Inspiring Conversations: Faith + Life

The event helped me get closer to God.

The talk was inspiring and ignited engaging conversations about God and life.

THE HISTORY OF CONNECT SILICON VALLEY

Connect Silicon Valley started in 1995 a the Los Altos Community Prayer Breakfast. Its purpose at that time was to bring together the Christian community in Los Altos to celebrate prayer and faith. The events took place on Good Friday.   Its first event hosted approximately 150 people. Speakers over the next 12 years included Greg Jamison, president of the San Jose Sharks, Chuck Geschke, founder of Adobe, and former 49er Brent Jones. In 2005, a new leadership team led by Skip Vaccarello took over the event. The name was changed to the Silicon Valley Prayer Breakfast to make it a more regional, and its direction changed to attract not only Christ-followers but people who were curious about faith. The goal was to encourage conversations about faith and life. Over the next 18 years, prominent speakers included former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, astronaut Rex Walheim, VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger, Google executive Kirk Perry, former Apple executive and CEO of JCPenny Ron Johnson, and top venture capitalist Promod Haque, among many other top leaders.
The Annual Breakfast grew from 150 people in 2005 to nearly 1,000 in 2019.  
In 2012, four quarterly events, called SVPB Networking events, were added to the Annual Breakfast. The Networking events featured local business and nonprofit leaders with inspiring stories of the intersection of faith and work. The events were more intimate–hosting 60 to 100 people. In 2018, the name changed again to Connect Silicon Valley to emphasize its appeal to people looking for meaning, purpose and community, and curious about Christian faith. Its new name is meant to emphasize connecting with God and each other (community) and engaging in conversations about faith and life.
In 2018, the SVPB Networking events were also renamed “Engage” to stress the need to go deeper in conversations about faith and life.  
In 2019, we celebrated the 25 year anniversary of the organization. The Annual Breakfast had nearly 1,000 guests and featured special music from Hillsong SF and renown organizational guru Patrick Lencioni. In 2020, the global pandemic forced our in-person event to be postponed to October 2020. With featured speakers such as famous whistleblower Mark Whitacre and Melanie Parker, Chief Diversity Office at Google, the virtual program is sure to have over 1,000 viewers.
Today we continue to grow and broaden our impact to keep us connected. Nothing will stop us for sharing a life changing message. 
Throughout its history and today, the power of storytelling is at the core of what Connect Silicon Valley does. There are stories of tragedy and triumph, setbacks and success. Although the stories of all the speakers are different, their central theme is how God transforms lives. Connect Silicon Valley is not affiliated with any particular church or denomination. It comes under the legal authority of the Altos Christian Foundation, a 501(c) (3) organization located at 2570 El Camino Real, Ste. 500, Mountain View CA 94040.