Black Tech Week & the Power of Grassroots Inclusion

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the Underrepresented in Tech podcast, where we talk about issues in underrepresentation and have difficult conversations.

Underrepresented in Tech is a free database with a goal of helping people find new opportunities in WordPress and tech.

Hello Samah.

[00:00:19] Speaker B: Hello, Michelle.

[00:00:21] Speaker A: The highlight of my week is singing to you. I hope you know that.

[00:00:24] Speaker B: Same here. Same here. I cannot wait. Usually it’s on Monday. Sometimes move recordings to Tuesday, sometimes we move it to Thursday.

Today is Tuesday.

So this is the highlight of my week.

[00:00:36] Speaker A: Me too.

You found a really great article to talk about today, so why don’t you tell us about that?

[00:00:42] Speaker B: Okay, the article is. Black Tech Week draws Keke Ballmer as attendance and sponsors surge, of course. Apologies if I put your name from now because you know me.

[00:00:57] Speaker A: So.

[00:00:57] Speaker B: So this amazing article is talking about this year. Black Tech Week in Sin City.

Am I pronouncing it right?

[00:01:08] Speaker A: Cincinnati.

[00:01:10] Speaker B: Cincinnati, okay, Cincinnati. It’s between the 14th of July and the 16th of July. Of course, this amazing event is seeing a huge growth, more than 6,200 attendees compared to just a few hundred a decade ago. So celebrities like Keke Palmer are handling the event, which combines a festive block party vibe with serious business workshops, deal-making making and networking for black and brown tech people. Even as big firms like Amazon and Google pull back on diversity initiatives, local organizers are stepping up with funding and energy to support the underrepresented founder.

I find this, this event is really amazing. I don’t know about it and for me honestly I was like was searching about news and then I was finding it. And also the CEO for this event, Candice Matthew Birkin, she’s the CEO of Lightship foundation, highlights how Black Tech Week is personal and political.

She want to position Cincinnati and the border Midwest as the hotspot for innovation and culture with support from companies like intel and Amazon. The community Focus Summit to showcase how grassroots efforts can prosper even when a corporate DEI program decline. Because of course there’s a lot of notable cutbacks in the DEI in the diversity, equity and inclusion.

A lot of companies, as you know, like Meta, Amazon, Google, Disney, Walmart, McDonald’s, Ford, JPMorgan, have scaled back entirely on their DEI teams, goals and hiring targets, and training programs. And of course, that’s all of it, based on the new politics that are happening recently in the United States should also affect. But this event is really awesome, and of course, we’re going to share the article in our podcast description about it.

Your thoughts?

[00:03:36] Speaker A: Yeah, so I was just trying to see this. You can’t buy tickets Right now. So I don’t know how much the tickets cost. I was curious about that because knowing how much the tickets cost would be interesting to compare to other events. So I’m not sure why the buy tickets button. I think because it’s already for next year, honestly, and they’re not selling more tickets for this year. But it’s, it’s really interesting, especially because one of the top statistics that it says is that only 0.4%, not 4%, 0.4% of US venture funding went to black founded startups last year in 2024, the lowest share in years.

It’s interesting. So we don’t get political here, of course.

However, you cannot talk about something like Black Tech Week and DEI in the United States without at least acknowledging the fact that our current administration here in the US has rolled back DEI efforts, has removed things from our government.

For example, every government form, now you have to choose a binary, male or female. You cannot choose non binary.

They are seeking to erase not only DEI efforts but identities that people identify with. And so to say that Black Tech Week is thriving in spite of the fact that so many companies have seized the government’s okay to roll back DEI efforts.

And so in effect, the US government has made the current US administration has made racism okay. Acceptable in today’s climate, which of course is never right. And so when you see that an event like this is thriving, that companies that embrace DEI have given money to support, to sponsor, they also have a donation link on their website, I was noticing. So I assume that some level of people are donating as well, that when you see that an event like this is thriving in spite of what our government is doing here in the US right now, I think it speaks volumes. I think it tells us that there is room that people to be more inclusive, that people want to help, and that there really is division here, right? So there are those companies like Target who has rolled back all of their DEI efforts.

It’s become very difficult to know where you can shop anymore, to be able to support companies that aren’t profiting off of, you know, issues, I’ll say like that.

And so companies like Target that are no longer supporting dei, that’s a big company, that’s a huge company, right? But then to know that other companies are saying, Hey, we’re going to help fill that gap, and I think that’s pretty awesome.

