December 6–7, 2026 | The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, California
The Emerging Managers Summit 2026, organized by Opal Group, brings together institutional investors, family offices, private wealth professionals, and emerging fund managers to explore investment opportunities, fundraising strategies, capital formation, and the future of alternative investments.
Against a rapidly evolving investment landscape, Gary Fowler, CEO and Co-Founder of GSD Venture Studios, brings a background in technology entrepreneurship, venture building, and artificial intelligence that is relevant to conversations about emerging managers and the next generation of investment opportunities.
Why Gary Fowler’s Expertise Matters
As artificial intelligence continues to reshape industries and business models, investors face an increasingly important challenge: identifying promising technologies and distinguishing sustainable business opportunities from short-lived market enthusiasm.
Gary Fowler’s experience in building technology companies and working with startups provides a valuable entrepreneurial perspective on evaluating innovation, developing scalable businesses, and understanding the relationship between technological advancement and commercial success.
His expertise is particularly relevant to several themes associated with the summit:
1. AI and Emerging Technology Investments
Artificial intelligence is creating new investment opportunities across software, healthcare, enterprise technology, and other sectors. Understanding how these technologies translate into practical applications and defensible business models is essential for investors evaluating emerging markets.
2. Venture Building and Startup Scalability
Early-stage companies must demonstrate more than innovative ideas. They need strong leadership, product-market fit, efficient operations, and credible growth strategies. Gary’s venture-building background aligns with these considerations, helping frame the challenges founders face as they seek investment and prepare to scale.
3. Capital Allocation and Investment Strategy
Emerging managers must identify opportunities, assess risk, and allocate capital in markets shaped by rapid technological change. A technology-focused entrepreneurial perspective can help investors evaluate how innovation, execution, and market demand influence a company’s long-term potential.
4. Connecting Investors with Innovation
The relationship between founders and investors is central to the development of successful technology businesses. Experience across entrepreneurship and venture building can help bridge the gap between innovative ideas and the capital, strategic guidance, and commercial relationships required to bring them to market.
The Intersection of AI, Venture Capital, and Emerging Managers
As AI becomes increasingly influential in investment decisions, emerging managers must consider how technological disruption affects traditional industries, competitive advantages, and future growth.
The challenge is not simply to invest in AI, but to understand where the technology creates measurable value, which businesses can commercialize it effectively, and how investment strategies can adapt to changing market conditions.
Gary Fowler’s background makes these questions particularly relevant to his work in the technology and startup ecosystem. His perspective connects the opportunities created by AI with the practical realities of building companies, managing resources, and pursuing sustainable growth.
The Emerging Managers Summit 2026 provides a forum for investment professionals to exchange perspectives on fundraising, capital allocation, alternative investments, and emerging market opportunities.
As technology continues to influence the investment landscape, the intersection of AI expertise, entrepreneurial experience, and venture-building knowledge will remain important to evaluating the next generation of companies and investment strategies.
Gary Fowler’s experience in these areas offers a relevant perspective on how investors and entrepreneurs can approach technological change and identify opportunities for long-term value creation.
Event: Emerging Managers Summit 2026
Organizer: Opal Group
Dates: December 6–7, 2026
Venue: The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, California
Key themes: Emerging fund managers, venture capital, AI, technology investing, fundraising, and capital allocation
Official event information: Opal Group — Emerging Managers Summit 2026