The dataset behind the August reports is 6,055 unique registrations across 15 events, from CFO sailing days to CISO dinners to YC founder mixers. Before it says anything about AI, it says something about the rooms. We declined more registrations than we approved this quarter: 1,145 to 902. The rooms run senior: 90 percent of titled registrants at the CEO Private Dinner are C-level, founders, or partners, and the finance, security, and investor rooms run around two thirds. And one guest in ten registered for more than one event inside 90 days.
The way in is also where the best qualitative data lives. We ask applicants what they want to walk out with, what they are working on that AI touches, and what one question they want answered. Agents lead everything: 36 of 108 answers about current work mention them. Finance leaders ask about reliable workflows and governance before they ask about tools. Marketing leaders ask for org charts. CEOs, asked which sessions they want next, chose AI for researching VCs and AI for competitive research over everything operational.
We publish the aggregate and never the individual; the honesty notes in each report cover the conventions. But the shape of the pipeline is worth stating plainly, because it is the answer to the fair question every research reader should ask: who exactly did you talk to? Senior operators, screened on the way in, coming back often, at the moment they were about to walk into a room with their peers.
The September editions get built at the August events: CFOs on the Bay on the 21st, the CISO Roundtable on the 27th, Black Hat coffee on the 2nd. The full calendar is here, and membership inquiries go through the application.
Last updated: August 6, 2026
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The September Editions Get Built at the August Events
CFOs on the Bay on the 21st, the CISO Roundtable on the 27th, Black Hat coffee on the 2nd. If you want to be in the data instead of reading it, the calendar is live.