I, you know, I’m not a black person, I’m not a brown person. Would I love to be a fly on the wall to absorb everything that’s happening at this event. Of course I would. It’s not for me and I acknowledge that. It’s not for me. And so I hope that the people who are the 6,200 people that are attending this week are really getting a lot out of it and that it’s everything that they hope it would be.

Because I think it’s very important that we do events like this. We’ve been seeing a decline in numbers for WordCamps and WordPress. I won’t say WordPress events. I will say WordCamps because we have fewer of them.

We have had fewer people attending them. Our numbers have been down. WordCamp US still has less than as of yesterday, less than 500 people tickets bought.

I did buy mine yesterday, so it went up by two.

I know there are other people that wait. So I’m not saying that it will be under 500 attendees. I’m sure it’ll be much higher than that.

But given the climate here in the United States, I know that there’s a lot of international folks that won’t be traveling here because there’s. They are worried about coming into our borders and either being denied entry or having issues while they’re here. And I understand that because we see it in the news. And so I look at events like ours and think there’s gotta be a way for us to pivot into a more inclusive society.

And I think we are good at being inclusive, but we can always improve.

[00:08:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree with you 100%.

And to add a couple of things, what you were talking about, I found that this event is really amazing because yes, big firms like Amazon or Google pull back on the diversity initiatives, but the local organizers, some small, local companies, are stepping up and funding and giving energy to support this initiative. It’s really awesome. And me, I’m the queen of search. So I quickly searched for the prices of the tickets for this event. The general admission was almost $150. And I love that they created something for students, which is almost $30, which is also welcoming the new generation. Make it more inclusive. Yes, and I agree with you. Like I think this initiative, the 6200 people. I am really the numbers are getting bigger and bigger, which is really awesome because when the government is not supporting the dei, you need to. To find another alternative. And also, we’re not going to talk about what this can cause. More racism and hiring more, not supporting people outside if you’re.

If you’re black or brown or what, if you also have your pronouns, it’s not like if you want to be called they and them and all of all of this all the people from underrepresented intake, this can really affect them and me. I believe this will even highlight a little bit more initiatives. Yes, I, I totally agree with you. In our WordPress lovely community, we notice that people are attending WordCamps, and you also notice it less and less. More diversity we are becoming, and I hope that that’s something, and also I agree with you. I am one of the people who have a visa to enter the United States. I have 10 10-year multiple-entry visa. I got it in 2023 when I attended the first community summit in World Campus. But I am scared now to go because I am planning for Yoast and Bluehost for their presence at WordCamps. But I’m a little bit scared that if I don’t enter, then I need a backup from the States from our lovely colleagues at Bluehost to take off my task. Just needed and it, it really worries me, and I thought I’m the only one.

But I talk with a lot of my colleagues at yours, and they’re also a little bit worried, like, okay, did I do anything? Did I share something on social media?

And it’s funny because you know, like, oh, they can let me in and yeah. And people now, even with ESTA, are applying for it, but still receive a visa to the United States. That doesn’t mean that we let you in. The officer at the airport who will decide if he can go in, right? Or we send you back home.

[00:11:02] Speaker A: And I wish that I could be like Oh, don’t worry about it. That’s that everybody’s fears are just so mislaid. But I, I’m worried about it too. You know, I’m worried, I’m worried that we have this podcast, that I leave the United States and they won’t, they don’t want me back. But I’ve never had a problem. I will say that. So Keke Palmer is headlining this event, the Black Tech Week. And she’s. If you don’t know who she is, I mean, I knew her name, but I really wasn’t sure exactly all about her. I’ll be honest, I’m not really much on keeping up with current events in Hollywood, let’s say.

But Keke Palmer is an American actress, singer, author, activist, humanitarian, and talk show host, which I think is very cool. So now, of course, I have to go and look at more of her things because yeah, yay Keke. That’s pretty cool.

And I think it Also talks about the fact that it’s Black Tech Week. She doesn’t have tech in her name, in her description at all. But that’s not always important in your headliner. It doesn’t always have to be about your product, about your industry. It can be about humanity in general.

As a black actress, as a black humanitarian and activist, I’m sure she will have or did have. I’m not sure when she went on stage. A lot to say. I hope that what she had to say is on YouTube somewhere because now I want to go watch and listen to what she had to say.

We will look for it. If it exists online already, we will include it in the show notes. If it’s not in the show notes, you know, we didn’t find it.

