parna go into detail on how folks (whether technical or not) can start upskilling themselves to both leverage and build AI applications.

Said Christopher Kennamer of OneSixOne Ventures, “Seattle AI Week is a testament to the growing interest in Seattle’s ecosystem. With major players like Microsoft, Seattle is finally starting to get the recognition it deserves for being #2 in AI talent in the country.” #2 isn’t bad! But I’m competitive, so let’s get to #1. Luckily, we’ve got the ingredients, and so it’s on us to reach our potential.

After the sessions at UW, I was off to the AI & Creative Community: Rooftop Remix. Omg. There was a robot drummer (yep), two artists painting live, a DJ, an AI cocktail maker, and a photo booth that then printed the photos onto macrons (super tasty too)! Oh and did I mention the robot drummer?  And all while enjoying a landscape that ranged from Mt. Rainier to the stadiums, to the Sound, to all of downtown. Shout out to the 206! No better place to be in the Summer.

This was the droid I was looking for.

This was everything I wanted from AI Week: Seattle coming together to amplify our collective strengths bringing together arts, technology, and everything else. I grew up in Seattle. I love Seattle. But it makes me cranky when I hear about the tech and non-tech divide or when I see us operating in silos. Let’s come together and build the future! Let’s combine our strengths and be a global leader in the intersections.  Rooftop Remix was a microcosm of our potential, and I am so energized by the conversations I had with folks in the arts community about how arts and tech can come together.  No more tech Seattle and non-tech Seattle – it’s just Seattle – we’re creative, we’re nerds, we’re unique, and we rock.

Mark Robinson, CEO of Brandtegic, and who produced the Rooftop Remix agrees:, “Seattle AI Week has been an amazing opportunity to interact and connect with the wide range of people in Seattle- artists, entrepreneurs, creatives, tech professionals, investors – and everyone in between. The huge amount of interesting, innovative, and intelligent people in this city is impressive and good things happen when a diverse group of great people get in the same room.”

Wednesday Takeaway: Cool things happen when tech and arts come together! Also I want more rooftop parties.

Fun Stat for Wednesday: 63 miles driven today! That’s the most driving for a single day all week. For those wondering: 219 miles in total during the week.

Thursday

This is what 171 meetings between startup CEOs and investors over the course of 90 minutes looks like – chaos, connections, and community.

WTIA, Creative Destruction Lab, and UW CoMotion Labs teamed up for a Founder-Investor Speed Meeting.  We had 19 investors and 30 startups represented with each startup getting 5-6 investor meetings during the event.  Including this event, the Investment Showcase, and other events we had well over 250 1×1 conversations between startups and investors during the week (take that again, Forbes! We’re coming for that list next year!)

AI & Healthcare was a consistent theme throughout the week, and we were excited to partner with Life Sciences WA for a discussion about how AI is affecting healthcare. Aylin Kim from Life Sciences WA mentioned that the breakfast panel “drew a diverse crowd of AI enthusiasts eager to learn more from experts in medtech, biotech, and digital health.” Intersections in life sciences and technology, yet another example of where Seattle can lead!

Then it was time for some networking – WTIA was well represented across a variety of events including Seattle Startup Friends, Founders Live, and Happy Hour with Niftmint, Ascend, TF Labs, and WTIA – time to divide and conquer! I hung out at Citizen M with Niftmint, Ascend, and TF Labs. Two conversations stuck out for me: the first was with a VC from out of town who came to Seattle for the week and had great things to say about our ecosystem and the companies he met during the speed networking event (we had multiple VCs come from out of town for that event – cool!). The other was with an artist who wanted to partner on events to bring the tech and arts communities together. Yes, please and may I invite my robot drummer friend?

Takeaway from Thursday: We had a lot of folks fly in for the week, and I think we can grow that next year. And I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Pablo Casilimas from OneSixOne Ventures noticed too: “Seattle AI Week was packed with high-quality events connecting AI leaders, investors, and founders from all around the country! I love seeing the continued growth of Seattle’s tech ecosystem.”

