SAN FRANCISCO, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The 2019 Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs Festival (SVEF) focused on the latest technological developments and the theme of creating social enterprises, an organizer said Thursday.
The SVEF, which enters its fourth year, brought together government officials, scholars, industrial leaders, entrepreneurs and investors to connect with each other and explore the trends of frontier technology, innovation and business opportunities, said Diana Ding, chairwoman and CEO of the SVEF, which was held Thursday in Santa Clara, northern California.
"This year, the SVEF focused on not only the latest technological developments such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, but also the theme of creating social enterprises," she said.
Social enterprises are organizations that leverage their commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being, Ding said.
The SVEF was jointly hosted by Ding Ding TV, a Silicon Valley innovation channel, and the China-U.S. Business Summit (CUBS), a 10-year-old non-governmental platform for cooperation between Chinese and American small and medium-sized enterprises.
"Both Ding Ding TV and the CUBS are social enterprises that celebrated their 10th anniversaries this year, and we want to do a lot of things to help build our communities into a better place," said Ding, also founder and CEO of Ding Ding TV.
"In an era where people come together for cooperation, there are always a lot of opportunities, no matter how the external environment would be, and we want to create an atmosphere where people would not feel alone in starting businesses," Ding added.
At Thursday's event, many successful entrepreneurs, such as Steven Hoffman, CEO of Founder Space, Chih-Kai Cheng, Acorn Pacific Ventures chairman, and Michael Condry, former chief technology officer of Intel Inc., gave keynote speeches on a wide range of topics.
The SVEF speakers shared their thoughts and insights on cutting-edge technologies, venture capital funding, big data, content making, women in leadership, innovative entrepreneurship, investment, and innovation of social enterprises.
"The SVEF is of vital significance, and it gathered the smartest Chinese Americans in Silicon Valley, who are representatives of Asians in the U.S. that help American society grow better in both the economic and social sectors," said C.C. Yin, founder and chair of the Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association.
"What they are talking about here at the event today includes not only innovation for technology, but also the future of our next generations, the combination of technological innovation with social or even national responsibility, and that matters most," Yin said.