But I’m excited about those kinds of things. I love panel discussions. I love when somebody who has a big name can help draw a crowd into what you’re talking about. I’m all in on WordPress. I love WordPress. I love our community. I love the software.

I keep creating projects that are free for people to use because I love this community so much.

I would love to see us do things like that, get people who, we go, why is that person talking? And then we sit in their session, and we go, This is amazing. Right? Those kinds of things. And so I’m, I’m excited about the future for the black tech community.

I hope we talked. Was it you and me or Alli and me? I can’t remember the last few years about that, that, that venture capitalism and support for black businesses, black tech has gone down in years, and how that’s disheartening and discouraging for sure to see an event like this make a comeback. And the tickets, 150, I thought you were going to say $600 or $700, like they are in a lot of other events. So the sponsorship that we are seeing from the companies that are stepping in, and I noticed that it said a lot of the Ohio Fortune 500 companies are coming through for this event.

That sponsorship has helped keep those numbers down as well. Like we do in WordPress. Right? So like we, we have a four day event coming up at the end of August. It’s $100 for a ticket. That. And that includes your lunches, your afterparty, you know, your swag, your attendance at the event, all of those things. Coffee, thank goodness.

All of those, all of those things at $25 a day, which is dirt cheap, really.

And we still have, we still have opportunities if people can’t afford it, that companies will help sponsor, and that there may be scholarships for the event itself.

So all of that to say I am super impressed with the success of this event as far as ticket sales and the success of this event at sponsorship. I think it really shows that in spite of the government here, we have grassroots events, we have grassroots communities, we have grassroots sponsorships. We have people that really still want to see diversity and inclusion grow. And to me, that makes. That makes my heart happy.

[00:15:16] Speaker B: Yeah, the same. And also for me, the idea that they decided to have it the event in a city outside the tech hub, like Cincinnati. Pronounce it right. That also like was.

That was also a really small, smart approach. Because of course, those big cities or in the tech hub cities, they are just moving and making it in the Midwest. And also the local sp. The local or not-so-big companies. And I love how to see the community supporting each other because that is really important. Because at the end I think it’s. We should start supporting each other. Sadly, all of the big companies are not really focusing on the dei. And I remember last week when we talked about the AI and the bias that it caused. This is. We’re gonna see it more and more. I was hoping that with a lot of organizations fighting the bias, but now we’re not. With the hiring with a little bit of discrimination and not really supporting the diversity or having more diverse team goals or even training programs, that’s gonna happen. We’re gonna see it more and more. Get the platforms or the companies, or whatever they are. We will see it more and more in bias while we’re using their. Their tools. You know what? We should make a list of the companies like this one to buy enough to buy, and this one supporting Di for sure.

[00:16:48] Speaker A: I’m looking to see when she’s speaking.

It wasn’t yesterday.

I’m not sure when she’s speaking. I’m not finding it on the list. But it’s exciting though, for her to be there. It’s exciting to have all these great people. And I will say there are white people attending, there are white people who are speaking. It is an inclusive event, but leaning very heavily on black and brown people in the United States and outside of the States.

Oh, there she is. Keke Palmer. So she is on July 16th, which is tomorrow.

She is speaking tomorrow.

It’s a conversation with Keke and Candace, who is the CEO of Lightship and the founder and owner of this current event. They’re going to have an intimate conversation on building a career rooted in authenticity, impact and fearless reinvention. Moderated by the CEO Candace Matthews Burkin. The session explores how purpose fuels power and how possibility expands when you boldly bet on yourself. I think that’s so cool.

So, yeah. So I mean it’s. It’s not trying to ask somebody who’s not a tech person to suddenly fit in the tech space. It’s talking about, you know, really leaning into their strengths and how things outside of tech apply within tech as well, which I think is something that sometimes we lose sight of. So.

[00:18:07] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:18:08] Speaker A: Yeah, very cool. Well, you always bring us the best articles, so thank you for always doing our research for us.

[00:18:17] Speaker B: You know what? I love their ad when they. In their website, when you go, they say take his fashion, take his media, take his medicine. It takes our agriculture. Because sometimes when people say tech, you immediately think about websites and coding. But no, they look at it from this very broad point of view. And then I’m. I mean, I don’t know. I’m gonna put it on my event list for next year. I. Maybe we can go participate in and check out the event and see how. How it goes. Because I really like 6200. It’s really huge, a big event. To be. To be honest, when we go to Word Camp when there are 2000 people like just like you think it’s. Imagine it’s 6200, is like the new level they do it.

