Octane, the Southern California innovation hub, held its second annual Neuro Tech Forum on March 26–27 at the VEA Newport Beach, with sponsorship from Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, and AbbVie. The two-day programme brought together more than 30 speakers from across the neurotechnology and medtech landscape, with six early-stage companies pitching to a room of angel investors, family offices, and venture capital firms.
The forum’s headline panel, titled “BCI: The Evolution of the Revolution,” featured Marcus Gerhardt, co-founder and chief executive of Blackrock Neurotech, discussing the current state of wearable and implantable brain-computer interfaces. Blackrock, which manufactures the Utah array used in several major BCI research programmes, has been a fixture of the implantable neurotech space for more than two decades. The panel explored where the competitive field stands as newer entrants challenge legacy electrode-based systems.
Adnan Siddiqui, chief executive and chief medical officer of the Jacobs Institute and vice chairman of neurosurgery at SUNY Buffalo, delivered the keynote address on building innovation ecosystems in neurotechnology. Siddiqui, who has published more than 700 peer-reviewed articles, discussed the institutional and capital structures needed to move neurotech research from the laboratory into clinical practice.
Four panels spanned the two days. Beyond the BCI session, speakers addressed digital health applications in neurotechnology, moderated by Christian Ulfert of Johnson & Johnson MedTech, with Peter Schulam, J&J MedTech’s chief scientific officer, also contributing. A separate panel on industry approaches to neurological and psychiatric disorders covered Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, and migraine, with Felipe Palacios, AbbVie’s vice president of US Botox Therapeutics, among the participants. A fourth session examined collaborative development across diagnostics, therapeutics, and devices.
Amy Kruse, general partner and chief investment officer at Satori Capital, provided the investor perspective. Satori has been active in the neurotech and human performance space, and Kruse’s presence underlined a theme running through the event: the growing willingness of specialist funds to back neurotechnology companies at earlier stages.
The forum’s pitch sessions gave six startups the opportunity to present to Octane’s investor network. While Octane did not publicly name all presenting companies in advance, applications were open to firms working in BCI, neuromodulation, and related neurotechnology fields. Eric Grigsby, chief executive and founder of Neurovations, and Lindsey Jardin, vice president of clinical, regulatory, and quality affairs at Adraxe, were among the featured speakers with operational startups.
Jojo Platt, president and chief executive of Platt & Associates, served as emcee. Platt is a recognised figure in the neurotechnology and medtech investment community, and her firm advises companies navigating the path from development to commercialisation.
The event offered complimentary admission to practising physicians and investors, a deliberate move to bring clinical end-users into direct conversation with the companies building the next generation of neurological tools.
Octane’s first Neuro Tech Forum, held in 2025, established Newport Beach as an emerging node in the neurotech conference circuit. The return of major sponsors and the expansion to a two-day format suggests the event is finding a durable niche, particularly for companies too early for the larger medical device conferences but seeking capital and strategic partnerships.