"Power Zen" Posts on ValleyZen

“I had this extraordinary passport to go anywhere” Michael Moritz said today at the luncheon hosted for him today by Silicon Valley Bank at the Rosewood Hotel…

Yesterday TEDxBerkeley gathered world-leading thinkers, makers, and doers at UC Berkeley to discuss Doing the Unprecedented. The audience was composed of a diverse and curated mix of 750 entrepreneurs, executives, professors, students, and thought leaders from Berkeley and beyond. A stimulating day of presentations, discussions, entertainment and art sparked new ideas.

To capture the theme of “Doing the Unprecedented” Drue created an original work of art. Drue’s “A Small Step” is a bear in a space suit walking on the moon.

In this post is a photo essay of highlights from the day…

Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington is digitally connected in every way possible. But at her recent appearance at the Churchill Club, she challenged the audience to “Unplug and Recharge.”

Here are some photos from the event. Arianna was most gracious in person.

Before the event, she told ValleyZen that …

On Dec 12th, TEDx Silicon Valley brought together several hundred leading thinkers and doers to talk about Innovations for Social Change. A great lineup included Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Peter Thiel (Clarium Capital/Founders Fund), Thomas Goetz (Wired Magazine), Dr. Clayborne Carson (Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University) and many more. [...]

Catherine Malandrino and Bernard Aidan invited us to Catherine Malandrino’s Spring Summer 2010 Collection at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in NYC. Staged at the Chelsea Art Museum on the West side of Manhattan, Malandrino placed her models on pedestals instead of walking them down a runway. We arrived early to slip backstage and capture the pre-show mayhem and excitement. Recording star and hip hop diva Mary J Blige, Grammy Award-winning British R&B singer Estelle, Ralph Lauren supermodel and Host of Bravo’s “Make Me a Supermodel” Tyson Beckford, E! Star Kim Kardashian, TLC’s “Who Are You Wearing?” and TV Guide’s “Live from the Red Carpet’s” Keisha Whitaker, the fashion press, NY fashionistas, socialites, and buyers and guests from Japan and Europe all came to check out the show…

Watch our exclusive interview with Prof. Perl who won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the tau lepton, one of the elementary particles forming our world. In this lively video, experience his incredible energy, intellectual curiosity and excitement.

• How Prof. Perl missed “The Call” from the Nobel Committee
• Dining with the King and Queen of Sweden (hint: can’t go to the bathroom, no matter what!)
• Why Physics is the simplest of the sciences…
Keep Reading

“It’s not brain surgery—It’s economics,” Meg Whitman recalled the take of her brain surgeon husband, Dr. Griffith Harsh, on California’s budget crisis. With a wry sense of humor, and authentic personal stories, Meg shared her impressive vision for a new California at the MEGa Women Bay Area Launch. Pumping up the audience was Statewide Chairwoman Jillian Manus: “there’s so much estrogen in this room, it could blow off the roof.” A diverse audience of female Silicon Valley influencers cheered when Jillian challenged them to go out and make MEGa Women a million strong…

Who are the most influential women in technology for 2009? You had to be with ValleyZen in the Fairmont San Jose last Thursday to be able not only to see but to experience the answer.

Women have gone a long way in tech, and the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology’s Women of Vision’s Award celebration and dinner presented ample evidence of the distances women have traveled. The event was beautifully emceed by CBS News Anchor, Sydnie Kohara with inspirational opening remarks by Telle Whitney, President & CEO of the Institute. The 2009 Women of Vision Awards honored three women who have made significant contributions to technology through outstanding innovation, leadership, and social Impact.

ValleyZen got full access to these inspirational women and the ambitious event. We interviewed the keynote speaker and the award recipients and spoke to numerous other accomplished women in technology, from…

You already know it all about the fabled “Über Entrepreneur” (as he was billed by the Churchill Club yesterday) Elon Musk. How he dropped out of the graduate program in Physics at Stanford after only two days, how he co-founded PayPal and was the largest shareholder when it sold to EBAY in 2002 for 1.5 billion, and all about his latest accomplishments and adventures with Tesla and SpaceX.

At ValleyZen we like to report on what we don’t know about yet, what’s new, what is in the imaginative space. In a Sumi-e painting that’s like the negative space, the space between brush strokes where all possibilities lie. People in Silicon Valley are comfortable with things that haven’t been defined yet and with what is uncertain. That’s exciting.

Yesterday we met with Elon and…

As world leaders meet at the G20 London Summit this week, ValleyZen reflects on the following. What if you had the responsibility to resolve simultaneous national and international crises that consisted of and were dependent on resolving a number of diverse smaller crises…