Connect Ventures Dinner @ LA Tech Week
- Date
- 2023-06-07
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Host
- NEA
About this event
If you’re spending LA Tech Week meeting people in passing, this dinner is a chance to slow down and have better conversations. Connect Ventures Dinner @ LA Tech Week is designed for people who want more than quick intros: a room of thoughtful operators, founders, investors, and builders sharing a meal in Los Angeles. This is the kind of event where the setting matters. Over dinner, conversations tend to go deeper, connections feel more natural, and you leave remembering the people you met instead of just collecting names. About the Event Connect Ventures Dinner @ LA Tech Week is an in-person evening gathering built around one of the simplest and most effective formats for meaningful networking: dinner. Set during one of the busiest weeks on the LA tech calendar, it creates space for attendees to connect in a more relaxed, human way than the usual conference corridor or packed happy hour. The focus here is community and conversation. Rather than centering on a formal stage program, this event is best understood as a curated social environment where the format does the work: shared tables, good pacing, and enough time to settle into real discussion. Because it takes place during LA Tech Week, the room is likely to include people who are actively building, investing, hiring, exploring partnerships, or looking to become more plugged into the local and visiting tech community. That makes dinner not just social, but useful. For anyone who values quality over volume in networking, this event offers a more grounded alternative to trying to cram five rushed meetings into one evening. You get a seat, a meal, and the opportunity to talk with intention. What to Expect Expect an evening that begins with arrivals and casual mingling before people settle in for dinner. The early part of the event is ideal for first introductions, reconnecting with familiar faces from the week, and getting a read on who’s in the room. Once dinner is underway, the pace naturally shifts. Instead of brief stand-up conversations, you can expect longer exchanges about what people are building, the ideas they’re testing, what they’re seeing in the market, and where they’re looking to collaborate. A typical flow for this kind of evening may include: Arrival and check-in around the listed start time Informal networking before everyone settles in Seated dinner and conversation with the people around you Natural table-to-table mixing as the evening opens up Post-dinner connection time for follow-up chats before heading out The energy should feel social but purposeful. You do not need to prepare a pitch or expect a highly programmed agenda. What matters most is showing up ready to have thoughtful conversations, ask smart questions, and contribute to a good room. Why Attend Dinner events work well because they remove some of the friction that makes networking feel transactional. You’re not trying to break into a tight circle at a loud venue or squeeze a meaningful conversation into three minutes. You’re sitting down, sharing time, and giving relationships room to form. That matters during LA Tech Week, when the schedule can become crowded fast. Attending a focused dinner can be a smarter use of an evening than bouncing between multiple events and leaving each one with only surface-level interactions. You should attend if you want to: Meet people in a format that encourages real conversation Build stronger professional relationships rather than just making introductions Get a clearer sense of the LA tech community during a high-signal week Trade ideas with founders, operators, and other ecosystem participants Create momentum for future meetings, partnerships, or collaborations Even if your main goal is simply to meet good people, the dinner setting increases the odds that those introductions turn into something lasting. A strong network is rarely built in a rush, and this event creates the kind of environment where rapport can actually happen. Practical Details This is an in-person event in Los Angeles, USA, taking place during LA Tech Week. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, June 6 at 6:30 PM PDT, making it a strong evening option if you want to end the day in a setting that is social, useful, and easy to prioritize. Because this is a dinner, it’s worth arriving on time or a few minutes early. Being punctual helps you settle in, meet people before everyone is seated, and start the evening without feeling like you’re catching up. A few simple ways to make the most of it: Come ready to introduce yourself clearly in one or two sentences Bring context, not a hard pitch Plan to stay long enough for conversations to develop Follow up afterward with the people you genuinely connected with If your LA Tech Week calendar already has plenty of panels, mixers, and drop-ins, this dinner offers a different kind of value. It gives you one place to be, one table to sit at, and a better chance of leaving the night with conversations that were actually worth having.
Who should attend
This is for people who want a more thoughtful, relationship-driven way to connect during LA Tech Week. - You’re a **founder or startup operator** who would rather have a few strong conversations over dinner than work a crowded room all night. - You’re an **investor, scout, or ecosystem builder** looking to meet people in a setting where discussion can go beyond quick intros. - You’re visiting LA Tech Week and want a **grounded entry point into the local tech community** without needing a packed agenda or formal program. - You’re a **builder, creative technologist, or early team member** who values smart conversation, community, and meeting people across functions and stages. - You’re someone who sees networking as **relationship-building, not lead collection**, and you appreciate events with a more human pace. - You already have a full week of events and want to spend one evening somewhere that feels **focused, social, and genuinely useful**.