It’s hard for me to follow up my good friend and colleague A.E. Osworth’s recaps and go solo this year, but here I am, and here you are, and we’re going to do this together, y’all!
This is my personal third year at “Lesbians Who Tech,” and my second getting to speak! Every time I’ve come, the overarching theme has been how damn great it is to be surrounded by so many badass, queer, inspiring women. Friends, that has not changed. Everyone there was so supportive and sharp as hell. It’s still the only tech conference where you’ll see a group of women dance in the aisles to Cardi B in-between talks. Bless.
It’s always fascinating to see, despite the fact it’s inherently a niche-group conference, the extraordinary breadth it can cover: from reusable rockets to democratizing land ownership and food security, from becoming a CTO or a founder to designing better government services and good ol’ user experience. It turns out, lesbians, queer women, and non-binary folks, though all technologists, are a varied group! The same main stage can feature a woman who is a former solider-turned-director of a company building defense missiles for the government and a desi feminist activist and DJ who not only went to a Harvard, but also went viral for free-bleeding during the London Marathon (more on her later). It’s a conference in which you hear impassioned cries for accountability, anti-bias work, and social justice, attended by some of the biggest corporations in the game. Friends, it’s a strange and beautiful thing. It’s impossible to cover it all, but in the spirit of Osworth’s precedent, some high-level themes and standout haps:
Missed Flights, Surprise Guests, and Big Names
The Nor’easter proved troublesome for a lot of guests and speakers, including Ilene Chaiken, to all of our L-Word loving/hating/living/laughing/etc dismay, and Alicia Garza, founder of Black Lives Matter. However, some surprise guests came through, including Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who spoke movingly on the need to curb gun violence in America, alongside her husband, who humbly described his experience. Samantha Bee came by to film some surprise interviews, as well as hire for a new application her team is building to drive meaningful political involvement. Sheryl Sandburg, of Lean In fame, talked to Kara Swisher of Recode about being women in tech.
Thank you @GabbyGiffords for your courageous words ❤❤❤ pic.twitter.com/rWN3j8ssQy
— LWT (@lesbiantech) March 2, 2018
The hot tech trends right now— Augmented and Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and Automation
And what these things mean for our future. While the cutting-edge is super exciting — speakers from Facebook, Google, and other big tech firms talked about how meaningful, intelligent Augmented Reality can improve our future experiences (much like Pokemon Go and the happy dancing hot dog from Snapchat did). Marley Rafson described a potential future where candidates can engage and activate their constituents with virtual avatars that can answer questions and hold town halls; Cynthia Yeung described a semi-utopic future in which jobs that are dangerous, dirty, or dull can be replaced by robots, so humans can focus on human interaction, innovation, and art. But she also wanted to ensure we didn’t forget the people who will struggle with the transition, urging for new training and education for people whose jobs are becoming obsolete. Jeannie Fu and Camille Edy described the opportunities coming with the increased amount of data we will be producing — and cautioned against letting algorithms and AI systems run untested, lest they encode our same biases. Many of the speakers called for lesbians and queer people to add their data to the mix, so the algorithms learn that we exist and we matter. The progressive edge of technology is bearing forth unheeded, and if we aren’t a part of it, it will continue to leave us behind. Luckily, these women are not letting that happen.
@ctwy on human-unique jobs vs robot-defeated jobs – "There will be people who find it difficult to transition in this new economy, and we need to take care of those people." "LWTsummit pic.twitter.com/PAXbRwfEF6
— LWT (@lesbiantech) March 3, 2018
If you want to get hired, come to this conference
It seems like the fact that diverse and inclusive workplaces make better work is finally sinking in. So many people are hiring, and they all want lesbians, queer women, non-binary folks and people of color! Half of the main stage talks either revolved around recruitment efforts or mentioned, as an end-note, that their companies are hiring. More diverse people are getting into leadership positions, and they’re coming to conferences like Lesbians Who Tech looking to help people like them. The conference also featured — along with the typical job fair market next door —an instance of their Tech Jobs Tour, which is taking access to jobs looking for non-traditional tech candidates across the country.
Don’t worry about meeting your heroes, Tegan and Sara are just as delightful in person
Despite this being their “first keynote” — which they reminded us often — our favorite Canadian-lesbian twins killed it. Amidst their patented banter, they gave an overview of their foundation, the Tegan and Sara Foundation, which is for economic justice, health, and representation for LGBTQ girls and women. Their initiatives are awesome and varied and include projects with the 3rd LWT Tech + Innovation Summit, which work to increase access to gender-affirming medical care and to career mentorship and advancement for queer women. They encouraged us to give even one dollar, even five dollars, the main amounts they’ve worked with on their foundation — “We’re like the queer Bernie Sanders!”
https://twitter.com/BlairImani/status/969738380689883137
Wakanda Forever
A refrain and a now-beloved gesture, put forth by nearly every black speaker, asserting black girl magic. Black women owned this summit, from the MCs, Leslie Henry and Leah Gilliam, to CTOs Megan Rose Dickey and Erica Baker and founder Stephanie Lampkin on leading organizations, to Bozoma Saint John, the new Chief Brand Officer of Uber, who showed up in the most amazing outfit, saying “if people are uncomfortable with [my hair, my style], then they are going to be uncomfortable with anything I’m going to bring.” She went on to encourage us to show up as our full, authentic selves, breaking down personal and professional barriers: “You’re so used to showing up as the fake you, that you don’t know the real you when it comes time — and the fake you can’t be empathetic. They can’t make decisions between right and wrong because their shields are up.” Arlan Hamilton, founder of Backstage Capital (and @modernLWord) held a Q & A where she encouraged other people to found organizations — and get that paper.
