Hey — today is Election Day. LA County vote centers are open 7 AM to 8 PM, and if you live in the city of LA you've got eight local measures on the ballot. We also fell back on Sunday, so it's dark before most of these events start. Vote early, then go stand in a room with people who build things.
Six picks this week. It's a thin, election-week calendar, so I'm not padding it.
Here’s What’s Up.
- Jay
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⛅ Weather Tue ☀️ 72°/57° Wed ☀️ 73°/59° Thu 🌤️ 76°/60°
Tuesday, Nov 3
1. Hawke's First Tuesdays Happy Hour
What's on: Hawke Media brings back its First Tuesdays at its Santa Monica office. It's a Taco Tuesday happy hour with tacos and handcrafted cocktails, for LA founders, marketers, operators and creatives. Free, open RSVP, no approval.
📆 When: Tue Nov 3 · 6:00–8:00 PM PT
📍 Where: Hawke Media · 2415 Michigan Ave, Santa Monica
💬 Why: It's the biggest open room of the week (420 RSVPs as of Monday night), and it's an easy walk-in. Vote first, since polls close at 8.
2. Open Tabs
What's on: A communal admin night for creators at The Lighthouse in Venice. It's a few hours of focused work sprints with music and breaks, so you finally get through the invoices, emails, expense reports and the deck you keep putting off. Bring your laptop and your list. Free, but you need to be approved.
📆 When: Tue Nov 3 · 6:00–8:00 PM PT
📍 Where: The Lighthouse Campus · 1601 Main St, Venice
💬 Why: It's for anyone with 47 tabs open (on the laptop and in the brain) who'd rather not refresh election results all night. Heads up: the host says the event is being filmed and photographed for content.
Wednesday, Nov 4
3. Golden Hour 009: Confidently Wrong
What's on: Product.ai's monthly Golden Hour, the first of Season Two, at its West LA HQ. Reception at 5:00. At 5:40 you split into four small rooms (health and wellness, money and business, shopping and products, building with AI) to share times AI was confidently wrong. At 6:25 there's a stage segment with AI developer Luke Waltman and Product.ai's Karen Spinner on their AI Shopping Divergence Study. Then you hang out until 8. Free, open RSVP.
📆 When: Wed Nov 4 · 5:00–8:00 PM PT
📍 Where: Product.ai · 12100 Wilshire Blvd #950, West LA (Brentwood)
💬 Why: They asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity the same 220 shopping questions, and the answers conflicted on 86% of the ones they scored. That's a useful number to have the day after an election. When you register, bring one sentence an AI told you with total confidence. Heads up: room conversations are recorded (one room stays off the record), and only 38 spots were left Monday night, with a waitlist enabled.
4. AI Policy November Meetup (AI LA)
What's on: AI LA's monthly AI policy meetup is back after skipping October for LA Tech Week. It brings together people from AI, policy and tech (policymakers, technologists, researchers or just the curious) to talk about where AI rules are heading. Free, open RSVP.
📆 When: Wed Nov 4 · 6:00–8:00 PM PT
📍 Where: Highland Park Brewery · 1220 N Spring St, Chinatown
💬 Why: You'll hear the first take on what the election means for AI policy, the night after the votes. It's run by AI LA, the nonprofit behind AI on the Lot, so the room knows its stuff. It's also the easiest walk-in of the week.
Thursday, Nov 5
5. Founder Dinner – Kewl Ventures × Rho
What's on: Kewl Ventures and Rho host dinner and drinks for a small group of LA consumer founders. Everyone shares what they're building, trades notes and gets to know each other over a good meal. Free, but RSVPs need approval.
📆 When: Thu Nov 5 · 6:30–8:30 PM PT
📍 Where: Wally's Santa Monica · 214 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica
💬 Why: If you're building a consumer brand, this is a real dinner with a VC at the table, not a mixer. Heads up: only 9 seats were left Monday night, with a waitlist enabled, so apply this morning.
6. Film. Content Creation. & AI. An Evening with Pace Shift
What's on: Positive Feedback™ hosts a happy-hour mixer and live demos of Pace Shift, its AI video-generation platform, with CEO Corinne Doherty and AI Solutions Director Angelo Salazar. It's aimed at filmmakers, creators, brand marketers and founders working on generative video. Free, open RSVP.
📆 When: Thu Nov 5 · 5:00–7:00 PM PT
📍 Where: SIXTY Rooftop Bar & Lounge · SIXTY Beverly Hills, 9360 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills
💬 Why: You'll see where AI production actually is for brand work, on a rooftop. It's the most LA crossover of the week. It ends at 7, so you can still make it to Santa Monica for #5 if you got a seat. Heads up: it's a vendor demo night.
🗣️ Special mentions
WORKFLOW Happy Hour (Atlas Lens Co. × OWC × Strada) · Wed Nov 4 · 5:00–8:00 PM PT · Strada's Hollywood office, 1020 Cole Ave · Free, open RSVP. It's a film-tech happy hour: the Atlas Kaizen lens on a Panavision DXL, plus live demos of OWC storage and Strada workflows. 122 RSVPs as of Monday night. More Info here —>
Molecular World Models with Odin Zhang (Caltech World Model Club) · Fri Nov 6 · 5:30–6:30 PM PT · Chen Neuroscience Research Building, Caltech, Pasadena · Free, open RSVP. The founder of Valhalla Technology (nearly $50M raised, and he trained under Nobel laureate David Baker) talks about AI world models for molecular design. Open to the LA community. More Info here —>
Demo Day LA (Nerdstage) · next Thu Nov 12 · 5:30–9:00 PM PT · BLANKSPACES Venice, 606 Venice Blvd · $39 early bird / $99 GA. Founder pitches, live demos and a fireside chat with Flatiron School co-founder Avi Flombaum. Put it on next week's calendar. More Info here —>
🛋️ Online (from your couch)
Delegate a Day's Work to Claude in 90 Minutes (Oneday) · Tue Nov 3 · 2:00–3:30 PM PT · Zoom · Free. A working session with Philip Mudhir. Bring one real, time-consuming task and leave with it handed off to Claude. More Info here —>
Stop Selling, Start Listening: Fix Your Pitch Live (Oneday) · Wed Nov 4 · 2:00–3:00 PM PT · Zoom · Free. Julian Espinosa works through sales conversations that should have closed but didn't, so bring one of yours. More Info here —>
That's the list. Six rooms, eight city measures, and one hour of daylight we're never getting back. Whatever the results say Wednesday morning, the founders are still building. See you out there.
MEME MEME MEME
— Jay at WhatsupLA
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