Common questions, answered briefly

Open Future Forum is a global executive community founded in Silicon Valley by Murray Newlands. It convenes C-suite executives, board directors, founders and investors through two formats: Forum Select, its invitation-only private gatherings, and Forum Events, its open panels and conferences. It also runs role-based peer groups and publishes original research built on first-party data from its network.

Forum Select is private and invitation-only; Forum Events are open. Forum Select gatherings are small, off-the-record dinners and roundtables for C-suite executives, board directors and selected senior investors. Forum Events are the larger panels, conferences and networking gatherings, open to the broader AI and technology community. Attending a Forum Event is a common first step toward Forum Select.

Forum Select is primarily for C-suite executives, board directors and selected senior investors. That includes CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CTOs, CISOs, CMOs, Chief AI Officers, general counsel, sitting directors and investing partners. Role-based tracks run for each seat. The common thread is seniority and a willingness to contribute to the room rather than work it. See eligibility in detail.

Most people arrive one of two ways: an invitation after Murray Newlands or a forum board member meets them, often at a Forum Event, or a referral from someone already in the community. Referrals carry weight because the person making them is putting their own standing behind it. There is no fixed timeline between first contact and an invitation. More on the process.

Yes. Direct application is a legitimate route alongside invitation and referral. A strong application states your role, the company or board you serve, what you are working through, and why this room is the right one. Applications are read individually and the rooms decline most of them. Apply here.

No. There is no formal Forum Select membership fee, subscription or annual due. Access is earned through invitation, referral or application rather than purchased. This is the main structural difference between Forum Select and the large peer-advisory organizations, which charge annual dues.

No. Open Future Forum does not sell tickets to its private executive forums, and invited guests do not pay to attend a Forum Select dinner. Forum Events are free to attend as well. Gatherings are funded by sponsors rather than by the people in the room, which is what keeps attendance free at both tiers.

Standard Forum Select dinners are generally 10 to 25 seats, small enough that everyone is introduced and everyone gets heard. Roundtables and themed gatherings vary within that range. More on the dinner format.

Forum Select does not require a fixed monthly commitment. Private dinners and role-specific gatherings take place throughout the year, with timing varying by executive community and location. Invitees choose the gatherings most relevant to them.

Guests are selected based on seniority, relevance to the discussion, potential contribution to the room and alignment with Open Future Forum's Give and Take philosophy. Each gathering is assembled individually rather than filled in application order.

No. Participants attend when the subject, location and people in the room are relevant to them. There is no requirement to attend every Forum Select gathering.

Traditional peer-advisory groups generally bring the same participants together on a fixed schedule. Forum Select convenes carefully selected C-suite executives, board directors and senior investors for private, off-the-record discussions focused on specific leadership and business questions.

Forum Select is not designed for people seeking sales leads, purchased access to executives or large-scale networking. It is intended for senior leaders who are willing to contribute their experience, insights and relationships to a trusted room.

Yes. Forum Select discussions are private and off the record. Nothing said in the room is repeated, attributed or published outside it, and there are no recordings, transcripts or press. The norm holds socially rather than contractually: people who break it are not invited back.

Yes. Sponsorship is how gatherings are funded, which is what keeps attendance free. Sponsors support or co-host gatherings where their work is genuinely relevant to the executives in the room, and ongoing sponsors may take part in the conversation or speak where the subject is relevant to them. What a sponsor cannot do is treat the room as an audience: there are no sales presentations, no pitch slots and no lead capture.

No. Sponsorship does not purchase membership, an invitation, a recommendation or permission to make a sales pitch. Guests are selected on the same basis whether or not a sponsor is present, and a sponsor who speaks does so because the subject is relevant, not because the slot was bought.

Most gatherings are in the San Francisco Bay Area, principally San Francisco, Palo Alto and the surrounding Peninsula, at private venues, clubs and member spaces. Forum Events are also held elsewhere as the community grows. There is no residency requirement: people based outside the Bay Area take a seat when they are in town. See the calendar.

Open Future Forum publishes operator-research reports built on first-party survey and qualitative data from its own network, under the Enterprise AI Buying and Budget Index. The series includes the CEO, CFO, CMO, CISO and Executive AI Leverage Reports, the AI Market Maps, the Board Director AI Governance Report and the YC Founder AI Report. Every published figure carries its response base. Browse the research.

All four run through the same place. Apply to request an invitation to Forum Select or a role-based forum, to propose yourself as a speaker, or to ask about sponsoring a gathering. Open Forum Events are listed on the events calendar and register directly. Murray Newlands also writes weekly on Substack, where upcoming gatherings are noted.

Murray Newlands, a Silicon Valley investor and operator, and Partner at IA Seed Ventures. He was previously a C-level executive at Turing.com. He has written for Forbes, Inc. and Time, and publishes a weekly newsletter for senior AI and technology leaders. More about Murray.

It is the idea, from Adam Grant’s book of the same name, that people who contribute without keeping score create more long-term value than those who trade favor for favor. It is the selection principle for the rooms: the question asked of a prospective guest is what they will add to the table, not what they want from it. Read more.

No. They share a founder and operate separately. Open Future Forum is an executive community and research publisher. IA Seed Ventures is a venture capital firm where Murray Newlands is a Partner. The two conversations are kept apart, and a Forum Select seat carries no investment relationship of any kind.