Ascend GenAI is a Southern California-based community focused on how Generative AI is reshaping industries, careers, and opportunities. We host curated in-person panels, networking events, and local meetups with real leaders doing real work in GenAI.
Whether you're shipping products, investing in new ventures, or navigating your next career move, Ascend GenAI gives you the signal, not just the noise.
Notable speakers include: Stuart McClure (CEO of Qwiet AI, sold Cylance for $1.4B), leaders from Google DeepMind, enterprise AI executives, and startup founders.
All events are curated, in-person gatherings held at the Merage JCC in Irvine, CA.
Itay Sharfi is the founder of Ascend GenAI. He currently leads AI Platform at Zendesk as a Product Lead and teaches computer science at Cal State Fullerton. Previously, he was a Senior Product Manager at Google, where he led privacy and infrastructure efforts across global AdTech platforms.
Itay also runs Application Owl, a GenAI-driven job search platform. Earlier, he led Mobile Monday US, a nonprofit community with monthly events that drew thousands of regular participants across four major cities, connecting tech professionals, founders, and product leaders around emerging innovation.
Itay built Ascend GenAI to bring high-quality conversations to SoCal, connecting builders, thinkers, and doers in one room to talk about what’s really happening in AI.