The cyberwar rages about us as emails are hacked. In the situation room, the secretary asks, “Can't we just drone this guy?” A rocket explodes on the launch pad. No, it was “fast fire.” Ubiquitous cameras capture the social tumult in our communities. A robot gets ready to take the wheel.

Computing power, our valley’s contribution to modern times, is now shifting into a higher gear, disrupting and reinventing just about everything we know. Once a year, Creative Convergence Silicon Valley (C2SV) hosts independently organized discussions about the rapid march of technology and related subjects, such as privacy, diversity, gender and economic inclusion.

Unlike other conferences that are an arm of big media, a big company or an industry sector, C2SV is homegrown, authentic and independent, an editorially-curated undertaking associated with Metro, a locally-based media firm that has faithfully documented the cultural and social life of Silicon Valley for more than 30 years (and also own San Jose Inside).

For the fourth year running, downtown will host a compelling series of discussions by some very smart and knowledgeable people who’ve volunteered their time for a public conversation. We’ll celebrate creativity with three nights of music by mostly local performers and a crawl of the SoFA District’s design firms. We are also very pleased to host the valley’s first SXSW meetup on Friday and a brunch in Palo Alto with OurCrowd’s Jonathan Medved on Sunday (contact us if you are interested in attending).

As part of our mission to bridge the digital divide, we have invited students to attend and are highlighting three exceptional high school scientists. We’ve enabled individuals to attend sessions for free—tech conferences often cost a grand or more for a badge—and our community fund makes donations to more than 20 deserving nonprofits in our region.

We hope you can make it down for the sessions or the shows, and if not, please follow us on social media or look for our videos on a sharing or streaming site near you.