PARC Forum is a unique and enduring tradition since 1977 for bringing diverse ideas to PARC and the public, and for exchanging insights or building relationships with speakers. Forum speakers are usually experts in their fields, ranging from science and technology to arts and global issues. Past speakers have included a Nobel Prize winner, chocolate maker, radio host, TV producer, VC funder, futurist, and more.

Speakers and topics are not chosen by a single person or fixed committee, but by volunteer Forum coordinators that rotate through all of PARC's research and operational organizations. (Sometimes this gives one a glimpse into individual employee interests.) Occasionally, PARC curates special speaker series on specific organization-wide topics of interest -- see "past forum series" for examples.

How to attend in person

PARC Forums are always free, and generally open to the public. Auditorium capacity is ~250. PARC Forums are attended by PARC employees and people from the nearby academic, industrial, and entrepreneurial communities of Silicon Valley. You can sign up to receive PARC Forum announcements by email or RSS feed.

How to watch/listen online

PARC Forums are generally posted online by about a week after the event. We are currently updating our PARC Forum event archive to replace streaming Windows Media files with in-browser video playing. We are also updating audio podcasts soon.

Time & location

PARC Forums are typically held every Thursday at 4:00pm (we occasionally host them on Wednesdays and Fridays). Forums take place in our George E. Pake Auditorium which is located near our upper parking lot.