16 Reasons to Be Excited About Tech Inclusion
By Kriz Bell
Kriz Bell lends her storytelling skills to the orgs who need them most. A traveler, blogger and single mom, she believes that #RepresentationMatters. She is always thrilled about using her power for good, prioritizing underrepresented stories and voices. Find her online as @krizbell
- Accessibility – Ensuring multiple access points is part of the Tech Inclusion DNA. We work to provide as much access as possible, including but not limited to space for breastfeeding mothers, all-gender restrooms, live CART captioning, ASL interpreters, video shared with CC, as well as volunteers assigned to anyone with sight / vision impairments. We always welcome suggestions.
- The Innovation Hangar – Originally built for the 1915 World’s Fair, we will be transforming the 80,000+ square feet into 3 stages, a career fair, a cafe, a recharging lounge, an Innovation Hall, a Mother’s Room and workshops.
- The Innovation Hall – The Innovation Hall is an intimate space for companies to showcase inclusive technology solutions. Companies offering a solution showcasing diversity and inclusion initiatives/programs/product/service solutions will be featured at demo tables.
- The Career Fair – 55 companies will be present in our unique career fair with the goal of connecting talent with tech companies who care about diversity. Companies will meet diverse, talented engineers, data scientists, marketers, project managers and more. Candidates meet leading tech companies, investment firms, schools and support organizations that believe in inclusion.
- The Coaching – We can all use a hand-up and another set of eyes. Whether you’re new to the job market or transitioning into tech or across teams, the coaching and resume tips you’ll get in the career coaching and resume / interviewing workshops are valuable.
- The Sponsors More than forty companies value diversity and inclusion solutions enough to budget for our gathering! We will have bags, t-shirts, the MotherCoders Mother’s Room room for breastfeeding moms, snacks, a cafe, a recharging lounge, 3 stages, workshop space and labs. Special thanks to Google For Entrepreneurs and Galvanize for supporting Change Catalyst and TechInclusion16 as Partners and to Salesforce for their Event Sponsorship, and Accenture for sponsoring the Startup Showcase & Pitch Competition. For a full list of Partners, Sponsors and Friends of #TechInclusion16, click here.
- The Speakers and Sponsors Dinner – Our conference is built around the quest for solutions. We are grateful to Pinterest for affording us the opportunity to kickoff the event by bringing our speakers and sponsors together for an evening of breaking bread and networking IRL.
- The 5 Tracks: Ecosystem, Education, Workplace, Entrepreneurship and Policy. Fireside Chats, Panels, and Workshops with topics like: Accessibility, Accelerators and Funding.
- The 17 Panels tackling issues like Leadership, Policy, Media, Latinas, Engineering, Hiring, Different Abilities, Entrepreneurship, Funding, Identity and more.
- The 4 Keynote Chats with Tech Luminaries like Mary Grove, Evan Sharp, Dustin Moskovitz, David Drummond and Abby Maldonado.
- The 9 Workshops like Becoming a VC, Measuring D & I, Design Thinking, Conscious Resiliency, Inclusive Products and Teams, Resumes , Interviewing and Career Coaching.
- The Startup Showcase – 10 early stage entrepreneurs will be pitching to 6 amazing judges / investors on stage and will host demo booths during the evening happy hour. See the finalists!
- The Back-to-Back Happy Hours– We can’t think of a better way to wrap up a day of solution-centered conversations, workshops and pitches than with a networking Happy Hour. Day One (10/26) Happy Hour is sponsored by Credit Karma and Day Two (10/27) Happy Hour will be brought to you by Facebook.
- The Media – 3 podcasts and more than 70 press, bloggers, journalists and TV reporters from media outlets as diverse as Thomson Reuters to CNN, TechCrunch, USA Today, Univision, WashingTECH, KPIX-TV, Wall Street Journal, SF Chronicle, Inc., DiversityComm and Black Enterprise for Silicon Valley. These amazing voices cover the local and national beats, and reach across the pond to Egypt, Poland, Patagonia and beyond.
- The Code of Conduct – while we all believe we have our heads and hearts in the right place, it’s important the values be made visible http://techinclusion.co/code-of-conduct/
- YOU! Over 2,500 of you! If you haven’t registered already register here.
Tech Inclusion:
Join us for this inclusive tech event, where you’ll experience inclusive and accessible design, participate in the inclusivity conversation, learn new solutions to diversity and inclusion, meet entrepreneurs and investors, speak with policymakers and educators, and network with inclusive recruiters and other people who care about creating change in the tech ecosystem.
Tech Inclusion 2016 is for the entire tech community: engineers and designers, entrepreneurs and policymakers, university faculty, students, recruiters and corporate executives… of every race, gender, age, ability and geography.
About Change Catalyst:
Change Catalyst empowers diverse, inclusive and sustainable tech innovation — through education, community engagement and mentorship. Change Catalyst is a Certified B Corp, winning the “Best for the World” award for community impact in 2014 and “Best in the World” overall in 2015
The Change Catalyst Team
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Follow all 100 Solutions to Diversity and Inclusion in tech in our Tech Inclusion Medium Publication here.
