Attendance — The free, public PARC Forums are attended by PARC employees and people from the nearby academic, industrial, and entrepreneurial communities of Silicon Valley. Auditorium capacity is ~250 but Forum announcements are distributed to thousands of individuals. [sign up for announcements]
Time & Location — Typically held every Thursday at 4:00 p.m., Forums take place in PARC's George E. Pake Auditorium. [directions]
Archive — Selected Forum talks from 1999 onward are available online (usually within a few days of the original talk). Available media includes streaming video, downloadable audio, and podcasts via RSS feeds. Other digital outlets coming soon. [online archive]
Topics — Forum topics have ranged from global warming and genomics, to the "Paradox of Political Language" and benefits of beer ("the original biotechnology"). One recent Forum talk involved a Tesla Roadster demo in PARC's parking lot. Occasionally, PARC hosts special speaker series on topics such as The Office of the Future, Innovation, Science and Technology for a Sustainable World, Going Beyond Web 2.0 [pdf], and more.
Speakers — Forum speakers include our own scientists and other diverse experts in science, technology, arts, business, education, and entertainment. Past speakers have included Nobel Prize winner Dr. Arno Penzias; chocolate maker Robert Steinberg; Open Innovation expert Henry Chesbrough; Steve Jurvetson of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson; TV producer James Burke; Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future; and former PARC researcher and NPR host Geoffrey Nunberg.
The PARC Forum is a unique and enduring tradition that was established in September 1977. Speakers and topics are not chosen by a single person or fixed committee, but by volunteer Forum coordinators that rotate through PARC's research and operational organizations.
