We’ve done this before. The Summit makes it bigger.
The Battery Club · San Francisco · 120+ Attendees
San Francisco · 2026
250 of the most accomplished people you know. A day and a half. Single track. No spectators — everyone in the room is someone worth meeting.
The Inaugural OpenWater Summit
You’ve spent decades building expertise that doesn’t fit on a resume. The Summit gives you a stage, an audience, and a room full of people who understand your value. Present what you know. Let people see how you think.
Not another networking event with name tags and small talk. These are 250 people who’ve done what you’ve done. Same stage of life. Same caliber. Same hunger to stay in the game.
Corporate leaders, venture investors, and talent decision-makers will be in the room — not reading your LinkedIn, not scanning your resume, but watching you present, solve problems, and think out loud.
Every great gathering has a founding story. The people who were in the room for the first one. This is that moment for OpenWater. If this community has meant something to you, the Summit is where it becomes real.
The 2026 Theme
Hard-won knowledge. Live projects. Real outcomes.
Our members have done the work. You’ve built companies, led turnarounds, navigated transitions, deployed AI, sat on boards, coached executives, started over, and started again. You aren’t waiting to see what experience produces. You are what experience produces.
The Summit is where that experience stops being theoretical and shows up in the world. Members on stage, presenting current projects and live engagements — in a room of investors, corporate decision-makers, and partners who came to see who’s doing the work.
If you’ve got a project worth showing, expertise the room can use, or a lesson you’ve earned the hard way — there’s a place for it on stage. Speaker details are coming.
This is not a conference. There are no paid speakers. No panels of strangers. Our members are the content — on stage, in breakout rooms, at every table.
Meet 10–12 people in the first hour. The room is warm before the first talk begins.
Members present their expertise. Editorially curated. Every session followed by real conversation.
A member brings a real challenge. Peers solve it together. Our most powerful format — now in person.
3 minutes. One lesson. No slides. The most honest, high-energy segment of the day.
Four members share real stories: a consulting gig, a board seat, a new venture — all born from this community.
Live AI reskilling workshop. Members working with tools in real time. Experience meets fluency.
Women of OpenWater gather before the main program for candid conversation and connection.
Every member contributes one hard-won lesson. By end of day, it becomes a collective artifact of everything this room knows.
Senior executives and talent decision-makers in the room — not just watching, but in an invitation-only working session.
The Battery Club · San Francisco · 120+ Attendees
Think of the best dinner you’ve had with OpenWater members.
Now multiply it by 250.
Your peers from 20+ local chapters. Former executives from Google, Meta, The New York Times, Deloitte, and dozens of other organizations. People still building, advising, investing, and operating — at the level that matters. The conversation that starts over coffee turns into a collaboration by lunch and a real opportunity by dinner.
The people who were in the room for Year 1 will talk about it for years. Make sure you’re one of them.
Year 1 pricing. If this sells out, next year won’t look like this.
Early Bird
$399
First 100 tickets
Out-of-Town
$399
50 reserved seats for
non-Bay Area members
Standard
$599
Remaining 100 seats
250 total seats. When they’re gone, they’re gone.
OpenWater is bringing together experienced operators, founders, executives, and decision-makers in one room. If your organization wants to explore sponsorship, we'd love to show you what we're building.