[00:19:02] Speaker A: Maybe we can apply to Speak as a podcast that talks about underrepresentation and technology. We should think about that and then.

[00:19:11] Speaker B: Better if we go around just inviting people to our podcast. You know.

[00:19:17] Speaker A: Both. We could do both.

[00:19:21] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. It is a really amazing event, and I think like I’m checking the sponsor, the companies.

I.

I don’t know a lot of them. Like, I don’t know if those companies are big. But that was also what they mentioned in the article, that this event, a lot of local companies are not huge. When you compare it to Amazon, JPMorgan, or of course Google, they have jumped in to sponsor this event and even to make it bigger and to make it more inclusive for every. For a lot of people, and of course, yeah. And I’m really excited about this event to see what the result is. I don’t know if I wish they could have the talk.

We can see them online.

The. And then I think that that will be awesome if we could be able to be involved in it. Even we’re a little bit late, but that. I think that will be something awesome. And also they are.

Yeah.

[00:20:25] Speaker A: Just looking, just looking at their list of sponsors. The Top sponsor is Jobs Ohio, which I think is wonderful because we’re always talking about people becoming employed or you know, the career that they want to have.

P and G.

Looking at ones that I’ve heard of before, AWS is one of their sponsors, Kroger, which is a grocery store here in the US So General Electric is one of the sponsors and so Scripps, the Scripps company is another one. So yeah, so they’ve got some good sponsorship. They’ve got really good prices.

Something I’d like us to talk about next week is because I’m starting to pull together. People are asking me how underrepresented folks can get sponsorship to attend events for Word Camps. And so you have an initiative. I’ve had an initiative. There are other initiatives out there.

So if you are interested in this topic and you want to know more, next week I’m proposing that we talk about sponsoring underrepresented folks to speak and organize events. I wish we could sponsor any attendee but we do have to focus our money on people who are providing services at events just because there isn’t enough money to go around. But let’s talk next week.

I know of at least three, maybe four places that do some kinds of sponsorships for organizers and speakers and maybe we could talk about how people, individuals and companies can also help sponsor folks to attend events.

[00:21:59] Speaker B: So, and also I wish one day that we start having WordCamps students when they attend WordCamp, they can have a huge discount or their tickets for free. Let’s for sure let’s talk about the small idea. Maybe someone can hear us and do it from the organizer’s offer free tickets also, even from underrepresented tech if people want to attend or something, they can get a special discount because of all know people from underrepresented groups who get paid less. They have jobs very difficult for them and especially now in a lot of companies that support DEI.

So that’s something initiative. I wish that Word Camps and other events have scholarship or free for students and for people from under presented they can apply and get achieved cheaper ticket then so they can attend an event.

[00:22:55] Speaker A: Yep. And we do have the Kim I forgot her last name parcels, Kim Parcel’s scholarship. Right now, I think it’s still July 25 that you can apply. If you are a woman or woman-identifying person who has never attended WordCamp US before, you can apply for that scholarship.

Let’s put that in the show notes as well. I say it to you, I’m actually doing it this week. I’m saying it out loud so I remember. But we’ll put that in the show notes also, in case you are somebody who would like to attend and who fits the criteria. You can also apply for that scholarship for this upcoming WordCamp US, which is happening at the end of August. So thank you so much, Samah, for your wonderful research. As always, next week we will talk about attending events and ways to make it a little bit more possible for speakers and organizers to attend their own events.

[00:23:50] Speaker B: So that’s wait. I’m super excited about it. So. Yeah, me too. Me too.

[00:23:55] Speaker A: Fantastic.

[00:23:56] Speaker B: And by the way, there are only 41 days remain,ing so I can see you in World Camp us.

[00:24:04] Speaker A: I know. I love that we get to see each other three times this year. Yes, four times this year because I’m coming to Amsterdam in September.

[00:24:14] Speaker B: So that’s great. I cannot wait to see you in Amsterdam.

[00:24:18] Speaker A: But yeah, I know, Me too. Well, definitely you can show me some of your local places and feed me some of the local food.

Thanks, everybody, for hanging in there with us. If you have topics, we always want to hear about them. So reach out to us if you have ideas. Whether you like what we say or not, we want to hear from you. So reach out to us at any social media or hit us up through the contact form on our website. Underrepresented in tech.com, thank you.

[00:24:45] Speaker B: Thank you. Bye-bye.

[00:24:48] Speaker A: If you’re interested in using our database, joining us as a guest for an episode or just want to say Hi, go to underrepresentedintech.com See you next week.