10 Diversity & Inclusion Events You Won’t Want To Miss At SXSW
South by Southwest has been intentional about ensuring their programming features speakers from diverse backgrounds. It’s a big priority in Austin and at Capital Factory, too. Here are some of our favorite D&I events you should check out during SXSW!
1) HBCU@SXSW
Time: Thursday, March 7 — Monday, March 11
Location: Capital Factory, 701 Brazos St
Register: RSVP at opportunityhub.co/sxsw
From March 7–11, 250 students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) will experience all that SXSW has to offer. This year, HBCU@SXSW will be housed at Capital Factory, where participants in the program will interview for roles in the tech industry throughout their visit. Additionally, students will participate in a technology and entrepreneurship ecosystem onboarding boot camp, panels on coding, entrepreneurship and STEAM at SXSW, and direct engagement with university recruiters throughout the entire weekend.
2) Featured Session: Arlan Hamilton
Time: Monday, March 11, 5:00–6:00pm
Location: Hilton Austin Downtown, 500 E 4th St, Salon H
Register: SXSW Badge Required
Arlan Hamilton is a remarkable entrepreneur who built a venture capital fund from the ground up, while homeless. She is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a venture capital firm dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. Started in 2015, Backstage has now invested nearly $5M into 100 startups led by underestimated founders and has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, Inc., Entrepreneur, and Quartz.
3) Behind the Click: Securing the Future for Black Women and Girls in Tech
Time: Friday, March 8, 3:30–4:30pm
Location: Hilton Austin Downtown, 500 E 4th St, Salon H
Register: SXSW Badge Required
Black Girls CODE is excited to bring together a stellar panel of women of color in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) for a lively discussion on technology and social activism Founded by Kimberly Bryant, Black Girls CODE is a non-profit organization dedicated to introducing girls of color (ages 7–17) to the field of technology and computer programming with a concentration on entrepreneurial concepts. Since 2011, Kimberly has helped Black Girl CODE grow from a local organization serving only the Bay Area, to an international non-profit organization with chapters in 7 US cities and Johannesburg, South Africa serving over 2000 African/African-American, Latina, and Native American girls.
4) Women in the World of Venture Capital
Time: Wednesday, March 13, 3:30–4:30pm
Location: Capital Factory, 701 Brazos Street
Register: SXSW Badge Required
Only 10% of VC partners are women and 71% of VC firms have no female investors on their teams. Promoting women and diversity in tech is core to tackling the world’s biggest issues and building the strongest businesses. This panel is dedicated to discussing how VCs are pushing boundaries to implement change within their organizations and how that can impact the broader tech ecosystem.
5) Austinpreneur: Fearless Women in Action
Time: Saturday, March 9, 9:30–10:30am
Location: Hilton Austin Downtown, 500 E 4th St, Salon C
Register: SXSW Badge Required
Join us for a live recording of the Capital Factory Austinpreneur podcast with our host Mellie Price and special guests Stephanie McMahon, Chief Brand Officer for the WWE, and Jean Case, best selling author and first female Chairman of the National Geographic Society. We’ll talk to these fearless women about building powerful brands and how they’re harnessing the power of those brands for the greater good.
6) Tech Diversity Report Card 2019
Time: Monday, March 11, 5:00–6:00pm
Location: Capital Factory, 701 Brazos Street, 1st Floor
Register: SXSW Badge Required
Diversity, equity, inclusion; is it all talk and no walk in the Tech Industry? Is a just and unbiased world of work really possible at this rate? This panel will discuss the diversity dimensions: gender, culture, age, abilities, sexual orientation just to name a few. Let’s take an interactive look at why companies aren’t winning diverse talent and what they can do to back up their words with resources.
7) Breaking Barriers: Lessons on Diversity in Tech
Time: Friday, March 8, 3:30–4:30pm
Location: Antone’s Capital One House, 305 E 5th St.
Register: SXSW Badge Required
There’s a continued spotlight on the issues facing diverse technologists, but people are working to to elevate intersectionality in tech. Join organizational leaders and change agents for a conversation about empowering diversity champions across the tech industry, and increasing representation of Black and Latino technologists. What’s working, and what’s not?
8) Black Girl Ventures Pitch Competition at SXSW 2019
Time: Monday, March 11, 6:00–8:00pm
Location: Capital Factory, 701 Brazos Street
Register: RSVP here
Black Girl Ventures works to create access to capital for Black and Brown women founders. The BGV Pitch Competition flips the traditional pitch competition on its head: allowing the audience to donate, eliminate the panel of judges, and empower the community (audience) to ask questions and vote for the winner. The first place winner will receive over $5,000 in cash and prizes including: a meeting with an investor, aconsultation with an accountant, coaching with BGV Founder Shelly Bell, a podcast interview and coaching from professional consultants from BICTech (Blacks in Consulting and Technology) a consortium of consultants from firms such as Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Booz Allen Hamilton and PWC.
9) How the Gender Tech Movement is Empowering Women
Time: Saturday, March 9, 11:00am–12:00pm
Location: The Line Hotel, 111 E Cesar Chavez, Onyx Ballroom 1
Register: SXSW Badge Required
Access to technology is creating a movement around female empowerment with gender tech. Hear how one of the world’s largest healthcare companies harnessed the power of mobile to provide important maternal health information, and how two entrepreneurs, accelerated by a global women’s empowerment organization, are using the power of collaboration for their ventures to bring about social change by disrupting gang culture through fashion tech, and using a crowdsourcing platform to curb sexual assault in developing countries and around the world. Moderated by the UN Foundation, these women will show how new tech platforms are tackling gender issues head-on and promoting the health, safety, and education for women at every age.
10) HBCUs: A Key to Tech Diversity
Time: Saturday, March 9, 11:00am–12:00pm
Location: JW Marriot, 110 E 2nd St, Salon C
Register: SXSW Badge Required
HBCUs produce more than one-third of Black engineers. They play a significant role in unlocking tech diversity. Join this dynamic panel as they discuss the Bipartisan HBCU Caucus’s Partnership Challenge — a landmark initiative that brings together industry, government and HBCUs to help craft universal best practices for recruiting and retaining diverse talent in tech.
