ConnecTA 2014 Silicon Valley: Innovation in a Global World

The business networking event “ConnecTA 2014 Silicon Valley: Innovation in a Global World” organized by CATA Chamber took place at Hilton Santa Clara, on January 16, 2014.
Prior to the event to be attended by some 200, over 50 businessmen having arrived from Turkey were also engaged in visits to Twitter, Intel and San Jose Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, the businessmen were received by San Jose Mayor to have talks on past, today and future of Silicon Valley.
Principally sponsored by TAHTAS, ConnecTA 2014 event kicked off at 3:30 pm with CATA Chamber President Remzi Oten’s welcoming address, at Hilton Santa Clara.
The event was aimed to share innovation experiences in the US in general, Silicon Valley in particular, with the participants from across the US, Canada and Turkey. It was also an attempt to present business opportunities involving the world’s 17th largest economy, Turkey, to the US business world. Having this agenda, the entire presentations during visits, seminars, panels and dinners were engagingly vivid in order to be able to serve the purpose.
Among the seminar presenters and panelists were FounderDating’s Founder and CEO, Jessica Alter; Open Garden Inc. CEO, Micha Benoliel; Jumpcam CEO, David Stewart; Coorliris Founder and CEO, Soujanya Bhumkar; General Catalyst Partners Principal, Niko Bonatsos; 212 Ventures Vice-President, Dilek Dayinlarli; Global Network Endeavor Vice-President Allen Taylor; Salesforce CTO, Kedar Doshi; Bitzer Mobile CEO, Naem Zafer; Yonja Group CEO, Dilawar Syed; senior scientist at Washington State University, Dr. Atakan Peker; Teknopark Istanbul Deputy General Manager, Ismail Ari; Hazelcast Founder and CEO, Talip Ozturk and PowerGo Inc Founder Steve Austin.
San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce President and CEO, Matthew Mahood, delivered his opening remarks at the dinner attended by officials from companies and institutions including Apple, Google, Twitter, HP, Facebook, Western Digital, Broadcom, Silicon Images, Skype, Applied Materials, Microsoft, AT&T, Cisco, eBay, Qualcomm, Apex Systems, Calix, California State Assembly, StubHub, Stanford Research Institute, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Innowest Inc., Mobile Action.
Stanford Research Institute (SRI) International’s Corporate Executive, Steve Ciesinski, who effectively covered the event’s theme “Innovation in a Global World” in his 40-minute presentation received a long round of applause from the audience.
This year’s ConnecTA awards were bestowed on Matthew Mahood, Steve Ciesinski, deputy secretary general of IMMIB, Umit Koskan, and the event’s principal sponsor TAHTAS’s president, Selman Nalcakan.
Throughout the seminars and company visits on January 16-17, numerous officials from companies including Apple, Google, Twitter, HP, Facebook, Western Digital, the business organization TUSKON US and Turkey-based institutions GESIAD, TABID, TACC, TTACC, TCCC, Turk Telekom, IMMIB, THY had an opportunity to come together and exchange experiences.
You may view some photos from the event.