For the past year I’ve been writing about the issues in the Tech industry, usually with much criticism attached to it. For a person born and raised in Detroit, and who spent time in Atlanta, GA for college, it seemed insane to me that initiatives like Tech Inclusion were visiting cities like San Francisco, Austin, and Boston in an effort to increase diversity. It would be like an employer going to an all male school in search of female applicants.
But, times they are a-changing!
Tech Inclusion has announced its 2017 Forum Cities and they include….cities with a large quantity of minorities!!
- Atlanta, GA
- Austin, TX
- Detroit, MI
- Kansas City, MO
- Miami, FL
- Minneapolis, MN
- Nashville, TN
- Raleigh-Durham, NC
- Sao Paulo, Brazil
- Seattle, WA
For those unaware, Tech Inclusion and 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”
While there Tech Inclusion conferences are still located in “popular” cities like New York, San Francisco, London, and Sydney, the fact that they’re reaching out to other cities is admirable.
If you’re interested in learning more about Tech Inclusion and how you can get involved, head over the their Website below:
Hopefully this is the first step to my ultimate desire, which is to have organizations like Tech Inclusion and Change Catalyst located in cities where minorities actually live like Atlanta, or Chicago, or, Detroit, or Oakland.
PS: I recently reached out to Tech Inclusion to gather more information on their support of the New York and San Francisco areas for minority and women tech entrepreneurs and I’ll let you know what I find. I am not too deep into the scene so maybe they can provide information that I am currently lacking to explain why Oakland, Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas aren’t receiving the same support as other cities.
