I will be attending the “Blacks In Tech” Meetup at SXSW this year!

RSVP for this event because people will have a chance to connect, discuss and learn how diversity in technology is changing the landscape in terms of perceptions, marketing and career opportunities.

photo credit: anthony mattox

Meetup Info

Conference: SXSW 2010 Music, Film and Interactive
Event: Blacks In Technology Meetup
Date: Friday, March 12th, 2010
Time: 6pm – 9pm CT
Twitter hashtag: #bit
SXSW event page
Register using Eventbrite
The Carver Museum & Cultural Center
1165 Angelina Street
Austin, TX 78702-2034
Google Map

I heard about last year’s event from several SXSW’ers (including @swirlspice @fredricmitchell and @calinative) that said it was great to connect with other people at SXSW who were Brown.  Sometimes when you go to conferences and you’re Brown (or female or something else that doesn’t make you a White Male), you can feel like an outsider.  This is a great way to welcome people to SXSW!

Many thanks to Jeff Bowman of Ogilvy and SXSW for sponsoring this event!

There was a press release put out by Jeff of Ogilvy which made it onto CNN so I’ll pull from it:

Ogilvy & Mather North America will host and moderate a panel and discuss the impact a multicultural and multi-ethnic society has had on technology and the digital space on March 12th at the acclaimed South by Southwest Interactive Conference (SXSW).   The panel will be followed by a networking “Meetup.”

Featured panelists include musician and new media pioneer Ryan Leslie (http://www.ryanleslie.com/), Kety Esquivel (http://www.ketyesquivel.blogspot.com), CEO for Latinos in Social Media; James Andrews (www.BeEverywhere.tv), founder of digital strategic consulting firm Everywhere; and Nichelle Stephens (http://keepingnickels.com/), blogger and social media expert.  This year’s panel follows last year’s successful Blacks in Tech launch at SXSW that attracted over 100 participants and provided a forum to engage the black technology community in the festival itself.  With this event, the group is expanding its reach to include the Asian and Hispanic communities to provide a multicultural exchange.

“Partnering with SXSW and Ogilvy to create the festival’s first diversity driven event builds awareness of the tremendous multicultural talent and thought leadership within the technology space,” explained Jeffrey Bowman of Ogilvy.  ”This panel and the event following it expands on both the festival and the agency’s efforts to foster greater diversity and inclusion within the industry.”  We’ve worked with social media strategist like James Andrews (www.BeEverywhere.tv), Wayne Sutton (http://socialwayne.com), Adria Richards (http://butyoureagirl.com), and Maurice Cherry (http://www.mauricecherry.com) to pull this event together.”

SXSW is seeking to promote diversity and inclusion as a cornerstone of the Festival and has created a series of panels that feature diverse thought leaders within the festival. The Ogilvy panel will be followed by the “Blacks in Technology Meetup” from 6- 9 pm at the Carver Museum, also hosted by Ogilvy. The event is open to all new media professionals and those hoping to break into the industry.

ABOUT BLACKS IN TECH (BIT)

Blacks In Tech originally started as a few blacks within the technology and social media space met at the SXSW Interactive Conference in the Spring of 2005. At the time the world of technology and social media was emerging.  They pondered the idea of having more blacks in technology and hypothesized about barriers to being more social on-line. Some of the early thought leaders that night were Lynne D. Johnson (http://www.lynnedjohnson.com), George Kelly (www.allaboutgeorge.com), Jason Toney (http://misterjt.typepad.com), jbrotherlove (http://www.thebrotherlove.com/journalogue.php), Tiffany B Brown (www.tiffanybbrown.com), E J Flavors (http://ejflavors.com/) and Jeffrey Bowman (Twitter:  @jeffreylbowman).

In 2009 they organized a mini panel at the SXSW Conference and exceeded conference organizers expectations.  They’d proven to organizers that there is a thriving black community within the technology and digital space.  The mission for Blacks In Tech is to accelerate technology innovation, education and wealth creation within underserved markets through the use of technology.  You can follow Blacks In Tech on Twitter @blacksintech.

ABOUT SXSW

South by Southwest (SXSW, Inc.) is a private company based in Austin, Texas, with a year-round staff of professionals dedicated to building and delivering conference and festival events for entertainment and related media industry professionals. Since 1987, SXSW has produced the internationally recognized Music and Media Conference & Festival. In 1994 as the entertainment business adjusted to issues of future growth and development, SXSW added conferences and festivals for the film industry (SXSW Film) as well as for the blossoming interactive media (SXSW Interactive Festival). Now three industry events converge in Austin during a Texas-sized week, mirroring the ever increasing convergence of entertainment/media outlets.