I'm looking forward to the SDForum Visionary Awards this evening.

This year's winners will be joining past awards winners that include: John Chambers, Vint Cerf, Jim Clark, Judy Estrin, Bill Gates, Reed Hastings, Vinod Khosla, Michael Moritz and Walt Mossberg.

This year's winners are:

Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn and Partner at Greylock Partners

Reid Hoffman is executive chairman and a co-founder of LinkedIn. Mr. Hoffman joined Greylock Partners as a partner in 2009. Prior to Greylock, Mr. Hoffman invested in many significant companies including Facebook, Zynga, SixApart, Flickr, Last.fm, Ning, Ironport and Digg. He is a director of a variety of Silicon Valley businesses and non-profits, including Mozilla, Shopkick, Six Apart, Kiva.org and Zynga. Prior to LinkedIn, Mr. Hoffman was Executive Vice President of PayPal.

Arthur Patterson, Co-Founder Accel Partners

Arthur Patterson enjoys working with start-up entrepreneurial teams in Software and Services. As the lead investor he has helped management teams develop their companies into market defining leaders. IPO's of such companies include: Actuate; MetroPCS; Portal Software; UUnet/MCI-WorldCom; and Veritas. He is currently on the Boards of several private companies including: Aptana; Arcot Systems; Centrify; Coremetrics; Integral Development; Iron Planet; NewlineNoosh; NextG. Recent private exits include: Counterpane sold to BT; Rapt sold to Microsoft; and Savi Technology sold to Lockheed Martin. Prior to co-founding Accel Partners, Mr. Patterson was General Partner of Adler & Company. He started in venture capital at Citicorp Venture Capital. Previously, Arthur worked in Washington for the International office of the U.S. Treasury Department - International Monetary, Trade and Development Policy.

Brent Schlender, Executive-Director, Co-Founder Techonomy

Brent Schlender is co-founder of Techonomy, a site that explores technology's relationship to the economy and celebrates innovative individuals and technological advances. Mr. Schlender has written extensively about high-tech industries, business strategy, management and leadership. He spent many years as a foreign correspondent for both FORTUNE and The Wall Street Journal in Latin America and Asia. He also co-developed a dramatic television series with Robert Altman and Garry Trudeau called Killer App and moonlighted playing saxophones in a Bay Area rhythm and blues band for 15 years.

Chris Shipley, Co-Founder & Analyst at Guidewire Group

Chris Shipley is chairman and CEO of Guidewire Group, Inc., a global analyst and advisory firm focused on early-stage technology companies. As the executive producer of the renowned DEMO Conference from 1996 until September 2009, Ms. Shipley identified and helped bring to market more than 1,500 products, including WebEx, VMWare, salesforce.com, TiVo, Xfire, Ribbit and Ironport. Ms. Shipley has covered personal technology since 1984 and has worked as a writer and editor for a variety of technology and consumer media. She has won numerous awards for her writing and often has been cited as a leading influencer. She served as chairman and currently is on the board of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives, and is a board member and advisor to a number of early stage companies.

More info: www.sdforum.org.

SDForum Visionary Awards is one of my favorite events of the year because it is a relaxed atmosphere and there are plenty of stories.

Here is Jim Clark from 2009:

Please see my prior SDForum Visionary Awards coverage:

SDForum Visionary Awards - Present And Past: Before Walt Mossberg Became Walt Mossberg . . .

Judy Estrin: Silicon Valley Unwilling To Fix Structural Problems Around Innovation, Blame Others

Kay Koplovitz: We Need More Women Entrepreneurs

SDForum Awards: Silicon Valley Tales

Here is a Pearltree on this topic: