Silicon Valley CEO dinners are private off-the-record dinners for chief executives in San Francisco and Palo Alto. 10 to 25 guests per dinner. No agenda printed on a card. No presentations. Conversation moves around the table.
The reason they exist is functional. The most useful conversations for chief executives in the AI era are about decisions that have not been announced yet: AI org restructures, contested board calls, model evaluations, regulator conversations. None of that gets said in a public room.
The format has become more common in the past three years. Some dinners are run by venture firms (often poorly, with too much pitching). Some are run by professional event organisations (often well-attended but light on candor). The best are run by individual conveners who select for seniority, generosity and the willingness to keep what is said in the room.
Forum Select is the private invitation-only tier of Open Future Forum. It is the Silicon Valley CEO dinner series convened by Murray Newlands, Partner at IA Seed Ventures.
The format:
The selection criterion is generosity. The unspoken rule is that everyone at the table is expected to give first: share what they know, make the introductions that matter, leave the room better than they found it.
Mostly post-Series B with significant scale. The conversations are technical and strategic in equal measure.
CEOs, CFOs, CTOs, CISOs and Chief AI Officers at $100M+ companies working through what AI means for their organisations.
Independent directors and committee chairs with AI governance responsibility. Often the most senior voices in the room.
Senior capital allocators with AI exposure. The dinners are not pitch venues. Investors who attend are expected to give before they take, same as everyone else in the room.
Most Silicon Valley CEO dinners fall into one of four categories:
For a full breakdown of the AI CEO dinner format including Forum Select, YPO Forums, Vistage groups, Hampton retreats and CEO coalition dinners, see the comparison guide to AI CEO dinner groups.
Forum Select dinners are invitation-only. Three ways to receive an invitation:
There is no fee at any stage.
It depends what you want from it. For AI-focused conversation among chief executives and board directors in a private off-the-record setting, Forum Select is the most relevant. For general peer learning across industries, YPO Forums are the largest and most established. For structured accountability groups, Vistage runs the most defined format. Full comparison.
Across the Bay Area, principally San Francisco, Palo Alto and the surrounding Peninsula, at private venues, clubs and member spaces rather than hotel function rooms. The CEO Private Dinner Series has run in Los Altos Hills. Venues are shared with confirmed guests rather than published.
Chief executives and founder-CEOs of companies at scale, generally past $10 million in ARR, $10 million raised or a $100 million valuation, with a mix of venture-backed and self-funded businesses and some public-company leaders. Tables run 10 to 25 seats. More on the CEO Executive Forum.
Some dinners are co-hosted or supported by a sponsor whose work is genuinely relevant to the executives at the table. Sponsorship covers the cost of the evening. It does not buy an invitation for anyone, a recommendation, or a slot to pitch: there are no sales presentations in the room. Talk to us about hosting.
Forum Select is by invitation only, but the path in is open. Attend a Forum Event, get a referral, or apply directly.