In less than a week, Be Nimble Co (founded by myself and Kelli Jones), will kick off the anxiously anticipated #DisruptIndy: Midwest Diversity in Tech Conference in Indianapolis between August 2-4! We are pleased to announce that in order to accommodate the growing crowd, we updated our venue to the NCAA Hall of Champions Conference Center.
Diversity is good business, but it is not always the easiest. Companies are facing this age old challenge in a rapidly changing environment while they are expected to maintain a high performance level to appease their stakeholders and achieve optimal profitability.
In the past, emphasis has been placed heavily on the challenges of diversity and inclusion; however, solutions will be the focal point of #DisruptIndy.
In order for us to optimize our region’s tech community, we are bringing thought leaders together that are redefining the pathways to inclusion in tech here locally and across the nation!
Below is a preview of some of the experts who will be providing impactful insights:
Angela Smith Jones, Indianapolis’ Deputy Mayor of Economic Development oversees Develop Indy, the city’s economic development organization, and Employ Indy, the city’s workforce improvement board. Angela has taken a keen interest in helping advance the Indianapolis economy and prepare our workforce for the growth within the tech industry and we are happy that she will deliver the open remarks!
Felecia Hatcher is an author and social entrepreneur who was honored by the White House in 2014 as a Champion of Change for STEM Access & Diversity. With her creations Black Tech Week-Miami and Code Fever, Felecia has positioned herself as a national model for building inclusive local tech communities!
James Loduca, Salesforce’s Director of Equality Programs will be joining us from Salesforce’s San Fransisco headquarters. There he is also the chairman of Outforce, the LGBTQ employee and business resource group. James is an equality evangelist with more than 20 years of experience building movements that win hearts and minds, create meaningful
John Qualls, Founder/CEO of ElevenFifty Academy is actively making a play towards inclusion through his non-profit coding school. He has scholarships available for women and is currently working on a pipeline program to add a greater number of minorities to his classes and into the workforce.
R.J. Talyor, Founder/CEO of Quantifi, has embedded diversity into Quantifi’s company core values as he believes that the workplace should be fully representative of the U.S. He takes this into account when hiring for Quantifi and we are happy to have them be the presenting sponsor for the “Tactics of Diversity and Inclusion hiring panel, that will feature the following tech inclusion rockstars: Sasha Bannister, Global Recruiter at GitLab, Ade Olonuh, Executive Chairman at Formstack, Santiago Jaramillo, CEO/Founder of Emplify, and James Loduca, the Director of Equality Programs at Salesforce.
Fabian Elliot is the founder of Black Tech Mecca, a Chicago based organization that uses data to help democratize technology, ecosystem by ecosystem, breaking down barriers within. The data driven research identifies challenges impacting how black tech practitioners engage with their local tech ecosystems, crafting solutions to fill its gaps and spearhead change.
With the expansion and move to the NCAA Hall of Champions Conference Center, we were able to expand our space for more participants. Additional tickets have been made available for purchase at the following link: www.disruptindy.com. There you will also find the schedule of events and further insights into our speakers, partners and sponsors.
We can’t wait to see you there!
This post written by Jeff Williams, Co-Founder/COO Be Nimble, Co.
Be Nimble is a social enterprise with the goal of advancing diversity initiatives to create fully inclusive tech ecosystems. We focus our efforts on the “pipeline” covering K-12, workforce development, and start-up and entrepreneurship support. By 2018 we’ll be funding, accelerating and incubating general market app and web companies invented by women, minorities, and LGBTQ entrepreneurs.
