Startup Cafe: LA's Deputy Mayor For Strategic Partnerships
Fireside Chat With Amanda Daflos
Deputy Mayor, Office of Strategic Partnerships · City of Los Angeles
LA is hosting the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics, rebuilding after wildfires, and making big bets on its economic, cultural and civic future. The question for entrepreneurs and innovators isn't whether the city needs partners. It's how to become one.
Amanda Daflos runs the city's Office of Strategic Partnerships, the team whose job it is to connect the city with the people and organizations who can make faster, fairer, more fun and smarter. She joins us at The Kinn for conversation with Tommi Laitio about where LA is heading, how the city actually works, and what it takes to build a partnership with it.
Agenda
8:45 - 9:30 am • Coffee and Socialize
9:30- 10:30 am • Live Podcast Recording with Amanda Daflos
June 3rd, 2026
Amanda Daflos is the Deputy Mayor for the Office of Strategic Partnerships (OSP) for the City of Los Angeles, where she leads efforts to cultivate and strengthen cross-sector partnerships that address the city’s most pressing social, economic, and environmental challenges.
Through collaboration with philanthropic, nonprofit, academic, civic, and private-sector partners, OSP advances high-impact initiatives that improve service delivery, drive innovation, and support the City’s highest strategic priorities. The office serves as a central hub for partnership development and coordination, helping ensure that major citywide efforts are aligned, elevated, and effectively implemented.
Tommi Laitio is the Principal of Studio Laitio, an urban consultancy helping cities, foundations and civic institutions navigate the challenges of urban friction in cities. He specializes in public innovation, public life, youth engagement, civic participation, and public sector leadership.
Laitio's insights on cities have been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Bloomberg CityLab. His practice builds on his experience as the inaugural Bloomberg Public Innovation Fellow and as the first Director of Fun for the City of Helsinki, Finland.
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The KINN is a membership network, accelerator, and collaborative workspace for conscious entrepreneurs, based in Venice, CA. Running tailored inner development and business accelerator programs for startups, providing executive coaching, accountability, and access to a top-tier LA-based community of entrepreneurs, creatives, intrapreneurs, and investors. If you're interested in learning more about KINN Membership, please visit http://thekinn.co/apply
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