Ready for DAY 3??!? Here are your emcees, @LKHenry14 and @leahatplay
😆 "How are those hangovers?" pic.twitter.com/HGwUKSDWHc— LWT (@lesbiantech) March 3, 2018
Turning the tables: the resistance ain’t over and (lesbian) tech is on it
Former Fox News commentator and out lesbian Sally Kohn talked about how to turn trolls onto your side through kindness and humor, while the lawyer for Edie Windsor’s marriage case, Robbie Kaplan, is suing white supremacists. Planned Parenthood’s Dawn Laguens called for us to start building a “Web 2.0 for inclusive sex” to fight harmful effects of cis male-centered porn, including a gender-neutral, “no-nonsense” period-tracking app and virtual-reality “empathy-building” experiences where someone can walk a picket line or respond and learn from challenging situations — like navigating consent — in a safe space.
"It's not about how paid social will decide the next ten elections. It's about, how will we?" – @emceeglory #LWTSummit #LWTSummitSF18 #CastroMainStage pic.twitter.com/ceWajGkkAl
— LWT (@lesbiantech) March 2, 2018
Megan Smith isn’t CTO of the United States anymore, but she’s still our north star
Somehow, by the grace of the “lesbian god,” according to LWT founder Leanne Pittsford, Megan Smith‘s plane was the only one to make it into New York. She was hoarse from the travel, but that didn’t stop her. Ever-enthusiastic, with an unflagging belief in the power of technology and access, Megan Smith’s keynote remains an endless riff of inspiring stories, big ideas, and reminders of our past herstory.
"We've been written out of history when we were always there. We have to know that we women have been at the most elite level of computer science all the way through."
@smithmegan, CEO of Shift 7 and 3rd CTO of the USA #LWTSummit #LWTSummitSF18 pic.twitter.com/wb6Ih7tmGH— LWT (@lesbiantech) March 3, 2018
Madame Gandhi got herself 5,000 ardent new fans
Madame Gandhi, the nom-de-DJ of Kiran Gandhi, is an activist and electronic musician, who drummed for MIA and went to Harvard Business School (chill). Onstage, she showed a packed theater how she makes a certified hit out of a voice sample on her iPhone. While she played the track, she showed us her Ableton file on the big screen, walking us through the decisions she makes and the stuff she tries out when she’s making a boppin’ hit. She also spoke movingly on agency and the beauty in our nuance — calling us queers not to define ourselves by only our oppression, but by our joy. She also hosted the closing party at El Rio, one of the last queer bars in San Francisco, and by all reports, it was lit.
"I love hot, capable women. I love hot, capable people who fuck up the gender binary." @MadameGandhi #LWTSummit #LWTSummitSF18 #CastroMainStage pic.twitter.com/9t7mslRfy7
— LWT (@lesbiantech) March 3, 2018
On a personal note: I was delighted to sit in a room and envision a future that was made for me, by me (and people like me). Part of being a technologist — and, for me, a designer— is the desire to look forward and improve the future. Lesbians Who Tech is all about taking our power into our own hands, owning our voices, and defining our future. It can be very frustrating to be in tech when you look like me — and so often, decisions are made without my well-being at heart (or worse, with my well-being in the lurch). Lesbians Who Tech helps me see a future where I’m included, and I’m thriving.
On a personal level, as I mentioned it was my second time to speak at the conference; my first time (as I wrote about, briefly, here) was at the New York LWT! It was so personally empowering to take a talk that I first delivered, very shakily, to a small room and refine it and present it to a packed hall. Some more of my favorite small moments:
- Tegan F*CKING Quin let me follow her into her VIP parties where I met tons of awesome women, including one of the engineers at SpaceX
- I recognized an Autostraddle reader by her “read a fucking book pin” and went on to have a great conversation about Demi Lovato and Carmen’s Black Panther article
- The head of product at a major news and media site told me that as a direct result of my talk, all of her media verticals were now fully web-accessible — and yes, my heart broke and soared at that moment.
- Many speakers thanked the lovely ASL interpreters for their unfailingly great work.
- A topic dear to my heart — civic tech — was highlighted by a main stage talk from Carrie Bishop, a panel for the digital service, and a panel of the queer members from the Hillary for America campaign.
- Madame Gandhi smiled at me and said “hey what’s up” — in Portuguese (Reader, I died…)
- I made it into a recap video (for a hot second).
- I met so many amazing people, doing amazing things, each of them so sharp and so humble and so fun. Truly, it’s a queer utopia.
The overall takeaway is always the same: a heart full of meeting amazing people, and a head full of ideas. A few logistical problems, a few confusing moments, and a lot of wonderful. Like first-time LWT conference-goer (and aforementioned AS reader) Julia Dressel, a software engineer at Apple told me:
There’s the truth. ‘Til next time, folks!