 

Friday

I’m the furthest thing from a morning person and I don’t like coffee, so waking up at 6am is my own personal Mt Everest. But here we are, a car filled with another load from Costco and off to UW Startup Hall for our final day. That morning we had a sneak peak of an AI Landscape Report we’re developing in partnership with Moonbeam; an overview of the CHIPS Act and related legislation that is providing funding for AI and related development; and a working session to conduct some initial ecosystem mapping and SWOT analysis for AI in our region. But first, coffee networking.

Networking was lively and it took a few announcements to get folks into the room for the first session. Luckily some blessed soul at Startup Hall had bought a bullhorn to use during the investor speed-meeting the day before, and I made great use of it on Friday. The sneak peak (full report coming in September) provided contextual data on the local startup ecosystem, government funding, workforce development, and similar, shedding light on our strengths as well as areas for improvement (like winning SBIR/STTR funding – shout out WA Apex Accelerator that has some amazing resources in these areas). That segued into a conversation on the CHIPS Act and other federal funding streams that are pointing at AI, semiconductors, and other technologies – TLDR: we (Washington state) are late on a lot of these opportunities, but we haven’t totally missed the boat. There’s a ton of organizations working tirelessly to win these awards too, and there is urgency. That urgency led us to the economic development working session, where we did ecosystem mapping, PESTEL analysis, and SWOT analysis to begin defining opportunities for programs, resources, and projects that we can build as a community to unlock CHIPS Act and similar funding. The time is nigh and we have to move if we want to retain and grow our leadership. Move it or lose it, people!

Then it was BBQ time at TF Labs. No better place to be in Seattle summer than on a rooftop by a BBQ. My record for burgers grilled at one TF Labs & WTIA BBQ is 160, set last summer. This time around I was a little tired and could only get to 70 before I had to bestow the honors of grillmaster upon another. The great thing about being grillmaster is that you get a chance to chat with everyone. I got to talk with a ton of founders, which is always my favorite:  a Korean founder that moved to Seattle and is using AI to better manage brain health; a founder building a PropTech company who moved here from Colombia last week and was able to supercharge her networking through AI Week; and about 68 other people (I figure 70 burgers = about 70 conversations) connected to AI in all kinds of ways – investors, entrepreneurs, engineers, artists, folks who just dipped their toes into AI this week, and probably some folks who just smelled the BBQ and came running. What a great way to end the week.

The BBQ was the official end to the week, and I think Trent Gillespie, CEO of Stellis.ai, said it best: “Seattle AI Week was a smashing success, forging strong connections across our community and accelerating AI innovation.” (Also shout out to Trent who taught a class on innovation for my MBA program and it was AMAZING).

While my last official event of the week was over, I did have one more event. It wasn’t officially a part of AI Week, but it was related. WTIA wrapped our week with a dinner to celebrate the culmination of our Market Accelerator program in partnership with the Korean Innovation Center. We’d been hosting 8 Korean AI startups the past couple of weeks to help them build connections in the area and to promote Seattle as a tech hub to Korean government agencies. As I sat at dinner, drinking a walnut bitters old-fashioned, it struck me that this program was a decent metaphor for AI week overall. 

We’ve run 5 previous Korean startup market accelerator programs, but last year there were some questions about whether or not it would happen again. Folks at HQ weren’t sure if they wanted to focus on the Seattle market anymore, but they were in town and wanted to get lunch and discuss. So we took them out for sandwiches and told them the story of Seattle. We talked to them about our tech talent, our robust startup ecosystem, the enterprises that are headquartered here, the world-class research institutions, and the cross-sector innovation and collaboration. We got an email a week or two later that HQ had changed their mind and they wanted to build another program in Seattle. And all because we told the story about how amazing Seattle is.

This year was about celebrating amongst ourselves. Next year we tell the world. See y’all at #SeattleAIWeek2025!