Why AfroTech is So Necessary for the Tech Industry

My experience at AfroTech last year, in which I presented lessons from building Localeur's global community to a crowd of a couple hundred fellow blacks in the tech industry, left me wanting more. This year I decided to go back to San Francisco for AfroTech with the sole intent of being able enjoy the conference as an attendee. Never has there been an event such as this which goes the extra step to ensure blacks in tech feel both included and catered to.

A lot of people may say, “That’s not fair; they shouldn't have a conference for blacks in tech, [I/we/they] could never have an event just for whites in tech.” What this person (and he definitely exists) has probably failed to do is attend PhocusWright or Dreamforce or any of the other major tech industry events in which both the speaker lineups and the attendee rosters are often dominated by white males. And these things matter. Being able to see a speaker lineup and an attendee makeup that consists of people whom look like you has a material impact on how you perceive the industry, the opportunity and your future.

That’s why when someone thinks of AfroTech as simply “the tech conference for black people” I know they’re selling it way short. What Morgan DeBaun and her team at Blavity have created is a much-needed, non-entertainment, non-athletic, non-performance driven forum for black excellence. No offense to these other phenomenal events, but this isn’t NBA All-Star Weekend or The Grammys or Coachella.

This is a place where thought leaders like Danielle Leslie (pictured above), who has built a 7-figure business without a massive tech team at her disposal, and Mandela Dixon (pictured below), who has trained hundreds of underrepresented founders on fundraising to the tune of $20 million in VC funding, are able to connect with and share their perspectives with thousands of black tech industry professionals - many of them in their first few years in the tech industry or early-stage founders. Through this forum, minds are expanded, plans are set, founders are connected, fundraising pitches are perfected, dreams are fulfilled instead of deferred, and the entire tech ecosystem - and, as a result, the entire economy of this country - is enhanced. Just watch.

As I told Morgan the other night, when I walked around at AfroTech this year I kept thinking to myself, "people will look back on this moment in time much the way we look back on the Harlem Renaissance or the Civil Rights Movement."

This is the beginning of something that will forever change the mold of what it means to be black in tech, and forever improve the entire world by creating a more inclusive industry and a drive a new wave of innovation that has historically been limited to the ideas and resources of white males. Even the most accomplished non-black founders, CEOs and VCs should acknowledge this as a good thing for all of us even if the idea of a place catered to black people makes some people really uncomfortable.