Recap: Recode’s 2018 Code Conference

Recode’s annual Code Conference took place in Rancho Palos Verdes, California this week as editor at large Kara Swisher and executive editor Peter Kafka co-hosted leaders from major companies like Facebook, Uber, AirBNB, AT&T and more in the iconic red chair hot seats for in-depth, newsmaking interviews about the future of tech, business and politics.

This year, the 700 Code attendees heard from the likes of Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Snap’s Evan Spiegel, Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi, Spotify’s Daniel Ek, Momofuku Chef David Chang, Senator Mark Warner as well as a first look at Mary Meeker’s annual internet trends report and so many more.

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• Code Conference co-hosts Peter Kafka and Kara Swisher discuss the whirlwind of scandals that have shrouded Facebook in recent months— from Cambridge Analytica to election meddling– with COO Sheryl Sandberg and CTO Mike Schroepfer. Watch the full video here. Asa Mathat for Vox Media
• Recode editor at large Kara Swisher welcomes attendees to Code Conference 2018 at Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Asa Mathat
• AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson joined Peter Kafka on stage where he discussed T-Mobile and Sprint, cord cutters and Hulu, and the firing of Roseanne Barr. Watch the full video here. Asa Mathat for Vox Media
• Kara Swisher on stage with Linda MacMahon, President Donald Trump’s leader for the Small Business Administration. Who emphasized the importance of the US leading the way in tech. Asa Mathat for Vox Media
• Snap CEO Evan Spiegel joined Kara Swisher in a conversation to talk about Snap’s controversial redesign and the company’s culture. “Facebook can copy our features, but our values are hard to copy,” he said. Watch the full video here. Asa Mathat
• In his first interview since taking the company public, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek opens up to Kara Swisher and Peter Kafka about the business and the company’s controversial #MeToo policy. Watch the full video here. Asa Mathat for Vox Media.
• Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi discussed Waymo self-driving cars, Uber eats, and the company’s goal to become “the Amazon of transportation” with Kara Swisher. Watch the full video here. Asa Mathat for Vox Media
• 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch talked everything from Hulu to T-Mobile and Sprint, to Roseanne Barr on stage at Code Conference 2018. Asa Mathat for Vox Media
• Microsoft President Brad Smith shares what he learned from the company’s 2001 antitrust case, and shares some advice he has for Facebook with Kara Swisher. Watch the full interview here. Asa Mathat for Vox Media.
• Alibaba executive chairman Joe Tsai joined Jason Del Rey on stage for a conversation about the growth of Chinese tech companies. Watch the full video here. Asa Mathat for Vox Media.
• Vox Senior Video Producer Estelle Caswell took the stage for a fascinating presentation on how a single chord, first created by Igor Stravinsky in the early 1900s, became a ubiquitous marker of ‘80s hip-hop music. She also talked about her work on Vox’s Netflix show, Explained’s, episode all about K-Pop. Watch the full presentation here. Asa Mathat for Vox Media
• Kara Swisher with Aileen Lee, managing partner of Cowboy Ventures; Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, founder and CEO of Boardlist; Megan Smith, the former Chief Technology Officer of the U.S. and now the founder of Shift7 on stage for a conversation on how leading women in Silicon Valley think tech can fix its gender diversity problem. Watch the full interview. Asa Mathat for Vox Media.
• Kathryn Haun, a Stanford lecturer on the board of Coinbase; Bridget van Kralingen, who leads blockchain efforts at IBM; and Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple joined Peter Kafka on stage for a panel on blockchain technology. Watch their full conversation here. Asa Mathat for Vox Media.
• Eater Editor-in-Chief Amanda Kludt took the Code Conference stage alongside Recode Executive Editor Peter Kafka to interview celebrity chef David Chang about his restaurant, his Netflix series Ugly Delicious, and the #MeToo movement in the food industry, as well as Eater’s dogged coverage of it. Watch the full interview here. Asa Mathat
• Stitch Fix Founder and CEO Katrina Lake sat down with Recode’s Jason Del Rey discussed wanting her company to serve as an example of a big public company with a great deal of diversity of demographics as well as thought. Watch the full interview here. Asa Mathat for Vox Media.
• Kleiner Perkins’ Mary Meeker delivered her full 200+ internet trends report to attendees at Code Conferencce 2018. You can watch her full presentation here. Asa Mathat for Vox Media.
• Kara Swisher and Recode Editor in Chief Dan Frommer talked with Airbnb CEO about the ‘experience economy’ business, regulated cities, and more. Watch the full video here. Asa Mathat
• U.S. Senator Mark Warner discussed big tech regulation, Mark Zuckerberg’s Congressional hearings and more on stage with Kara Swisher and Peter Kafka. Watch the full conversation here. Asa Mathat
• One major change to Code Conference in 2018 was the addition of Code University, a series of 20-minute lectures by industry leaders aimed at influencing the net generation of tech giants. Asa Mathat

In addition to Recode’s extensive coverage, the 2018 Code Conference was covered by major broadcast networks and drove conversation across 200+ top-tier news outlets and thousands of social media posts, with press in attendance from outlets such as The New York Times, BuzzFeed, NBC News,The Hollywood Reporter, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, Digiday, The Financial Times, Deadline, Variety, AdAge, Axios, CNN, Bloomberg, USA Today, Business Insider, TechCrunch, CNET, CNBC, WIRED, The Wrap, and more.

Ahead of Code, CNBC’s Julia Boorstin previewed the event, where data privacy and unchecked power of big tech companies were anticipated to top the conversations. BizBash spoke with Vox Media’s GM of Experiential and Conferences Vanessa Fontanez to provide folks who weren’t lucky enough to be at Terranea Resort last week an inside look at the invite-only event. Live from the conference Kara Swisher joined CNBC to discuss the biggest happenings of day one, and Jim Bankoff joined CNBC’s Squawk Alley to recap major news coming out of Code, as well as the latest Concert expansion news from Vox Media.

Code 2018 brought the biggest names in tech and business for hard hitting interviews as anticipated every year, with the new addition of Code University, a series of 20-minute lectures convening professors and industry experts in business leadership, space, robotics, and cybersecurity for a glimpse at the next big thing in tech.

Attendees took home Code branded Herschel bags filled with goodies from Oculus, Momofuku, Clear and more.

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Head over to Recode to watch full videos of the conference’s hard hitting interviews as well as full recaps of Code Conference 2018. You can also tune into the latest episode of Too Embarrassed to Ask where Kara Swisher, Peter Kafka, and Casey Newton get together to recap Code and address what seemed to be the event’s unofficial theme: Tech is changing and disrupting the world every day — but do its leaders see themselves as responsible for those changes, good and bad?

That’s a wrap, and we’re already looking forward to an even better Code Conference in 2019!