[1] In November 2013, the Forum hosted Creative Commons co-founder and American academic and political activist, Lawrence Lessig.

[13] Other notable attendees include former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and Lieutenant Governor of California Gavin Newsom.

[17][18][19] During the spring of 2015 the Forum hosted a number of events with such speakers as Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies Dean Vali Nasr,[20] graphic designer John Maeda, Berkeley mayor Tom Bates,[21] Slovak Minister of Foreign Affairs Miroslav Lajčák,[22] American legal scholar Akhil Amar,[23] Khan Academy founder Salman Khan,[24] Russian State Duma member Ilya Ponomarev,[25] American Civil Liberties Union president Susan Herman, University of California, Berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks, UC Berkeley Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Claude Steele,[26] and congressmen John Sarbanes, Jerry McNerney, Jared Huffman, and Mark DeSaulnier.

[28] Later in 2015, the Berkeley Forum also hosted events with US Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson,[29][30] Kabam co-founder and CEO Kevin Chou,[31] Nonhuman Rights Project founder Steven M. Wise,[32] virtual reality journalist Nonny de la Peña,[33] LGBT rights activist Cecilia Chung,[34] immigration policy analyst Alex Nowrasteh, political activist and writer Ron Unz,[35] American journalist and editor-in-chief of the tech hub for Medium Steven Levy,[36] former United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk,[37] Pixar Research Group Lead Tony DeRose,[38] and American political satirist P. J.

[39] In 2016, the Forum hosted the 16th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Julian Castro;[40] the 17th Director of Central Intelligence, John M. Deutch;[41] the Director of the Center for Bits and Atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Neil Gershenfeld;[42] the 28th Chief Justice of California, Tani Cantil-Sakauye;[43] CEO of Liberty in North Korea, Hannah Song;[44] prominent Norwegian politician Åslaug Haga;[45] United States Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius;[46] United States senator from Maine, Angus King; comedian Sammy Obeid; Director of Columbia University's Data Science Institute, Jeannette Wing;[47] and Turkish journalist Mustafa Akyol.