City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: September 9, 2025
Agenda Item: 4.L
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Arminé Chaparyan, Director, Administration
Subject: Approval of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Syndicate to CoProduce Tech Street Santa Monica, a One-Day Event Including Street Closure for LA Tech Week
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Adopt findings of Categorical Exemptions pursuant to Section 15301 and Section 15323 of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines;
2. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute a Memorandum of Understanding with Syndicate to co-produce a one-day street closure event called Tech Street Santa Monica – Celebrating 150 Years of Innovation in Santa Monica on Monday, October 13, 2025.
Summary
Syndicate, whose staff were the producers of LA Tech Week’s largest event in 2024 called “Santa Monica Innovation Hub” in collaboration with the City of Santa Monica, has submitted a community events application requesting a partnership with the City to co-produce a one-day event called Tech Street Santa Monica with an associated street closure. This event meets the criteria for a City co-produced event, as outlined in Administrative Instruction II-4-21. Staff recommends Council authorize entering into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to authorize the City to co-produce the event and to define the roles, responsibilities, and financial contributions of each party.
Discussion
Santa Monica stands as Southern California's premier technology innovation hub, attracting next-generation entrepreneurs eager to launch startups. In the heart of Silicon 2 of 6
Beach, our City’s strategic positioning fosters a dynamic ecosystem ripe for innovation.
With the unbeatable combination of coastal charm, entrepreneurial spirit, and techfriendly infrastructure, Santa Monica offers an unparalleled environment for startups to thrive, innovate, and succeed. Santa Monica is the epicenter of creativity and opportunity on the West Coast, and it is time to help remind the world of this and to celebrate our innovators – individual entrepreneurs, businesses, non-profits, educational institutions, and community partners.
The City has been requested to partner with Syndicate to co-produce Tech Street Santa Monica, a one-day street closure event in celebration of LA Tech Week and the City’s 150th Anniversary on Monday, October 13, 2025, on Ocean Avenue and the adjoining portion of Palisades Park. Event partners include the Santa Monica Chamber, SM Travel and Tourism, Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. (DTSM), Spin PR and LA County Economic Development Corporation.
LA Tech Week is primarily a tech industry event comprised of a series of ticketed events throughout the region for investors and entrepreneurs, including hackathon events, investor meetups and networking.
This event builds upon the successful “SM Innovation Hub” street fair that was held in 2024, utilizing the same footprint and same event organizer as what is proposed for this year. The 2024 event included 64 exhibitors’ booths including three booths for the City of Santa Monica to help showcase innovation in our City operations (Police, Fire and Information Services Department) and three booths for the local youth robotics teams.
A total of 738 tickets were sold and 455 complimentary tickets were provided (including 100 complimentary tickets to local school partners). It attracted 258,965 visitors to the event’s website and 242,000 ad impressions.
The overarching event – LA Tech Week – is an annual event that takes place in venues across LA County. LA Tech Week is organized by A16z, one of the leading venture capital firms in the United States with offices located in Santa Monica. Tech Street Santa Monica will stand as the premier event to launch the week-long series of events taking place across the entire City of Santa Monica and throughout LA County.
The full street closure event will be held on the one block segment of Ocean Avenue and Palisades Park between Santa Monica Boulevard and Broadway which was the same location in 2024. The Community Events Ordinance allows open street events to 3 of 6
occur on weekends and Monday holidays – October 13 is a federal holiday. The applicant has submitted their Community Event Permit application to the City and has undergone initial review by City staff to ensure the footprint is feasible for traffic control, Police and Fire operations, and will not impede access to property owners and businesses located along this route. Property owners and tenants located along the route will have vehicular access to their properties at all times. The event will maintain public access on the sidewalks and along the segregated bike path, as well as the footpath through Palisades Park.
