Speaking Line-Up: Dartmouth, MIT, Duke, Asian American Writers Workshop, SXSW, Ohio State, NABJ

This panel seeks to change the conversation from “What can technology conferences do about diversity?” to “What can attendees do about diversity at technology conferences?” The panel is composed of speakers who have each presented at multiple technology conferences on topics that did not focus on race or diversity but instead spoke on topics of sci-fi, electronic ownership of email and digital wills, the influence of mobile development via comic books, social media for youth and business automation lessons from Amazon. While the diversity of some major tech conferences has steadily improved over the years, geek culture – which remains overwhelmingly white and male – is still the norm. This can be daunting for people who, despite being experts in technology and new media, don’t see themselves reflected in the marketing materials or content. For example, there are almost no people of color on sxsw.com home page. The panelists will share how individuals can contribute to making technology conferences more inclusive. How about: This panel will look at some of the cultural and economic factors that shape inclusion and exclusion and generate an action list for attendees.

Questions Answered:

How can attendees get over the feeling of exclusion at technology conferences?

How do I deal with feeling “invisible” in the crowds of white men that dominate technology conferences?

What is the best approach to get panel submissions accepted that don’t focus on race and diversity issues?

What problems are underrepresented technology practitioners trying to solve when they create their own events?

How can underrepresented groups support each other to encourage attendance, speaker submissions and participation in technology conferences?

Location: SXSW Interactive, Austin, Texas

5 PM

Thursday, March 15th

Graduate Women at MIT’s Spring Empowerment Conference

Keynote: “Who Runs The World? (Not Girls, Not Yet…)”

For this talk, I’m going to look at the conversations we have around tech and ability, the structural barriers that casually discourage women from heading to the tops of their fields, Sheryl Sandberg’s TED Talk, some lessons from the gaming world, and ideas on what women can do to become casual activists in their own lives and careers.

Location: Somewhere on the MIT Campus

6:30 PM

Saturday, April 7th

Black Thought 2.0 Conference: New Media and the Future of Black Studies

Panel: “The Twitterati and Twitter-gentsia: Social Media and Public Intellectuals”

I am so excited to be on this panel, especially because it’s a lot of folks with amazing insights:

Marc Lamont Hill (Columbia University/Our World with Black Enterprise)

Jay Smooth (Editor of Ill Doctrine)

Blair Kelley (North Carolina State University)

Latoya Peterson (Editor of Racialicious)

Imani Perry (Princeton University)

Mark Anthony Neal (Moderator)

Location: Duke University

3:00-4:30

And later in the year…

June 20 – 24th

National Association of Black Journalists Conference

“What White Folks Know About Media That We Don’t”

Presented with Matt Thompson

New Orleans

Thursday, October 4

Pop Impact! Symposium

Ohio State University

Wexner Center for the Arts

Hope to see some of you there!

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