Are we having the
honest and ‘elephant in the room’ conversations when it comes to Diversity
& Inclusion (D&I) in the technology industry? D&I is a buzz word these days, but who is
‘really’ doing something about making impact in this space and moving the dial
in our own backyards before trying to tackle the ‘global game’. On June 24th, BUILDUP, a global
impact firm designed to connect, mentor and educate technology entrepreneurs
across the world, is spearheading that conversation and they started with bringing
technology and D&I professionals under one roof at Impact HUB Oakland. The panelists were: Barbara Williams,
Director of Diversity & Inclusion at Oracle, Leah McGowen-Hare, Master
Technical Instructor at Salesforce, Sarah P. Stuart, Manager – Global Diversity
& Talent Inclusion at Google, Kiva Wilson, Diversity Program Manager at
Facebook, Cedric Brown, Managing Partner at Kapor Foundation for Social Impact,
Amy Schapiro, Director at CODE2040, Samantha O’Keefe of TechCrunch and the
panel moderator was Kritina Omari, General Partner at BUILDUP.
Close to 100 people
packed the room in anticipation of hearing from these technology and diversity leader
professionals and the information they shared was insightful, hopeful and more
importantly relatable.
Kiva Wilson mentioned
that the reason Facebook has not made their Diversity numbers public to date
had everything to do with the company focusing internally on the dialogue and
efforts that are being made to ensure
they are being impactful and effective when it comes to Diversity and further
identifying their culture in that space.
Barbara Williams made
it clear that she was on the panel representing her own views and not those of
Oracle. With that said, her remarks started with that “unspoken” yet ‘wandering”
question about being hired to ‘fill a quota” as opposed to because of your
talents. Barbara’s light hearted comment
about a company getting a “2fer” when hiring a woman who is African American
caused for laughter among the audience but at the same time it appeared to be
very relative as though everyone In the room knew of it either happening to
them or to someone they knew.
Cedric Brown gave a
very pointed and effective solution to what needs to happen to move the dial on
creating an inclusive technology ecosystem and he framed it as the 4P’s: Perception: as Oakland’s journey of
thriving in the ‘tech’ space and becoming an attractive city to technology
companies, investors and corporations, making sure Oakland kept the essence and
origin of what the city is known as - ‘Soul by the Bay’; Partnership: collaborations are critical as no one corporation,
individual or group can make a significant impact without support from the
leaders in the technology industry; Pipeline:
there has to be an intentional effort to not only just build a pipeline of
talent but ensure there is diversity within that pool of individuals who are
tapped for success; and Policy:
there has to be policy around affordable housing in Oakland to even begin to
get the attention of a diverse pool of technology talent who want to live, work
and start families in the city.
So what’s next? Where do we go from here? Who is going to spearhead the ‘next
conversation’? Inquiring minds what to
know. And go!