This is a paid, ticketed event; however, community members and local businesses have been provided free “early bird” tickets with the goal to ensure broad community attendance as part of the City’s 150th anniversary celebrations. By serving as the coproduction partner, the City will contribute with permit and fee waivers, in-kind staff support and promotion assistance. This partnership helps to ensure this event is financially feasible and helps to elevate the Santa Monica brand as the epicenter of innovation – past, present and future – in the Los Angeles region and beyond. Staff believe the economic benefits brought to the City by hosting this event justify the partnership. Santa Monica’s Creative and Tech Sector is comprised of 3,125 businesses, employing 29,241 people (34% of the City’s total employment) with an average annual payroll of $6.3 billion. Given the City’s high office vacancy rate of
31.7% as LA Business Journal for 2nd Quarter 2025, this event will help to raise Santa Monica’s profile as the leading innovation hub in the region and assist with retaining and attracting innovation talent to and investment in Santa Monica.
The organizers are working with a16z’s media partners, LA Times and LA Business Journal along with their impressive channel of venture capital and tech firms across the country to promote the event and foster meaningful economic connections between tech entrepreneurs and tech investors. Staff recommends the City enter into a MOU with Syndicate to co-produce the Tech Street Santa Monica event and road closure on October 13, 2025. Under the terms of the proposed MOU, Syndicate would assume responsibility for organizing and managing the event, as well as obtaining all appropriate permits. They would also be responsible for contracting with an event promoter and musical acts, securing the event space on private property, contracting with vendors and sponsors, and raising all the funds necessary to support the event, 4 of 6
which is estimated to cost approximately $100,000. The Tech Street Santa Monica event application has been reviewed by City staff from the Recreation and Arts Department to confirm that it meets the conditions for a City co-produced event per Administrative Instructions II-4-21 and the Open Streets policy as defined in Municipal Code 4.68.190. Staff supports this event as it advances the City’s goal of supporting local businesses through economic recovery from the pandemic and helps to advance the City’s goals to support local economic development.
The City would be responsible for providing oversight and coordination of the permitting process, coordinating the City’s social media promotion of the event, providing certain fee waivers and reductions in accordance with the Community Event Administrative Instruction and assisting with outreach to Santa Monica tech businesses, education partners (e.g. Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District, Santa Monica College) and non-profit business organizations (e.g. Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Santa Monica, Inc., Santa Monica Pier Corporation).
The MOU will specify the local partnerships, the requirement to work in partnership with DTSM businesses along the event route as well as priority given to showcase Santa Monica tech firms and include a Santa Monica Youth Tech Zone. It will also require a certain number of tickets for the paid event be made available to the community at no charge.
The Syndicate team has demonstrated experience and success with organizing tech events throughout the region and securing sponsorship funds, as evidenced by the 2024 partnership with the City of Santa Monica for LA Tech Week.
Environmental Review
The event is categorically exempt from CEQA pursuant to Section 15301 and Section 15323. Section 15301 (Class 1- Existing Facilities) exempts the operation, repair, maintenance, permitting, leasing, licensing, or minor alteration of existing public or private structures, facilities, mechanical equipment, or topographical features, involving negligible or no expansion of existing or former use. The event would occur on existing streets and facilities, would not expand or materially change existing City streets or infrastructure, and therefore is exempt pursuant to Section 15301. Section 15323 exempts normal operations of existing facilities for public gatherings for which the 5 of 6
facilities were designed, where there is a past history of the facility being used for the same or similar kind of purpose. The City’s existing streets are regularly used for special events, similar to the proposed Tech Event. Therefore, the event is exempt pursuant to Section 15323.
Past Council Actions
Meeting Date Description
07/09/2024
(attachment A)
Approval of MOU for SM Innovation Hub Event
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Staff seeks authority to enter into a MOU with Syndicate to co-produce the Tech Street Santa Monica event and road closure on October 13, 2025. The City’s share of the direct and indirect costs, estimated to be no more than $7,500, associated with the event include fee waivers, fee reductions and in-kind staff time, all of which will be covered within existing department budgets and the Economic Recovery Funds 01800004.553170. Syndicate will be responsible for paying all other permits and fees associated with the event that are not waived, in accordance with the Co-Produced Guidelines in the Community Events AI.
Prepared By: Jennifer Taylor, Economic Development Manager Approved Forwarded to Council
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Attachments:
A. Attachment A - SM Innovation Hub MOU Council Report 7.9.24 (Web Link) B. Staff Report - July 9, 2024 (Web Link)